Being known by your middle name- just a male thing?

[peak2021]

In researching ancestry over the last few years and reading the information found out by other family members, I've noticed several male ancestors or those known in my childhood (great uncles for example) who used their middle name as their first name. There are three recent male Prime Ministers similarly (James Callaghan, Gordon Brown and Boris Johnson).

Yet I have not come across any women in my family/ancestry, nor indeed any women in public life apart from actresses. So is the use of middle names just a family quirk, or is this more widespread that only some men use middle names?

One thing I've noticed is that it's far from uncommon for men to be called a diminutive of their surname as if it were a first name - such as Black Sabbath singer John Osbourne, known to the world as Ozzy; but lots of ordinary non-famous men do the same.

I wonder if this has something to do with school. My brother at a boys' school was addressed by his surname by teachers, I was at a girls' school and we used first names.

Now schools tend to use first names for all students so maybe this will die out.

I've just remembered another one, a girl who was one of two in her reception class, so the school just told her she was known by her middle name and that has become her name.

Nope, it's not super rare, I use my middle name, and two of my friends use their middle names too.

I used to be friends with male twins who both used their middle names. I always assumed they didn't like their first names. One of their first names was certainly unusual.

It was the trend when my dps were born. DM is 84 this month. DF a few yrs older so 1920's & 1930's.

Utter PITA for DM. As a child it meant having to explain her name to every single new teacher. Even now we have to concentrate at hospital appts for when they shout out her first name & surname. She still moans about it now....

DF had his dad's name as his first name but DUncle is known by his middle name and but his first name isn't their dad's name. DM first name was her granny's name.

My grandmother was known by her middle name. She was born in 1935.

And Welsh. That explains it then! I didn't know it wasn't so common outside of Wales!

There's been 5 men of the same name in my family - only ever three alive at any one time. Think Robert James Surname. All have gone by their first names though. So Bert, Berty and Rob. None have used their middle names.

The two younger ones went to collect Robert James' death certificate and found that very odd. It also caused some entertainment when getting stopped at customs coming back from France in the car.

My grandfather was known by one of his middle names though, being named for his father.

But in my family and DH's it was very common to be known as a totally unrelated nickname, the women too. So Tot, Babs, Bob, all female with a variety of unrelated 'proper' names, Tom was actually Ernest.

I know both men and women who go by their middle name. But I suppose I know marginally more men.