Registering baby with one name but using another

[Chowtime]

Can anyone explain the reason behind the generational (people now approx 70 and older) thing whereby parents used to register their children with one name but call them by another?

I worked in care homes for years and noticed it was very prevalent then - someone called Ann all her life whose registered name was Margaret for example.

Obviously their parents weren't alive to ask them about this but I wondered if anyone else here knows the reasoning behind this.

Thanks.

Ian is the Scottish form of john

my husband, who is in his early 40s, has this - he’s called let’s say Albert John, his grandfather was also called Albert John and his other grandfather was called John. His parents always wanted to actually call him John, but wanted to honour the other grandfather and thought Albert John flowed better than John Albert… DH finds it a right pain!

My dad was named after his dad but called by his 3rd middle name. In hospital everyone would call him by his first name. He always said he wished he was really called his proper name!
My brother is called it too. My nephew has it for a middle name and so does my great nephew!
There is another male family name that is scattered through the family- my son has it, my nephew, my brother etc

It always puzzles me on name threads when people get upset because someone has used their child's name. Seems normal to me!

My DH mum is Irish. Always called Eileen but her real name is Helen

My grandma was known as Irene. That was her middle name. She hated her given name of Gladys. I had to correct the nurse who was talking to her by her given name (would have been on the NHS system) when she was unconscious and passing away from pneumonia. I hadn't thought about it until then really, but at the time it was jarring and I wanted to make sure she could hear her chosen name if she could.

I don't know why she didn't legally change it in all those years. She'd of heard the disliked name any time she had an appointment etc.

Lots of different reasons then! Thanks for the explanations it's been quite interesting to hear what people did in the past.

I used to work with a guy whose first and middle names were Kenneth Charles, but everyone called him Danny. Nobody ever explained why 🤔
Also, having delved into my family tree I discovered the Victorians did sometimes christen their children with a diminutive - for instance I have a distant cousin "Lizzie" - I assumed she was Elizabeth but no, she was christened "Lizzie".

Pearl is a diminutive of Margaret.

My sisters were both born in the 70s and both have always been known by their middle names not their legal birth certificate first name. I'm the only one who is known by my legal first name.
They find it a bit annoying but not enough to change the name they are known by.

How? Why? I get Daisy because of it being a French translation (as a pp mentioned) but Pearl?

Is there a website or something listing these "proper " names with their diminutives as I think it will be a fascinating read.

My mother had been a teacher and was very firm about people calling her Mrs . Fortunately when she had to have an OP, the hospital did ask for preferred names, they were written clearly above each patient's bed and presumably on their notes. Getting this right isn't rocket science!

My grandmother always went by her middle name - no idea why. My grandfather by an army nickname. Two cousins in the same generation just decided they preferred a different name so just started using a new one, one when in her 20s the other in her 70s.

In my parents generation and my generation there are several people who go by childhood nicknames that stuck.

And in my generation a lot of people go by different names in different groups depending on which online community they met through. One of my sisters and her husband are heavily involved in Scouts, where nicknames seem to be rife. At their wedding half the table plan was made up of names like Womble and Knotty that I strongly suspect weren't on their birth certificates.

@Pixiedust1234 I have always wondered how Daisy came from Margaret.
Very curious about Pearl now.

No - it is sad but it's a lovely poem. Just because something is sad doesn't mean it can't be shared

My granny’s sister was named Mary but since their mother was also Mary the baby was known as Molly.

My grandads sister was named Mary Jane but she didn’t like it. So because she was born in the month of May she told everyone to call her May.

My neighbour is Anne but her actual given name is Margaret.

I know a few Margarets who go by Peggy. Didn't realise pearl and daisy were other nicknames too. Assuming it's regional

Yep, same as Ieuan in Welsh.

The name Margaret comes from margarites- which is Greek for Pearl.

wordfoolery.wordpress.com/2022/09/05/margaret-pearls-and-margarine-how-they-got-their-names/

This was the case with mil her mum told her bk then the babies where registered within hours of birth meaning some mothers weren't thinking clearly or had no chance to change there mind. My mil was registered within the first 2 hours and her mum says some1 came round to her bed and she just blurted out the first name that came into her head.

On my mils birthday certificate she's Anne Lucy

Her mum decided when mil was a few weeks old,that she hated the name Anne so didn't change her birth certificate,just started to call her lucy

It's a pain in the arse-i know her as Lucy,some of her friends call her Anne,cashing cheques/getting married/buying a house/getting credit/passports etc have been made more complicated than it should be

Dp says he was very confused growing up if anyone rang and asked for Anne as to him,his mum was called Lucy

They are not even similar names! (Mils siblings are all called by their first names)

My Dad used the diminutive of his middle name - something like Robert Edward known as Ted. His first name was the same as his Dad's and they didn't want a Robert Senior and Junior. (I have no idea why he wasn't just called Edward Robert though!)
He had the experience referred to in the poem up thread when he was I hospital though - the staff all started calling him Bob, a name that he had never used in all his 80 odd years. In fact his Dad was never known as Bob either, always Robert. It was really infuriating and repeatedly telling them to call him Ted had no effect on most of the staff. It made me pretty angry actually. I know they're hard pressed, but calling someone by their correct name once you've been told it is just common courtesy. There was a whiteboard next to his bed that was supposed to have that kind of info on but I was never used.

My sibling and I were born in the 60s and both have always been known by our middle names. Our parents have always been unable to explain why

Oh that made me cry. I could never convince the otherwise lovely care home staff to stop using my father’s long form name, that he’d never been known by. He had dementia, and probably had no idea who they were talking to when they used his full name.

I am so sorry to make you cry, my mum has advanced dementia too. Much sympathy and I am sorry about your dad.

My mother and her sisters were all called Mary and all went by their middle names. It's was a god bothering thing.

My father also went by his middle name.

All of my Aunties and Uncles went/go by their middle names.