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.

@MissMuffetisin yes a lot of girls called Victoria/Mary/Elizabeth would be known as Queenie.

Nicknames aren’t necessarily about shortening, they’re about affection. Using Eddie instead of Edward or Harry instead of Henry isn’t about shortening, it’s about expressing goodwill. Or Charlie instead of Charles. Jack is a standard affectionate nickname for John.

There are a whole lot of nicknames based on surnames, Dusty Miller, Nobby Clark for example.

My GM was Sarah but always called Sally by her sisters. No idea why. Sally is the standard affectionate form of Sarah

@Chowtime My fil was henry but was called harry! why not just call him * or even just henry??? my friends hubby was called henry and that was what he used in his everyday life!

Same in my family. Mavis was actually Barbra. And Graham was actually John.

My friend's family do this as well. The baby is known as Peggy, but I think her actual name is Margaret. He said he wouldn't baptise them without a 'proper name' apparently they were happy with this. I was 🤔

I think often it's the person themselves who just prefers to be called something different.

Also, sometimes in the past the eldest child was given the same name as the parent. I've come across that in my own family. I was looking for marriage and birth records for one of my great grandmothers. My mother told me that her name was Ada. I couldn't find the right record. So I started looking at all the other records and eventually found her. Her first name was actually Katherine, after her mother, and she had, apparently, always been known by her middle name, Ada. I suppose it was to distinguish her from the other Katherine in the family.

There are a significant number of older relatives and ancestors on my father's side of the family (Northern Ireland with protestant roots) who were known by names that were nothing like the ones given on their birth certificates.

I like occasionally dabbling in family history and that has made it almost impossible to get anywhere much on that line. 🙄

I am known by my middle name and have been since birth in the 1960s. I'll be honest and say that although I like the name itself, being known by a middle name has actually been a total pain in the arse. 58 years now of having to remember what name to answer to and where, and of having to explain my parents decision all those years ago. These days I really want to tell people considering doing this to a new baby "DON'T DO IT!" Though I hold my tongue unless asked.

The only reason my parents ever gave for not putting my names the other way round was what they decided the initials would spell, which was something so far fetched it was ridiculous. I've considered many times using a deed poll to just drop my first name altogether, but it is on sooo many things now that I am put off from it. 🫤

being known by a middle name has actually been a total pain in the arse. 58 years now of having to remember what name to answer to and where

DH had to deal with this when he was dealing with his mother's affairs as POA and then executor of her will. What was worse was that his grandfather had been very late registering her birth so her official birthday was 2 months after her real one. Her accounts used a mix of the name and date combinations. 'Can we just clear security' took on a whole new level of pain.

As a pp said Iain or Ian is the Scottish form of John.

I'm Irish and this was a very common practice in the past - to give a child the English form of the name, but then have the Irish form for everyday use. So there are lots of middle-aged or older people with names like John or Jeremiah on their birth certs who are then known as Seán or Diarmuid respectively. Or Eileen for Helen as a pp mentioned, Máire (or Maura) for Mary, Séamus (or Shay) for James and so on.

It's much less common now. Prople tend to just use the Irish name on the birth cert if they're going to use it in everyday life.

I suppose the same sort of thing happened in Scotland and Wales.

BTW, I've always been known, in the family, as Jayney . No, it's not my name. Nothing like it.

I had an elderly friend..also in Ireland... who was Mary Catherine but known as Maureen. Similarly my husband worked with Nora Mary known as Norma.
We have a local family with Cornelius as the male family name...they are Conn, Connie, Nelius, Neil and Niall.

My great grandmother was Sallie too,christened Sarah.
My great great grandmother was Cynthia Elizabeth,but on every census and piece of paperwork she ever appeared on,she had a different name. She was variously known as,Senta,Centa,Senar,Centalina,and St Helena.

@Feckedupbundle Centalina is such a cool name !
(I need to know the back story of her nicknames....🙂)

I wish I knew! She was Romany,as was my Great great grandad. I'm guessing the St.Helena could sound like Centalina when spoken? But the rest I have no clue about.

It seems from this thread that knowledge of “official” nicknames is dying. Back in the 50s and 60s, you assumed a Harry was Henry on the birth certificate, Betty was Elizabeth, Sally was Sarah, Peggy was Margaret and so on. In fact I knew a Betty on the certificate who was enormously frustrated because medical staff and others who didn’t know her would call her Elizabeth.