Known by middle name, not by first name.

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Hi all, family history is an interest of mine but in a newbie to it.

does anyone know why a lot of people are known by their middle name all their lives rather than their first given name? I know sometimes it’s because they take their father’s name and known as their middle name but that is not always the case.

my own grandfather was given his fathers name as a first name and known as his middle name. My uncle was given my grandads middle name he went by but my uncle has always been known as his middle name 😂 I honestly forget that his name isn’t actually his first given name.

my grandmother doesn’t even have a middle name 😂

but I’ve realised sometimes it’s nothing to do with family names and traditions like that.

also a group of siblings where some are always known as their first given name, but some known by their middle names.

hops this makes sense and I’m not sounding like an idiot.

it had made it slightly harder looking up people on ancestry.

I’m known by my middle name and it’s a PITA.

Common in Ireland. I know a while family of 5 brothers, each called their middle name.
Absolute pain with passports, driving licences and booking holidays!

And don’t forget doctors and dentists.

A lot of the time it's because they were named after people (there was even a format for it), but the parents used the middle name as that's what they wanted to call them.

I had one family that followed the Scottish naming traditions - 1st daughter after Mum's Mum, 2nd after Dad's mum, 1st son after Dad's Dad, 2nd son after Mum's Dad, then named after the parents, various aunts and uncles, and great grandparents.

Of the 19 surviving children the only one that didn't use the middle name was the one named after the Mum 😂

One of the people in my tree did this. He was either called (eg) Arthur William Surname or William Arthur Surname, and both names appear to have been interchangeable on a variety or records. Fortunately for me, he had an unusual surname!

It is a thing, and used to be a lot more common than it is now. There were loads in my family. I remember my grandmother told me she wanted to name my mother Jane and also use Elizabeth, but thought Elizabeth Jane flowed much better than Jane Elizabeth (I agree actually). So that's what she did, but she's known as Jane.So sometimes its just for flow.
Then my grandmother herself, when she was very little her mother didn't approve that people were calling her a diminutive of her first name, so she started calling her by her middle name and that stuck.
Then my grandfather, he just didn't like his first name, so was usually known by his middle. One of my uncles, the same reason I think. Oh, and my great grandmother too!
After all, they are all part of someone's name!

Also DH's Grandad got the order of one of his son's names wrong when he went to register him. In his defence they did have 15.

He was meant to bring home a birth certificate for Arthur William, but instead had William Arthur. DH's granny said it was the only time in her life she ever chucked something at another person - she chucked the birth certificate and the family bible at him as they no longer matched!

For me, the family traditional name was Ursula so they wanted to use that as a middle name.
But they wanted to call me Beatrix. With a surname of Mudd it was decided I'd be better known as Ursula Beatrix Mudd (UBM), known as Bea rather than Beatrix Ursula Mudd (BUM).

BUT, Dad, Gramps and Auntie on that side all use their middle names too. And I dont know why!

I am known by my middle name. It was from birth so nothing I really had a choice in. I am not sure how old I was when I found out - probably when I went to school. My first name is traditional with many nickname options but it is a mouthful. My middle name is short and very rare. I have never met another one but there are a couple of minor television presenters with the name.

The reason my family gave me was that they didn't want a mouthful and thought my middle name was better. They wanted to keep my first name as it is in remembrance of a family member who died young.

It's not really that annoying - just need to say my first name if I am dealing with the bank etc. For job purposes I just explain and haven't had any issues. For context I am early 40s.

My aunts and uncles on my mums side all do this, they're Irish, she is one of 12. No idea why.

It's common in Wales too.

I came here to say this, very, very common in Wales. I am known by my middle name - since birth - and not my first name.

There is no reason in our family other than for some people they suited their middle name more than their first. Some of us have several given names and we use different ones for different things.

I think a lot of names were given as they were traditional 'family' names but the parents actually wanted to call the child by the name they chose - and so gave it as a middle name.

I am (quite) old and hadn't realised some of the things I take for granted that teens and younger people might not know about names. Teaching a GCSE class about Jack the Ripper the other year, one pupil wanted to know why some books named a victim as Mary Ann Nicols and some said Polly. I had to tell them that Polly was a nickname for Mary - and that often people called Margaret were known as Peggy, for example. Sally was often actually christened Sarah. There are lots of names like this - which again, makes it harder for people looking up ancestors!

My DM, FIL and gazillions of relatives are/were known by their middle name but I’ve never been given a logical answer . Harder still are the others known by a pet name so takes forever to find Great Great Auntie Bunty’s birth certificate as she was in fact called Diana .

My siblsibling

has been known by their middle name. My Nan, my mother's mother and a very forceful lady, hated the name Mum and Dad wanted to call sibling, so to keep the peace, Mum and dad used their preferred name as a middle name. But I've never ever, and my sibling is 70 and I'm older, heard sibling being called anything but their middle name.

My given name is quite long, and it was reduced by family (like Pamela to Pammy) to a name I didn't like, so when I went to senior school, I introduced myself with a different shortening of my full name. Fine, until my sibling meets my friends and they are calling me by different names.

thanks all 🌸

My nanna was known by her middle name. She thought her first name was her middle name until she got her birth cert when she was married.

my other gran also known by her middle name. Her name was similar to the name of a family member who died, so they decided to call her by her middle name instead.

maybe it’s because so many people had the same first names? Plus I think there was more a sense of duty with naming after people - officially give them the name but then call them by their middle name which you actuallly like?

My mum is known by her middle name, why she wasn’t called that and the given name (two Aunties name) wasn’t added as her middle name I have no idea?🤷🏻‍♀️

Half the people in my family history went by a middle or totally unrelated name. On the Irish side, it was more that the church expected them to have a saint name first. There were also so many with the same name that there needed to be a Margaret, a Peggy etc.

On the English side it can't have been religion and there weren't family names repeating, so no idea! There have been multiple funerals where we have found out they had a totally different name. Aunt Lou was actually a Jessica.

I've always been known by my middle name, as has my sibling. It's a total pain.

Needless to say, all of our children go by their first names.

Neither my mum or dad are called their first or middle names by their family. Totally different names, my mums makes some sense my dad’s absolutely not. it isnt even a random name, just a generic guys name

No idea why it was a thing, but looking through some family records- Kate (Kathleen) was named Eleanor Margaret Florence Kathleen - always know as Kate, even by her parents.
Rachel was christened Margaret, John was christened Robert, and Betty was really Vera.

My mother and an ex girlfriend were both known by their middle names

I have this. It is super annoying. Constant confusion at dentists, doctors, in business and so on. Even members of my own family get my name wrong repeatedly on official stuff.