so Gordon Browns first name is James - why do peopel not use first names/

[FluffyMummy123]

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My firstborn shares a first name with both grandfathers and his own father. So we called him by his second name to avoid confusion, (and because I preferred it).

I knew someone called Dick Lewis, only to find out later his real name was Lewis Lewis

And he chose Dick as an alternative?! LOL

exactly

We have this on our Greek side of the family. All the boys are known by their middle name and quite a few of them (including my FIL, DH & DS) all have the same 1st name. Pita but it's tradition, so I'm told!

thats quite unusual castles
normally you name 1st son after paternal grandfather, (2nd son after maternal grandfather)

so you get George Dambas whose father is Nick whose father is George whose father is Nick

And all the first cousins have the same name

Middle names are then the name of the father (So George Nicholas Dambas or Nicholas George Dambas). Which is why they all end up with silly nicknames, to distinguish one generation from the other and one first cousin from the other!

I guess in your case somewhere along the line the same name was used for father and son so that broke down and they started sticking in random middle names to distinguish...

Same as partyclown: my ds, and dh, and dh's dad and dh's dad's dad's ad nauseam all have the same first name (since the family became converts to a particular non-conformist sect in 18th c - oldest son in each generation called after the converter, you can probably guess the name). And it's a very very common name anyway.

When ds was born we had to decide whether to break ten generations of tradition ... dh was ready to, but I didn't want to hurt the PILs - so we compromised: he has the trad first name but we call him by his second name. Which is a wierdy one.

Isn't it traditional in Scotland to call sons James and use their middle name instead. I had a boyfriend called Robert whose real name was James.

yes. all scottish men are called James really. Anyone who says they are not is lying.

It was common in Ireland too until recently - have several friends I've known for 20 years or so and then discovered that the name they go by is not thier first name - several cases in my family too - it is a right PITA at work, dealing with official documents, etc. I have never really understood why it was done - in lots of cases there was never any intention of calling the child by the first name. My theory was that often the child was being called after another family member but to avoid confusion was actually known by their middle name....

My grandads real name was John Charles. He always asked to be called Charles.

The reason was that his drunken dad got John Charles on his birth certificate, forgetting he already had a son called John Charles.

Do I win £5?

Both my Mum and stepdad have Irish parents, and by coincidence they both are called by their middle names. Glad the trend didn't continue with me, I don't much care for my middle name!!!!!

Could be a Scottish thing. My Dad is Alexander on his birth certificate but has always been called Alasdair.

Also in Scotland they used to have a thing of making a girls name out of a boy's name, hence such lovelies as 'James-Ina'.

gordon brown

james brown

I would say it was definately a disiniclination to be linked with "sex machine" rather than a dislike of his first name. I know its wrong but it would possibly be hard to take him seriously - sorry getting a mental image of Eddy Murphys James Brown routine now.

Dh is called by half of his middle name - the first half is "St." (and the second half is not John btw). His first name is his grandad's name, which his parents didn't actually like. So the name he uses doesn't feature anywhere in his initials, which does make things interesting with offical docs and things.

Although if anyone phones and asks to speak to dh using his first name, I know they're trying to sell us something!

So it is definitely a Scottish thing then!

Of my dad's sisters only 2 use their birth names, and rather than an -ina one was named Hughetta after their father. Needless to say she prefered Etta. Of the others Susan was known as Sheila, Elisabeth as Bessie and Catherine as Rena.

My mum is Mary but always known as May. And there are 3 Rebeccas on that side all known as Ruby.

I also have a cousin Gordon but he is known as Tosser (only kidding, but he is.) I would imagine GB didn't want people overusing the "I Feel Good" thing everytime he turned up.

my friend is called alexandria susan but known by one and all as polly

I too could never, ever understand this. Until ds came along and for some reason when he is being a little terror, we call him Jamesy instead of his first name. I have no idea why we do it, except that it just sounds right.

We do call him by his 1st name 90% of the time but I could see in later life him becoming known as James.

Because Gordon the Moron sounds so much nicer.

My scottish dad and brother share a first name, but are both called by their middle name

My dh has a doubl-barelled first name, and has always used the second half of it only - its German (his Dad is German and uses the first half of his double barelled name!).

Never causes any of them any bother, only poor dh had to go through a boys school for 7 years where the first part of his name was 'Hans' so got a lot of jokes about it.

But neither of his names are as potentially ridiculous as our (very very exclusive only to our family) surname, so it doesnt really matter!

My FIL has three names and the name he goes by isn't any of them. My BIL uses his middle name and I discovered recently that his own children don't know what his first name is. I don't know how everyone manages it - I tried really hard to change my name to Esmerelda when I was 8 but nobody remembered to call me by it.

I don't use my first name, and no-one in my family ever has. Mum had a flight of fantasy in the registry office, and has regretted it ever since. And no, I am not saying what it is.