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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I go by my middle name but my parents actually made that choice (a change of heart apparently). Interestingly, my mother also goes by her middle name.[/quote]

Interesting, PP, especially about your mom doing it too.

I too have always gone by my middle name, or rather, my second middle name, because I have four names -- think along the lines of "Sarah Leslie Elizabeth Smith" where I've been called Elizabeth since birth. Sarah and Leslie are names of mom's beloved friend who died young, and a grandmother who lived with us, so I got my "own" name that isn't anyone else's in the family but was just for me, as my mom put it.

My mother had a real interest in giving me a name that was "all my own." She also went by her middle name her entire life. When she was small I think the family found her middle name easier to pronounce than her very 19th-century family first name, and when my mom was older, she hated hated hated that difficult first name, so she kept using her middle name. And she actually disliked that middle "the one I'm called by" name as well, but in her generation, you didn't go change your name legally if you disliked it -- you went by a nickname your whole life or you kind of put up with it. She put up with it and used the name she disliked a little less.

My father went by a nickname from the time he was very young. He was given the name of the doctor who delivered him, both the first and last names. Think: Dr. John Smith delivered baby boy Jones, who then was given the name John Smith Jones. But everyone, and I do mean everyone, in the small town knows Dr. John Smith is the town's "baby doctor," so it's not fun to hear "Ohhhh! Dr. Smith must have delivered you!" a million times during your life. Hence, nickname. The nickname, along with the full legal name, is even on his tombstone! [/quote]

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