More name stuff.

A friend elsewhere reminded me many boomers and early GenX folk don't use their birth names - they go by nicknames that may be nothing to do with their actual birth certificate name.

I realised of my immediate family, mum, her brothers, dad, his brother & wife - and all their *kids* - none of them use their biological name. three quarters use entirely different names. the rest use similarish nicks.

It's just me. only me, who uses the name on my birth certificate.

Holy wow.

Jaddy hat dies geteilt.

Als Antwort auf Nanoraptor

I'm from a culture where legal names are almost never used unless you're addressing someone very formal (using first name and patronym).
Moving to Germany, where most people use their legal name in their daily offline life, including parents, spouses, friends with each other, being adamant they can't call me by the short form, as "that's a distinct name, not the same, we don't do this here". (Think of Tatiana / Tanya - not my real name, just the pattern.)
Name culture is diverse :D
Als Antwort auf Nanoraptor

GenXer here.

Other than online pseudonyms, I go by a "common shortening of my given name."

In high school, I was on yearbook my senior year.

One obnoxious prick insisted on deadnaming the one trans kid at school at every opportunity.

I discovered that he went by "not his given name." He went by a nonstandard shortened version of his middle. (Think "Johnny" when his middle name was "Jeremiah".)

His parents named him "Merlyn".

You bet your ass I made sure he was listed as that.

Als Antwort auf Nanoraptor

Seems to be more of a male thing.. My dad went by a nick he got as a toddler because he couldn't pronounce his own given name, *everywhere*. I think most people didn't even know it wasn't his real name. Same as did his father.
My uncle goes by a shorthand of his real name, as do/did all the women in my family.
I'm only using my real name with family, to everyone else (incl coworkers) I'm Woo or WooShell as I had that nick since the 90s..
Als Antwort auf Nanoraptor

On the other hand, I'm Gen X (tail end) and I insist on people using my given name because I don't feel the nickname versions suit me. No one in my family has ever used a nickname for me either. That might be part of it. In university and while I was doing outdoor Shakespeare shows, I sometimes went by my family name or an abbreviation of it, but there are fewer than seven or eight people who still use that.
Als Antwort auf Nanoraptor

Both my dad and a maternal great grandfather went by their official names... but in both cases, that wasn't the name that was originally anticipated by their parents.

Dad would have been Paul, but was born on March 17th, so ended up as Patrick.

GGF was christened Cecil, but we think the vicar had an attack of administrative deafness on being told that the baby's name was Thistle.