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dancingtongue · 80-89, M
Not one of those things I waste energy over. It is what it is and has been for 86 years, in a few days. Actually two names, in a way: the formal and the colloquial version. Three come to think of it, because the family always used the shortened version of the formal because there already was a cousin in the family that went by the colloquial.
My youngest son is sort of in the same boat. We named him a three syllable name to go with his one syllable last name, but he always went by the shortened, first syllable until he got to college. At orientation in the dorm, the story goes, they asked the new kids to come up and indicate on the whiteboard what they preferred to be called. Most circled their first or middle, or shortened first name unless it was totally different. He, having gotten some contrarian genes from where ever, circled the middle syllable of his first name. To his wife and college buddies he has been that middle syllable ever since. So to most of the world he goes by the first syllable, officially by the full name, but to a select group, the middle syllable.
My youngest son is sort of in the same boat. We named him a three syllable name to go with his one syllable last name, but he always went by the shortened, first syllable until he got to college. At orientation in the dorm, the story goes, they asked the new kids to come up and indicate on the whiteboard what they preferred to be called. Most circled their first or middle, or shortened first name unless it was totally different. He, having gotten some contrarian genes from where ever, circled the middle syllable of his first name. To his wife and college buddies he has been that middle syllable ever since. So to most of the world he goes by the first syllable, officially by the full name, but to a select group, the middle syllable.