Name change.

My mother's first name was Agnes. When she came from Ireland to Scotland for nurse training she was not old enough so "borrowed" an elder sister, Mary's birth certificate-and was known as Mollie throughout her life.

Like Vampirequeen, one of my friends was christened the short version "Sue" and has had untold battles with officialdom who insisted on Susan.

Parents should have read patients!! Most of them are aged eighty plus.

Kitty, being known by a different forename than the given one can be incredibly frustrating when doing family history. None of my grandmother's siblings, there were lots, were known by the names on the census. Makes things very difficult!

My mum is known as Babs at 92.

It always amazes me that so many of DH'S parents are known by names totally unrelated to their 'given' names.

My problem is the other way round. I have a single syllable name which is often the shortened version of a much longer name. When I took my O Levels (many many moons ago) I had to produce my birth certificate to prove that I knew what my name was.

sirname not simname!

GillyBob I have the same Problem. My Mum named me after herself, she said to avoid arguments with the rest of the family, but just like your DH I have always only been known by my middle name.

I tend to try to remember to use the full thing on official papers, but I always just sign my middle and sirname. I have had some problems because of this, but I argue the case that this is my signiature. After all many are illegible anyway, it wouldn't really matter if I signed with an X if that is how I always do it.

Would have been simpler though to just pjut the names the other way around

DH's grandfather was christened Richard always referred to in the family as Peter.
His uncle was also Richard, always known as Pat.
His aunt was Geraldine, known to all as Molly.
His father was Robert, known to his siblings as Buddy. ? Imagine how I felt when I was first introduced to the family!

It=I too early for me.

My mother's friend's husband was known as Bunny( a man in his sixties, and it know a Babs in her eighties.

Our youngest daughter was christened Katherine. She was known as Katie until secondary school when she reverted to Katherine and then as after school she shortened it to Kat.

To be fair she answers to all three so we use all three.

GD1's friend (aged 6) suddenly decided she wanted to be called by her 'real' name, Charlotte, instead of Lottie, which she'd been called since birth.

She simply told everybody and corrected them when they forgot. Now, after 6 months, we all automatically call her Charlotte.

Just do what Lottie Charlotte did.

My DH has always been known by his middle name. His first name was his fathers and his mother said that she always intended for him to use his middle name . so why the hell did she not put it first? This causes no end of confusion with official papers etc,

Can be a bit of a problem for Mr P, his proper name starts with a completely different letter from the common abbreviation, so when he is signing documents that state his given name, his signature doesn't match!

My sister in law decided that her full name was more suitable when she got to 60 and moved to a new village. It's very confusing for those of us who knew her before the change!

We have a Tinks lives near us and a Bubbles I much prefer my shortened name I had my full one all through school and beyond and can't remember when it got changed I guess I just started signing it shortened and feel much more comfortable with it

You go with what you feel best suits you Rubylady

I wouldn't worry about your name sounding too young for you - I think people get used to your name and dont even think about it. I once had a rather elderly, aristocratic and very serious minded client whose name was Tinks! Dont know what the hell that is short for but no-one ever jibbed about referring to her as that.

my late dad was the only person who used my full name ,I mentioned it to a friennd not long after dad had died,he started calling me my full name and now loads of others have joined him.Its nice .I like thhat my dad wanted me called this family name and now its used daily.Nothing to do with age I'm now 62 ,and somme folk still call me the short version because they always have and thats fine too

I've never shortened my name as it only has 2 syllables but most friends with longer names have shortened theirs. I'm not aware of any of them considering reverting to their full given name...or if they have, they haven't told me.

If you fancy a change, then why not!