As I looked through the list of graduates from the 1926 class of Loraine (Illinois) High School, I noticed one thing immediately: five of them apparently preferred their middle name over their first name. It was interesting that the middle initial was even used and not omitted entirely but perhaps someone felt that at least some homage needed to be paid to their entire name.
Is that name you have for an ancestor actually a middle name? Are they occasionally lurking in other records under their first name? Sometimes we are fortunate enough to know a person’s actual first name. Other times we are not.
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Middle names are a curious entity. In my family, mostly on my paternal side, starting with my great-grandmother. I found her marriage record to my paternal great-grandfather. (His surname, the one I carried until I got married, is on the unique side here in the States.) Her name was listed as Eda. (I had always heard her name was Edith Pearl. After her marriage, I found this couple on census records. She was going by Pearl. Her evolution wasn’t yet complete. She made a move by her third marriage to list herself as Edith Pearl. Moving up the tree to my third great-grandmother, she went by Ellender, according to the newspaper obituary. (One son has her first name being Helen, and my second great-grandfather, older than the other son, has her listed as Ellie. We think her name was Helen Ellender since the family history book lists her as Helen or Ellen.) Also, on her marriage record the couple were recorded as Ellender and Washington. Turns out his first name is Daniel. I have sources to confirm this. Daniel W. on census records tying him to his parents. Crazy.
I have both situations – my paternal grandfather only used his middle name, even on government documents. Judging by the censuses when he was a child, it’s what his family called him. I don’t remember how I found out that he had a first name, much less what it was, unless Mom told me. My maternal grandmother, on the other hand, was called by her middle name, but signed everything with her first initial and middle name. She just hated her first name. 🙂
In my husband’s family most of the relatives, including him, went by their middle name. This may have been partially because them were of German descent.