My father went by John, Sean, or (rarely) Jack, depending on context. A long time ago, one of his old friends died and the friend’s son phoned to pass on the news. My sister took the call – “I’m sorry, there’s no Jack here, you must have a wrong number” – so Dad didn’t find out until a month after the funeral.
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There are so many factors at play as to why this was the case - my parents both came from very large families so occasionally the informal name appears to have been used to avoid confusion. My wife’s grandpa (born in Dublin) served in the RAF and picked up the name Pat (his name was John) which stayed with him after that and turned into a pseudo-formal name. I guess the other reason is culturally where it wasn’t seen as an unusual thing to do. Interested to hear if other cultures follow similar paths of informally picking your own formal name. Not so common now in modern Ireland…
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I was in communication with my uncle by marriage and asked about Nell, his wife. He said we don’t call her that any more, so please don’t use her name as she’ll be confused. Nevertheless, her sister keeps calling her Nell.
Names within families is one thing but people changing names to avoid racism or being called Paddy or Mick because they are Irish is a whole other thing entirely.
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My father William, Dublin born, was always known as Paddy by my mother and all friends and Mum’s family in the UK. When we went to his family in Dublin he was Billy.
Another story about him. He came over with his brother during the War, joined the RAF, and met my mother at the famous Blackpool Ballroom. For years all the family in the UK “knew” that he was born in 1918. He died in 1974, so is came as a bit of a surprise when I went to register his death and the Registrar commented that the death certificate had his age wrong. We had never looked at his birth certificate, and indeed I’d just pulled it out in its “folded up” condition. He was actually two years older, born in 1916.
My mother tackled his brother about this some time later (Unc. J. had also stayed in the UK post war). He knew all about it, and the story went along the lines that when he first met my mother Dad thought that a six year age gap was too much, and cut it to a “more respectable” four years.
Curiouser still, was that his UK Passport had his wrong DoB. I can only assume that in the post-war chaos one could do anything. Of course, Dad would have been born under the occupation, then become an Irish citizen after independance, before becoming UK naturalised in 1946. Interestingly, all his “life insurance” stuff - which Mum had never seen - had his correct DoB.
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Louis Armstrong was asked do you have children. He replied no. But we have fun trying.
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I have a middle name Albert. I never tell people because when i do they laugh.
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