Children's names

My guess would be he goes by both. Especially if the first name is super common and one syllable, like your example John, or a family name that is being used over and over with different middle names.

I use ds first and middle name when I am trying to get his attention.

I think in your example that the parents would call them as they posted it. I wouldn't ever post one kid's name to include the middle name, and the other kid's name to not include it, unless that's what I actually called him/her.

Coincidentally, my friend is raising her grandson and his name is John Michael. He gets called John Michael and also just John.

I think in general, yes. I have some friends that call their children by their first and middle name. For example: I have two friends and they both have daughters named Ella Grace. One calls their daughter Ella, but the other calls their daughter Ella Grace (and will quickly correct you if you just say "Ella") (Note: these 2 friends of mine do not know each other)

If your friend used first & middle for one of their kids and just first for another one of their kids, I would assume that is what they call them.

I have a friend with two sons, the youngest, coincidently, is called John Micheal. The oldest is just Simon (not his actual first name to protect the innocent).
I've had the same question as OP myself. Is it like being a Mary Kate, with a sister named Tiffany? Is there something historical that causes this?

I have a couple of people in my life who call their kids by the first and middle name. Typically when the child is named after one of the parents (e.g. I have a "Paul Michael" with a father named "Paul" in my family). I think that's likely the case.

My husband has several cousins with two names. Catholic family. Mary Frances, Mary Agnes, John Michael, etc. They use both names.

I often would say dd's first and middle name to people. At least when she was younger. We rarely use both, but we do often call her by a variation of her middle name. It's Grace and we call her Gracie. But she doesn't allow most people to call her that, almost everyone else has to call her by her first name. Only her uncle and boyfriend can call her Gracie. I don't know why but that's how it's always been and she gets very annoyed if anyone else tries it.

The millennial parents do like to do this with their 44-month-olds as daddy twirls his Dastardly Dan moustache (not that he knows who that is) and asks little Liam Cole and Walker Steele and Delilah Elizabeth-Jade to "look with your eyes, not your hands" while chaos occurs. 😁🤣

I don’t know anyone IRL that calls their kid by both names on a regular basis, but I know quite a few kids who go by the initials of both names (TJ, AJ, RJ, etc.). And I know a LOT of people who use a longer formal version of a name for their young kid (Maxwell instead of Max, Andrew instead of Andy or Drew, Jonathan instead of Jon, etc.).

IME, yes. DD had a classmate named John Patrick. I don't know the backstory of how/why he was always John Patrick, but the family would correct anyone that just shortened it to John. As he got older, much to his mom's dismay and all attempts to stop it, he became known as JP to friends, teammates, teachers, etc.

IMHO, it is not much different that someone naming their child Samantha or Christopher and trying to block the use of Sam or Chris.

I have a friend Mary Beth who is one of seven sisters, all named Mary something (Mary Louise, Mary Ann, Mary Rose, Mary Alice, Mary Mary, etc.). They never drop the Mary's when talking to/about each other. 

In the specific situation you're describing, I would guess that they call the child by both names at least a good amount of the time.

In my own friends/family, the people with kids who have dual first names tend to either write out both names in a post, or if they're in a hurry, the use abbreviations for the child with the double name, even if they don't call them that.

So a family with Aaron, Ben, & Cayley Mae will either write out those 3 names, or write Aaron, Ben & CM. But they do typically refer to Cayley Mae by both names.

I know in at least one case a friend specifically writes out both names anytime she can to emphasize that they son uses both names, because people tend to drop the second name. He has a trendier first name coupled with a more traditional middle name, and I think people tend to imagine it's just a middle name that got included in paperwork accidentally or something. Like a baby boy born in the last few years being called Liam Carl. Baby boy name #1 on the popularity list, and then a much less popular name.

I think sometimes it's a double barrel first name rather than a first and middle.

It's fairly common here (Florida) to give double barrel names - and I hear it with seniors all the way down to babies. Peggy Sue, Mary Margaret, John-Michael, etc...

A friend of my daughter's uses a double barrel first name because she was adopted as 2nd or 3rd grader so her mum kept her birth first name and middle name BUT her birth first name rhymed with her new last name so they added a second first name and always called her by both of the first names

Hmmm, that seems odd. I would have assumed that it was a double barrelled first name. I don't know anyone who calls their kid by their first and middle name - unless they're really angry with them! 


This seems like the place to ask a question of my own, if you'll pardon my intrusion huskergal ! Up until about four years ago, the company I work for was owned by an American company. For the most part, we didn't have much to do with the US side of things, until probably the last few years before they sold us off. One thing we noticed, that was different to what we were used to, was a lot of people in the US side of the business used their First name - Middle Initial - Last Name in their correspondence and email signatures. So while we (Aussies) would have Paul Simpson in the email, the Americans would have Paul J Simpson. Is that common practice? At first I though it was because there may have been several Paul Simpsons, and that was the way to differentiate, but when I checked the directory, there often wasn't another person with the same name. 

Oh, I should add that it was mostly the higher up executives who did the First name - Middle Initial - Last Name thing. Not the plebs like me! 

I go by Tracy and my sister goes by (first name) Jo.
I'm not sure why- it just happened. I just think Jo is easy to tack on to the first name. I'm not a fan of my middle name so I'm glad they didn't use both.