How to show person went by middle name

[Bernie Doran]

Paul Bridges' thread "When is a name not a name" is close to my question but not quite.

As an example: Mary Joan Smith's birth, baptism and marriage records show her name that way. However, she went by Joan all her life and you want that to be acknowledged. What method do you use to get the point across with out it being confused as an nickname?

1) Mary (Joan) Smith
2) Mary "Joan" Smith
3) Mary Joan Smith - and just make a note that she went by Joan
4) Other options

This is how I indicate a nickname: William George (Bill) Smith. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks,

Bernie

[donworth]

Re: How to show person went by middle name

I usually put the middle name in all-caps if someone goes by that name...

William HENRY Bishir

[Bernie Doran]

Re: How to show person went by middle name

I usually put the middle name in all-caps if someone goes by that name...

William HENRY Bishir

I knew there would be a simple, elegant solution. Thanks.

[Bob White]

Re: How to show person went by middle name

I would record that as Mary Joan "Joan" Smith. But the example is not the best. Most often, when someone goes by other than one of their given names, the "went by" name is different from any of the given names. Better example would be Mary Joan "Midget" Smith.

[kmgenealogy]

Re: How to show person went by middle name

I usually put the middle name in all-caps if someone goes by that name...

William HENRY Bishir

Thanks for the great suggestion, Don! I have gone by my middle name all my life! I use my first initial and middle name as my legal signature but many only know me by my middle name. I do like the idea of using all caps. Will try it with mine and others I have.

[CathyH]

Re: How to show person went by middle name

This is helpful information.
I have found that many of my old relations all had the same first name but went by there middle name. This is very confusing so maybe the all caps will help.

[Bob White]

Re: How to show person went by middle name

This is helpful information.
I have found that many of my old relations all had the same first name but went by there middle name. This is very confusing so maybe the all caps will help.

One reason I use quotes as opposed to ALL CAPS is that I have Reunion set to ALL CAP the last name. Thus, doing so to the middle name doesn't make good sense. Just another viewpoint for you to think about. Another reason is that it is fairly common usage, in the USA, to put nicknames in quotes in newspapers and magazines.

[donworth]

Re: How to show person went by middle name

Bob, I've always been curious. What is the practical value of all-capping surnames? Seems like it would make more sense to store them in upper/lower case (to preserve deBishir and McBishir and stuff like that) in the database at least, and offer to all-cap the surname as a report formatting option. Just wondering...
Don

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: How to show person went by middle name

What is the practical value of all-capping surnames?

In general, I agree with you, both for the reasons you state, and because I find all-caps visually ugly. But there are circumstances in which they would clarify where a middle name ends and a surname begins

[Terry Medlar]

Re: How to show person went by middle name

I have an uncle Thomas Joseph who was known as Joseph. I have entered his first name as ""Thomas (called Joseph)". Not elegant, but it works for me.

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: How to show person went by middle name

I have an uncle Thomas Joseph who was known as Joseph. I have entered his first name as ""Thomas (called Joseph)". Not elegant, but it works for me.

There are a lot of ways to deal with this, and as long as you're consistent, probably not much reason to prefer one over the other.

For names that a person has at the beginning of their name, but doesn't use, I enclose them in parentheses: (Robert) Tristam Rickets; (Adrien Marie) Jacques du Bouays de La Begassi

[Terry Medlar]

Re: How to show person went by middle name

There are a lot of ways to deal with this, and as long as you're consistent, probably not much reason to prefer one over the other.

For names that a person has at the beginning of their name, but doesn't use, I enclose them in parentheses: (Robert) Tristam Rickets; (Adrien Marie) Jacques du Bouays de La Begassière

I like this better than my method. Since I have only two people to worry about, I am changing them.

[Bob White]

Re: How to show person went by middle name

Bob, I've always been curious. What is the practical value of all-capping surnames? .........

To be perfectly frank, I don't know. I can't remember how this got started in my genealogy work. Now that you ask, it seems that I've just always done it that way and never gave it a wit's thought. It may have been from previous software plus me being too lazy to go through and change all of the names' cases.

In the 1980's, I started off with a DOS program, whose name I can't recall, published by a company named BannerBlue, which was bought by a company named Broderbund which in turn was bought by a tiny startup named Ancestry. Umpteen versions later, that is the present day FTM software. For a short time, I used a Mac program from a small company in Alabama (name is ???). Then a friend showed me a Hypercard stack named Reunion. Guess that's why I'm one of the old goats around here.

Anyway, I think one of those did the all caps then I was lazy.......

[donworth]

Re: How to show person went by middle name

Didn't the original Reunion spawn Generations by Broderbund on Windoz? I had that for a while until I switched to Family Tree Maker.

[kmuch]

Re: How to show person went by middle name

I put the name the person was called in parentheses. Mary Catherine (Kate) Smith, William Robert (Will) Jones, Henry Arthur (Henry) Brown, etc.