(no subject)

[http://users.livejournal.com/hajari_/]

There's a boy I know at school... His name, on birth certificate, is Michael. However, he is called Josh.

Apparently his parents wanted him to have a name that was more serious or something so that it looked better on applications and things... But they wanted to call him Josh for his name.

As you can imagine, he gets a bit frustrated trying to explain to teachers why the roll call says 'Michael' but he wants to be called 'Josh'.

I think his parents are a bit loopy.

Any thoughts? Anyone heard of anything similar?

Comments

[krosp.livejournal.com]

Um. Couldn't Joshua be a more "serious" name for a kid called Josh?

[krosp.livejournal.com]

Or even Michael Joshua

[lneef.livejournal.com]

Sure. Every time I hear of a person called by their middle name (including my husband), it's basically the same thing.

If you want a more serious name for Josh, use Joshua. If you like the name Michael, use Michael. But for heaven's sake at least let the kid have some version of what he's called as his first name so he's not having to constantly explain himself.

[brunhildevalkyr.livejournal.com]

My great uncle is named Harold, but he just started telling everyone his name was Terry. He didn't like the name Harold I guess. I don't know why he never changed his name officially(he certainly could have afforded to), but even his wife would call him Terry. I always called him Harold.**shrugs**

[bornto-fly.livejournal.com]

If Joshua is his middle name, I understand it. But what's wrong with the name Joshua? I consider Josh(ua) to be in the same "realm" as the name Michael, so I'm not sure why that's more serious than Joshua is. His parents do sound a little weird, hahaha.

[sloane-hd.livejournal.com]

I know a girl whose actual name is Petronella but everyone calls her Lindsay. Her mother liked Lindsay better but her grandmother wanted her mother to name her Petronella after herself so now she's stuck with a name like Petronella on all her official documents. Poor girl.

[rorylareina.livejournal.com]

I know an Elizabeth who has always been called Molly.

[glitterberrys.livejournal.com]

...what exactly was wrong with "Joshua?"

[ber-waves-of.livejournal.com]

I dated a guy who was named Joel but everyone called him Ben. I think Benjamen was actually his middle name. It was kinda confusing though.

[traecrochet.livejournal.com]

My cousin is named Andrew, but we all call him Scott. My aunt wanted his name to be Scott Andrew P. but she didn't want his initials to be SAP. So she named him Andrew Scott instead. Its not that big of a deal to him.

[silver05.livejournal.com]

My grandparents did the same thing with my uncle Tom. They wanted to call him Thomas Boyd, but this was during a huge Tuberculosis (TB) epidemic, so they named him Boyd Thomas instead and just called him Tom.

Similarly, Ulysses S Grant's original name was Hiram Ulysses Grant but he changed it when he entered military school to avoid embarrassment.

[red-inuzuka.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I knew a girl in high school that we always called Heather. She was never in any of my classes, so I just assume Heather was her name, until one summer I came back and she was now Nicole. I found out her name was Nicole Heather, and she didn't like her first name for a long time so she went by her middle.

[queen-mab.livejournal.com]

That's really stupid and I can imagine it would be frustrating. How would Michael look anymore professional than Joshua on a job application? *eyeroll*

My friend's real name is Annastacia but she's been called Tasoula ever since she was born. Tasoula is a Greek pet name for Annastacia. She loathes Annastacia and refers to it as "the A word." Some of her credit cards say Annastacia, some say Tasoula. Buying tickets for a train can be a pain in the ass for her or when stores ask for an ID when she uses a Tasoula card.

And her professors at college refuse to call her Tasoula. *another eyeroll*

[eleanorgrace.livejournal.com]

I think it's especially confusing when someone goes a by a nickname of his middle name (or a nickname totally unrelated to his name, as seems to be the case here). I knew a guy who goes by Billy and it turns out that his actual name is Justin William. Very confusing.

Or, similarly, international students at my high school would just choose American-sounding names that had nothing to do with their given Chinese/Korean/etc. names, so when you flipped through the school directory looking for "Emily" you were kind of out of luck.

[rubytitania.livejournal.com]

My grandfather always went by Bob, although his name was Howard Ambrose. No idea why. My other grandfather went by Lyn and his name was Walter Llewellyn.

[alexandria-skye.livejournal.com]

i have a friend named douglas kieth who goes by keith... his dad's name is also douglas, so that's why. his parents finally registered him in school as keith instead of douglas. i'm not really sure why they didn't just name him keith though, besides the fact that possibly it was a family thing.

is michael/josh's middle name josh/joshua? the way the post was written, it kinda sounds like josh is just pulled out of thin air...

[ms-moxie.livejournal.com]

I went to high school with a girl named Caroline who went by Marley. She had two much older brothers who called her Marley after Bob Marley since she was little. Since I went to such a small school, most of the teachers simply changed her name in their gradebooks to Marley automatically.