Re: CHAT: Middle Initials

Joel Matthew Pearson wrote:
>
>In my case, using initials helps maintain a connection between my various
>aliases.  My full legal name is Joel Matthew Pearson, but I go by Matt.
>How I
>choose to list my name depends on how 'intimate' the situation is, as well
>as
>the particular requirements of whatever form I'm filling out.  I generally
>refer to myself as "Joel" in highly official situations where I wish to
>maintain a certain formality or distance--e.g., in dealing with credit card
>companies, student loan agencies, passport offices, etc..  In less formal,
>more
>familiar situations I refer to myself as "Matthew" or "Matt"--e.g., in
>dealing
>with my department at UCLA.  On forms which require full first name, and
>give
>only a space for middle initial, I am necessarily "Joel M. Pearson".  On
>other
>forms, where I am given some choice as to how to write my first and middle
>names, I opt for "Joel Matthew Pearson" or "J. Matthew Pearson".  But I
>always
>include an initial:  I can't expect people to figure out that Joel Pearson
>and
>Matthew Pearson are one and the same person, but if I list my name as Joel
>M.
>Pearson and J. Matthew Pearson, then there's some hope that people will
>make
>the connection.
>
>Matt.
Speaking of what name to reduce to an initial, I have my names in the
German-inspired style with the most important of the "non-family" names
last; hence Håkan Andreas Johansson (the second character of "Håkan" is an
"a" with a small circle above - it's pronounced /o:/). I always sign as
"Andreas Johansson", and call myself "Andreas (Johansson)" in situations
formal and informal alike. But the computers at certain bureaucratic
agencies of Sweden can't get into their heads (or CPUs, if you prefer!) that
this arrangement of names is possible (despite it being used by as sizeable
miniority of the Swedish population), and stubbornly refer to me as "Håkan
Johansson" - which's bound to cause trouble as that's my fathers name.

But of course, there's those even worse-off than me. My mother's name is
Anna Elisabet Norberg-Johansson, Elisabet being the main personal name, and
yet she regularly receives mail addressed to "Anna Norberg", and "Elisabet
Johansson" is fairly common too. To mess things really up, one of my sisters
bears the name Elisabet Rebecka Johansson, with Rebecka as the main name,
and so she too regularly gets mail addressed to "Elisabet Johansson".

                                                 Andreas
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