Quote Quoting cbg
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My father and several of his brothers all used their middle names. I asked my grandfather once why that was, using my uncle Paul as an example.

"Well," he said, "we wanted to call him Paul, so we named him John Paul."

"Why didn't you name him Paul John?" I asked.

You would have to know my grandfather to understand that to this day I do not know if he was serious or not when he answered, "We never thought of that!"
When my son was born I gave him a hyphenated middle name. When he was a few month old he was called by his hyphenated middle name. When he started school. his teachers called him by his hyphenated middle name. When he was in middle school the school district policy changed. Students had to go by the first and last name on their birthday certificate. We did a legal name change. His hyphenated middle name became his first name and his first name became his middle name legally. We thought about doing the name change before but did not see a reason to do it. Until the school district policy change.