4 ms·
Tangent: My father's family is German and all of the males in the family only used their middle name for everything except legal and financial documents. For e
by bityard 1y ago
Tangent:
My father's family is German and all of the males in the family only used their middle name for everything except legal and financial documents. For example, Carl Hans Schmidt (to pick a semi-made-up example) would introduce himself as Hans to everyone he met, and the family would refer to him as Hansi.
I always wondered if that was a German (or regional) tradition, or a fun family quirk.
(The males have all regrettably passed on but I asked my aunts once and they said they had no idea why or how that was a thing, that's just what they did.)
- anthk 1y agoSpanish too. Francisco Javier -> Javi, or maybe Paco (Francisco), but Javi would be the obvious case. Francisco -> Paco from Saint Francis holding a Pater Comunitatis title in Latin. But, as a weirder case: José María -> Chema Luis María -> Luisma Juan Manuel -> Juanma José Manuel -> Chema/Josema Juan Ramón -> Juanra María José (women's name) -> Marijose
- walthamstow 1y agoMy personal favourite is Juan Carlos -> Juanca. Sounds great in British English.