Can you legally drop your first name and use your middle name?

Without going to court and having it done? For instance, I think I might want to use my middle name in lieu of my first. Do I just start telling people to call me that?

Can you legally drop your first name and use your middle name?
Yes, that is what I did. Although my first name is still technically part of my legal name, I have my middle, maiden, and current last name on my driver's license, my social security card, and on all of my bills as well as my insurance card. I never did anything in the court to change it from my first name, I simply started using my middle name. That was all there was to it for me.
Reply:You can call yourself anything you want as long as it is for a legal purpose and not to set out to defraud someone. You are given names at birth for you to use throughout your life. That means that if u are called John Thomas Burke, U can either use John Burke or Thomas Burke legally, its your name! Report Abuse

Reply:You can just tell people to start calling you that, but your legal name is what is on your legal documents. It is easy to change though without going to court. You do it at the DMV when you get your driver's license and they will change it for you without to much bother. Then you go to the social security office and get a new card issued in that name. Then you apply for a passport. Wallah. New name change.
Reply:My mother did that...she would use her Middle name and sign legal stuff B. Lucille, she rarely told people her first name and hated it if I did. She didn't have it put on her tombstone either.
Reply:Why would you have to change anything at all ? Your middle name is part of your legal name


If my legal name was Robert Thomas Johnson and i wanted people to call me Tom rather than Bob that should be perfectly legal .There are more than a few people who use this format:


R.Thomas Johnson
Reply:You can have people call you any name you wish, but that does not make it your legal name. No documents signed with anything but your legal name is a legal document.
Reply:Your first name remains your legal first name, no matter what you tell people to call you.





You could sign your legal signature with your first initial and your middle name (think C. Everett Koop) but you can't just eliminate your first name without going to court.
Reply:to have it legally done just go to the dmv and change it. but then you also have to go get a social security card and all... i say just go by the middle name. my daughter has gone by her middle name alll of her life... no big deal.
Reply:You can do that....but it won't be legal until you go to court and have it changed legally.