A NAME'S A NAME ALL THE SAME

      I don't know whether this is a Southern thing or whether it's just peculiar to my family or whether it's the same for anyone who is named for someone else.  So many people in my family go by their middle name because they happened to be named for someone.  Either that or they are a "Big" someone or a "Little" someone.  I have both in my family.
     I'll talk about being named for someone first because that directly affects my daughter and has caused her some consternation all her life.  First of all her name is Kimberly Robin, named for my baby sister who I named for a friend in seventh grade who I loved and had never heard the name Kimberly before-Kimberly Ann.  My sister was born in 1960 and I know, there are a million Kimberlys in that generation.  Robin says she didn't know her first name was Kimberly until  second grade when all the kids in class had answered present to roll call but her.  This she says is probably because I always told the teacher "Kimberly is her first name but we call her Robin".  Okay, the "family" all called her Robin so as not to confuse her with her Aunt Kim six years older than her.
       In high school Robin had friends who new her as Kim and friends who know the family and called her Robin.  Robin went to a huge high school where there were thousands in her class not hundreds.  She was walking with this one girl who knew her as Kim and the girl actually said to her "Do you know that girl Robin who has all the designer jeans?"  The poor girl was talking about Robin but didn't know it.  BTW Robin only had two pairs of Calvin's--it happened in the early eighties when designer names were all the fashion. 
      Okay here's other members of the family.  Daddy was Curtis Marshall, Jr. called Marshall by all his family when he was growing up.  Marshall was for his Grandfather who was George Marshall.  When he left the farm he was known by all the new people in his life and by all his Marine Corps buddies as Curt.  Momma and all her family called Daddy Curt.  Momma was named Virginia Lorraine and called Lorraine by all her family because her Mother was Virginia Anna (actually Anna Virginia in the 1910 census!).
     Now my brother is named Curtis Fredrick and is called Fred but that never created a problem  because Fredrick was for Mom's Dad who had already passed when he was born.  However, here is where the bigs and the littles come in because Fred's son Michael Fredrick was called "Little Fred" because he looked so much like his Dad from the beginning and my brother hereafter was called "Big Fred".  My sister Linda wasn't named for anyone but Mom's brother's girl was called Little Linda and when we refer to them now together they're big and little.   Big Linda and Little Linda are both Grandmothers.
       I'm not named for anyone, my name is Sandra Lee and I'm not a Big or a Little, either.  However, I know my Mom wanted to name me Diana Lynn when she was carrying me and Dad said no that it sounded too much like a movie star (there was an actress by that name at the time) and then I find out years later that my husband's first wife, who I always heard called Diane, was actually named Diana Lynn.  Horrors, that's too much of a coincidence for me.  I do like to think, though, that my oldest Grand Daughter Alexandria Mae, called Ally, was named after me although unintentionally.  Sandra is a diminutive of Alexander as is Alexandria.
     Of course, I forgot to mention Uncle Boo, who was Daddy's baby brother, and whose real name was Lawrence named after one of his Uncles.  He came by the nickname Boo because when he was tiny he used to mimic the sound of the milk separator up on the farm.  booboobooboo!     I know there's probably more instances but I think you get the idea.