I just received an email from someone whose automatic signature details were thus: (actual name changed in case he finds this and sues me for emotional distress)

R. (Rick) E. Wakeman

What on earth is the point of that?

I've seen other people use odd combinations of initials and parentheses, and it seems to be more of an American affectation than Canadain, but what's it all about? Some companies seem to mandate it because everybody has their names listed in that style.

Those crazy Americans, what will they think of next?

Most weird to me is that, when someone has elected not to go by his or her first name, the name is styled:

R. E. (Ed) Wakeman.

For what we need to know about the unused R?

Indeed. And weirder still are the ones who persist in their childish nicknames:

R. E. (Butch) Wakeman

I did work with a few people in the UK who went with "alternates" of their original names, but went with it because it's the name they've gone with since they were kids, so it was what they wanted at work... but they're all pretty standard.

William --> Went by Will, changed his work email display name and everything to just be "Will"
Rosemary --> Went by Rosie, same as above
Jeremy --> Went by Jez, same as above

The only other one was someone whose first name was John and middle name James, but has been JJ since he was about 2 weeks old. As the people above, he changed his work name to appear as JJ [surname]. It was so weird when I found out it was actually John James. (I'd instead taken to calling him Jolly Jasper...)

I agree, though, the sort of "unrelated" ones like Butch or whatever are a bit more strange. At least all the ones above are just variations of the given name. (And this is when I lament having a name that doesn't shorten at all... Though I did find out there's an Aussie nickname for my name, which I actually like, but it'd be like forcing it on people here since it's not used here at all!)

I digress....

I suppose the alternate is parents who give their kids dipshit names instead. :P

I have a first name which I hate with a passion and for the first 44years of my life (in UK), I have never had a problem, people ask my name, I tell them Neil.
All documents in my name, except my birth/marriage certs & passport all my life have only had Neil on, after I explained that this is the name I go by.
Then, I came to Canada.
Now everything is in my (hated) first name with the occasional N in the middle before my surname because that is what is in my passport.
Except my SIN card, they were happy enough in Service Canada to use just Neil.
I had one supervisor, I worked for, for 5 years insisted on calling me by this name because that is " what is written on payroll."
I went to the bank this week to pay in a cheque that was "Neil G" and I get the third degree and had to show 2 forms of ID.
It drives me f------ crazy sometimes.
Anyway, sorry for rant, back on topic, I sign (initial) Neil (surname).

One of my corporate clients is a fair size family business. All the men in the family have the same same. Grandfathers, fathers, sons and grandsons are all called Richard Edward Wakeman. Obviously, this gets confusing so they chose alternate names to call each other. Their signature becomes:

R.E. Wakeman (Arthur)

Who's on first, What's on second.

So what's your first name? Let us judge. Is it a pikey name?

HaHa, like I'm going to tell you.
I'm the judge & jury on this one.

Why don't you just change it, legally?

I worked with a guy named Rick. His parents gave him the name Ricky which he legally changed when he was old enough.

Like I said, the first 44 years, I had no problem, just too old now to change it.

My step-fater was always clled George, but it wasn't his real given name, that was Richard. Apparently when he was born his mum and dad had a big disagreement about what he should be registered as. He wanted Richard, she wanted George. He seemed to give in and was sent to register the birth, when he came back he told his wife he had registered him as Richard. His wife said she would never use that name as long as she lived, and she called him George, as did his brothers and sisters and all his friends, the name Richard was only ever used on official papers.

I had a First Nations friend up north named Gabby Munroe. I asked him why they called him Gabby and he said, "Because my first name is Cuthbert."

There was some poor girl at a dance competition last weekend called, and I'm not making up this spelling, Qurstyn. Or Kirstine in English. Or as they say here, Keeerstn.

Can you imagine spelling that out for people for your whole life. Christ!