[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Middle Names

[Paul Rakow]

  Hello Tammy,

       The birth record is usually one of the places where you
  see all the person's names, so the most likely thing is that
  you will find her as Maria Magdalena, but I would also look for
  Magdalena Maria, or just Maria, or just Magdelena.

      You can't tell for sure which of her names was the
  "Rufname" (the name she was normally called by), but if
  she used Marie in the US, that's more likely the one she
  was known by in Russia too.

       There was no set rule about which name Germans used as
  the Rufname - you might see some (American) web pages telling
  you it was always the second name, and never the first - that's
  not true, it could be any of the names.

             Paul Rakow

  "Tammy Jochman" <tjjochman at milwpc.com> wrote: 
>
> Hi all,
>
> I have a question about middle names. My great-grandmother's sister was
> named Maria Magdelena.
> We know her as being called Marie in the US (because she later changed her
> name from Maria to Marie).
> Would it have been standard for her to have been called Magdelena, as was
> common, when she was in Russia and later used her 1st name
> in the U.S? We are trying to determine the name that would have been
> recorded on the birth record in Russia. Would we look under Maria or
> Magdelena or try both?
>
> Thanks in advance for any information you can give me on the use of calling
> people by either their first or middle names during the late 1890's.
>
> Tammy Jochman
>