Preferred name in common application ???

Applying to College
1

<p>Ok. it seems stupid. but is my preferred name has to be in my passport :eek:?</p>

2

<p>Yes.</p>

<p>Save yourself a big headache, and use your legal name for everything. If you don’t like it, once you get to college, tell everyone there to call you whatever it is you prefer to be called.</p>

3

<p>Although I usually agree with happymom, I don’t this time. </p>

<p>Take a look at the Common App: <a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Docs/DownloadForms/2013/2013AppFY_download.pdf[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Docs/DownloadForms/2013/2013AppFY_download.pdf&lt;/a&gt;. Quite clearly, on the first line it asks for your full legal name, with your family name first, followed by your given name or names. On the next line, it asks quite clearly for your preferred name, if your preferred name is not the same as your first given name.</p>

<p>I think nothing will go wrong if you write on the first line, “Fitzgerald, Francis Scott Key,” and on the next line, “Scott.”</p>

<p>Assuming, of course, that you are F. Scott Fitzgerald.</p>

4

<p>Sikorsky,</p>

<p>Thanks for letting me know that students have the opportunity to indicate their preferred name, as well as their legal name. That’s great for so many kids who don’t normally use (or don’t like) their legal names.</p>

5

<p>I pay attention to this stuff because I am a middle-name person IRL (but I did not write The Great Gatsby).</p>

6

<p>LOL! My mom was a middle-name person, and so is my mother-in-law, so I totally get it.</p>

7

<p>Kind of funny story about this. D’s given name is very traditional, but she has always been known by and called a very non-traditional, yet appropriate, nickname. She included her preferred name on her app and, for the most part, all communication to her was addressed “Miss (given name)”, but the salutation was always “Dear (nickname)”. For as long as we can remember, people have asked us “How do you get (nickname) from (given name).” When the time came to write her Common App essay, rather than trying to manufacture a topic that sounded highbrow or otherwise intellectual, she wrote about how she was named one thing, but called another. One draft was all it took. She is now trying to decide between three very selective schools. So yes, including a preferred name is just fine!</p>