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Possible theory
In the Netherlands, I know that for instance in the Netherlands you can give your children doopnamen "baptism names" (official FN + MN(s)) and a "calling name" roepnaam (I think that would roughly be nn is English).Having worked in the itnernational office of my school, I know my school registers students with "official names" and "calling name", so it's pretty easy to see who goes by their MN and who goes by their FN or something else completely. I believe you can register this when the baby is born. My brother is for example Constantijn Wilhelmus Petrus "Stijn" and I was supposed to be Maria Johanna Catharina "Marjolijn", but something got mixed up with the baptism and calling name and I ended up with Marjolijn Maria Johanna Catharina on my birth certificate. (my parents are still debating wether this was my dad's or the clerk's fault :P)Not sure if it's the same thing in Sweden, but at least it would explain it.


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It's pretty close to that in Sweden, except that the name that you're called is not separate from the other names. The way it works is that when the name of a baby is registered (which has to be done within 4 months of birth IIRC) you mark which name is the one you'll be using. There's nothing to stop you from actually calling the child by a different name, but the name you mark is the one that will be used on papers sent to you (unless the full name is printed).There isn't such a thing as a birth certificate in Sweden, as we became aware when moving abroad with a small child. The population register (now kept by the Tax Agency) has collected information for about four centuries (though there are big gaps until the 1700s, Wikipedia tells me), and anyone who needs to know something about you would get the information from them. I found a nice brochure (in English) about the population register at http://www.skatteverket.se/download/18.5cbdbba811c9a768f0c80002830/717b04.pdf . But anyway, if you order a report about yourself from the population register, one of the "first names" will be underlined. I know someone who changed which name she goes by, but I don't know whether she actually had her official record updated to reflect it. I can imagine that you'd also have to contact your bank and such, though at least my bank picked up on my wife's surname change automatically when we got married.
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