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I have a soft spot for Sullivan nn Sully too because of a HS friend (his LN is actually Sullivan and everyone called him Sully). I think it nods to the Mason/Sawyer style somewhat, but since it hasn't caught on as much as other LN's-as-FN's it's not so obnoxious. I don't think it's pretentious. Interestingly I find most Irish LN's-as-FN's unpretentious for the most part (unless there's obvious pretentious connections as with Kennedy). The NN Sully definitely wipes away any pretension that the full name might carry. A woman I work with has a son named Sullivan. I'd probably never use it because I feel weird about using surnames that aren't family names as FN's, but I would support someone else using Sullivan.

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