Call name It is not uncommon to give a child several Vornamen particularly for girls and among Catholics Usually one of them is meant to be normally used and called the Rufname call name This is often underlined on official documents as it is often the second or third name in a list even though it is the person s main name the idea of first names being more important than middle names as is usually the case in Anglo Saxon cultures is unknown I think this section is quite dated My grandfather born in 1904 had a Rufname which was actually his second Vorname but nowadays this is rather uncommon in Germany Legally one can use any of the Vornamen one was given as one s preferred Rufname and even change it without any prerequisite so if the current German minister for economics Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg wanted to he could use any of his 10 Vornamen as the name to be called with except for the Maria I guess But in reality such things rarely happen Btw the example shows not only girls can have many Vornamen though 10 is a bit excessive such large numbers of names are mostly confined to former nobility There are even court decisions limiting the number of Vornamen a mother wasn t allowed to give her child 12 Vornamen but only 5