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Well, I'm from the Netherlands. :)

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I'll tell you some more about that what that Marjolein girl has been trying to tell you.

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Look at me, for example. I was born Lucia Gottfrida Maria [surname], and I'm called Lucille in every day life. Lucia Gottfrida Maria are actually my Christian names (or baptisal names; I was baptized a Roman Catholic), which also appear on my birth certificate, passports, etc.

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It's kind of a tradition for everyone in the Netherlands to have Christian names (mostly 3 or 4), whether you're Catholic, protestant or reformed, and to get called by your parents and close friends something other than your Christian names (depends on the parents' choice, actually).

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It's like Americans do with their children. They can give a boy Alexander James [surname] as his official name, but if they choose to call him Alex in everyday life, then he'll be an Alex for all his life (it's anyway kind of a tradition in the US to shorten full names and to call someone by their nickname for all their life), as his relatives and friends will follow his parents' example.

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It's like that here, too, but the 'nickname' is more official here. When a Dutch parent fills in a form of application for when he wants to enroll his child in a school, the form will always ask what the child's name in every day life is, so that the school will call this child this name, too. It'll often appear this way:

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SURNAME: Janssen
FULL NAMES: Petrus Johannes Theodorus
CALLING NAME (name in everyday life): Pieter
BIRTH DATE: February 28, 1999.
BIRTH PLACE: Amsterdam.

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And so on.

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I hope this kind of gives you a better understanding of the common Dutch naming system. :-)

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Greetings,

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Lucille