When people have multiple given names, but if they were always only spoken to with the one of the names, it would be useful to be able to select one or more of the given names as main given names. In the written databases I am trying to digitalize, these are always underlined, e. g. Minna Luise Auguste (Minna would be underlined, the html didn’t work). The information does not really fit into the Nickname field, since then it would be listed twice (another time in the Given Name), and I do not want to lose the order of the given names by only putting it into Nickname.
RootsMagic supports UTF-8 (Unicode) characters, SO the below is possible:
BUT… then, the name Minna, while DISPLAYED with accompanying underline(s), is actually NO LONGER searchable (as just Minna) because the character codes used (for underlining) change the internal computer representations from ‘M’ to ‘underlinedM’ and ‘Minna’ to ‘underlinedMinna’. In other words, not the same and not easily accessed or entered. It could also cause incompatibility if exported to other apps that operate differently or are not aware of those differences.
Maybe I am NOT quite understanding what you are trying to do BUT I have a number of ancestors who either reversed their names or as in your case only went by a 2nd name–what I do is either put the given name as an alternative or include it in full name BUT with the given name in quotes ( like a nickname) and yes I realize
people are going to have fits abt that but read on–Examples-- names changed for privacy reasons in these examples:
dad Avery James Smith went by James A for half his life-- used this as alternative and James A as given–you need to know both as marriage and death cert ( maybe birth) army records and some of the kids birth cert are under Avery and everything else including census under James.
g-grandfather John Clemens Jones went by Clemens Jones–only name we had for him was Clemens-- death cert and some new articles under John-- have recorded him as Clemens ‘John Clemens’ Jones
2nd g-g John Sylvester Barnes eventually went by Sylvester Barnes abt the time his son John Jr became 18–1st half of life was John with Sylvester on kids baptismal records-- rest of his life Sylvester–recorded the same as Clemens.
2nd g-grandfather Jones-- family info says his name was Clemens-- death cert for 2 kids and marriage license for all 3 kids vary-- some say Clemens, some say Henry and some say John–so all I really know is that his name was some form of John Clemens Henry–he is still recorded as Clemens until I’m lucky enough to find some info in Germany on him or until I have to decide.
Basic reason for doing this -well just don’t know on the last one ( and have a few more like that)-- Clem and Sylvester used their middle names to distinguish themself from a relative ( and you won’t find all the documentation if you don’t know both) and in respect for Dad I would never put his given name 1st–if he didn’t want to be called Avery, I’m NOT going to do it ( same with Clem)…
You just need to do what works for you-- others might say -oh that is wrong BUT it’s your database
In my view, this is an important need for which genealogy writ large doesn’t have an answer. Even if RM had a good answer for while you were working in RM (and it doesn’t), the good answer for RM would be extremely unlikely to be transferred to any other genealogy software.
It’s an extremely complicated problem, and I don’t claim to have the answer. I’m a “go by my middle name” person myself, as were my mother and all three of her sisters. In their cases, after each of them were married, their middle name + their birth surname + plus married surname effectively became both their “go by” name and their legal name - like for Social Security and financial accounts - that sort of thing. I think genealogy needs to recognize and embrace such realities. And those kinds of examples only scratch the surface of the overall problem. Simple solutions like always using a person’s birth name or always using a person’s legal name are completely inadequate.
What I do in RM is to put the “go by name” in parentheses (not in quotes like a nickname), viz. William Harley (Harley) Bryan because he was known as Harley. But that approach puts me in just as much jeopardy with the genealogy standards police as would underlining Harley without using any parentheses at all. By the way, when a person does go by their first name, I don’t put it in parentheses. For example, I would not say William Harley (William) Bryan if he had been known as William. But I would say William Harley (Bill) Bryan if he was known as Bill. I would only put the name in quotes if it were a true nickname like “Whitey” or “Red”. I don’t think of a name like Will or Bill for William as nicknames. To me, they are more like diminutive forms of the original name.
One of the things I do think needs to happen is to completely get rid of the notion of a main given name. Rather, I think individuals in genealogy need to have one or more co-equal names. Each name would have its own sources and notes. None of the co-equal names would be lost when data is transferred. Each of the co-equal names would be be associated with a context and a time frame, as when a person were Lizzie as a child and Elizabeth as an adult, or when a person was Jack at home with the family and Bill at work.
FamilySearch doesn’t accept parenthesis in names 
I do a lot of research in Germany and many of my family there have 2-4 given names and they could go by any one of them. Because I can’t use underlines in RM or FS I have resorted to putting their “go by” name in capital letters so it stands out from the other given names. A better solution would be appreciated. BTW in the German vital records they always underline the “go by” name to make it clear.
My impression is that the FamilySearch user interface does allow parentheses when you first type them in, but the standards police jump in quickly thereafter and change the parentheses to quotes. I think the quotes look and feel extremely unprofessional and incorrect when used with a part of a person’s real name when instead quotes would seem to suggest an informal nickname.
Is there a specific reason why this is not included in RootsMagic or other genealogy programs? It’s an important piece of information that applies to all people with middle names, so a standardization would be greatly helpful, considering everyone uses their own system.
I don’t know. You would have to ask the genealogy standards police.
I suspect that the real underlying cause is that software designers and programmers have historically not been very good or very creative in setting up data structures for names that are easily searchable except by having very rigorous standards about names. And those very rigorous standards do not reflect the realities and complexities of how names work in the real world.
Remember that when computers first started being used for genealogy, they were nowhere near as powerful as they are today, and they had nowhere as much data storage as they do today. Then those historical design decisions have become frozen to maintain backwards compatibility with the way it has always been done. It’s very hard to see any way out. There is just too much inertia with the way it has always been done. And I don’t think the standards people understand that there is even a problem.
Even the latest spec for GEDCOM (7, which RM has yet to support) offers only the NICK tag for the carriage of nicknames, used-by, familiar names, … and I don’t think it has any provision for underlining or embolding a name or part thereof. It seems to me that it might also be impossible to define a database structure that addresses all the ways and combinations by which any person could have been identified over their lifetime. RM makes a decent stab at it by treating Alternate Names like an event having a time frame but it fails to exploit its own options for name type.