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searching for my greatgrandfather in the 1871 census I noticed that all prisoners with his surname were only identified by initials-anyone know why ?

Welcome the boards, Susso.


Census records are / were taken for statistical purposes only - so as long as everyone was listed, the full names weren't needed.
Institutions such as hospitals, asylums, workhouses, prisons often had their own forms, different from those used for private households.

They often had hundreds of names to enter, so initials were a lot quicker. Hospitals might also do it for confidentiality reasons.


Found in a Google search (though I don't know how accurate the figures are):

It was only in the 1861 Census that the initials of inmates, patients, prisoners, paupers in institutions needed to be returned, although some were shown by initials in later censuses. In the 1901 Census, for instance, there are 160,914 inmates, only 117 are shown by initials. There are 124,298 patients of whom around only 914 are shown by initials, or other abbreviation. Other people are shown by initials under 'Institutional' only 1,105 out of 444,786. So the overwhelming majority are given names.

Thank you :-) :-)