Genealogy Chat

Can someone tell me how someone can have two birth names and registrations with one as the same name as their mother's maiden name and the other with the mother's maiden name being different? It is quite an unusual spelling and quite recent so probably living people involved here.

When the child married, there are two marriage registrations, one in each name.

Would this be something to do with being adopted?

It could be that his mam wasn't married when he was born.So he had his mums name then the man she married's name.

Maryb

My son, born in 1993, is registered twice as I wasn't married to the father at the time.

He's registered with his father's surname and also with my previous married surname (I have since married his father) - daren't tell my hubby that he's registered with my ex husband's name as he'd go ballistic!!

Thanks for these suggestions. I didn't realise you could register a child twice. Would this still mean that the child's marriage would be registered twice though?

I didn't actually register my son twice - it was done automatically!! Didn't know about it until two years ago.

I would think that my son's marriage (if he does) will be under his father's name as that is the name he has used all his life.

Beverley - one usually finds that there are not two registrations, but just one with two names mentioned, and so two index entries in the two names, both pointing to the same registration.

Note that a birth certificate doesn't actually assign a surname (I'm talking abt pre-1969 as I've not seen an English one more recent). The column headings are:
2 Name, if any [e.g., Susan]
4 Name, and surname of father [e.g., John Smith]
5 Name, surname, and maiden surname of mother [e.g., Mary Jones]

In a case like this, it's not clear which surname Susan would normally use. Indeed she might use both, probably at different times.

Another reason for Susan to use two surnames at her marriage would be that she's a widow or divorcee, and she might use both her married name and her former name. Nowadays, it's not unusual for women who've established some career and reputation in their maiden name to retain this for professional purposes whilst adopting their husband's name for social and family purposes.

But Beverley is saying that the mother's maiden name is different - your maiden name doesn't change. Maybe she was born under one name and "adopted" another if her mother re-married?

Madmeg - correct. Your maiden surname is the name under which you were first married. It often is your birth name too. If Susan first married Tom Green, say, as Smith and Jones, FreeBMD and Ancestry would have entries for:
Tom Green Smith Newcastle T 10b 72 and
Tom Green Jones Newcastle T 10b 72
but the actual index would say
Tom Green Jones or Smith Newcastle T 10b 72

Now when she has a kid, the index should list them as
Arthur Green Jones or Smith Newcastle T 10b 172
which will appear in FreeBMD/Ancestry as
Arthur Green Jones Newcastle T 10b 172 and
Arthur Green Smith Newcastle T 10b 172

Beverley - thru 1983, you can check the images of the GRO index

We don't know what dates we are looking at. Mgnv, double names didn't start to be quoted until the mid 1900s I don't think.

Ah, well, people told the registrar what they wanted to tell them, so anything could be recorded.

If in doubt, get the certificate and (as there will only be one certificate), it should give the full story.

Madmeg - I'ld never really thought abt it. I've seen plenty of double names on 19th century marriages, but now you mention it, these were probably from the local RO indices, rather than the GRO's, since I mostly only look at Lancs and the NE, both of which have large chunks of their local indices online.

Sorry I'm so long coming back to you all.

The birth date was 1954 and the marriage date was (from memory) 1983.

I'm not sure if this makes a difference.

I couldn't find anywhere that there was a second marriage involved but both names on the marriage records were recorded in birth records.

On a related note, when a birth is registered there is a period of a few months when the given name can be changed. Does that mean there are two entries in the birth index for that person, or is the first index amended?

As stated, there are not two registrations, only one. However, multiple index entries are more common that you might think. I have come across quite a few recently, and there was an identical thread on the subject a week or so ago.

For the record, my grandson's birth cert - or at least the one issued by the local Register Office, I don't have a GRO copy - shows his name and surname in full, in column 2.