Name of Person

[Bill H]

after 32 years of family research, something very basic has suddenly come to mind .... what name do you use for a person? Their birth registered name; their baptismal name; their commonly known name? or ......

Reunion gives you the opportunity to record their AKA name(s) in their notes, but I feel that a person's accepted name should be of prime importance.

What do you all think?

I have used this forum as I feel that this question is of genealogical note

[ttl]

Re: Name of Person

I've adopted the policy of using (to the best of my ability) the name a person died with. Presumably, this would be a formal name the individual chose to be identified by. Familiar/endearment/diminutive/nicknames preferred by the individual would be documented separately as would be any other AKAs.

Most notable in my history is my grandfather who was born Olaf Magnus Petersson and died Ole Magnus Lundin.

[rclrocco]

Re: Name of Person

Interesting question, and not a straightforward answer! TTL may be right in giving a person's last recognised name, but I think Reunion uses a woman's maiden name, even after a marriage, which is also a genealogical convention.
It gets more awkward when people change their names. For example, my grandfather was born with the surname Large; married a Miss Cuddon, and then used the surname Cuddon-Large; then later changed his surname by Deed Poll to Cuddon. So during his lifetime he had three different , legitimate surnames. In his case, I have always used his given name at birth, but included notes on his file about the other names.

[ttl]

Re: Name of Person

but I think Reunion uses a woman's maiden name, even after a marriage, which is also a genealogical convention.

Good point.

[Bob White]

Re: Name of Person

My very strict rule is to use the name the person was born with as the primary name then document any changes of name, nicknames, etc..

[Bill H]

Re: Name of Person

My very strict rule is to use the name the person was born with as the primary name then document any changes of name, nicknames, etc..

I do (very strictly?) the same as Bob; post 1837, I use their registered birth name; prior to 1837, their baptismal name.

In Colombia, where I live, they have the most logical and genealogically helpful method of naming children; usually ..... given name, given name, father's line, mother's line ..... e.g. Juan Pedro Sanchez Juliao AND the woman keep this name all her life, even after marriage.

Any more suggestions?

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Name of Person

It gets more awkward when people change their names. For example, my grandfather was born with the surname Large; married a Miss Cuddon, and then used the surname Cuddon-Large; then later changed his surname by Deed Poll to Cuddon.

FWIW, I'd enter his surname as "Large, later Cuddon-Large, later Cuddon".

I think the choice of name depends a great deal on the culture involved. In the U.S., where one may legally call oneself almost anything, and where one's birth name matters little in comparison, there's a case to be made for "most commonly used adult name", whereas in France, where the name on an acte de naissance follows one throughout life, regardless of marriages and other events, one tends to use the "official document" name.

I can't imagine entering Cary Grant in my database as "Archibald Alexander Leach", or the mother of his only child as "Samille Dyan Friesen".

[John M. Leggett]

Re: Name of Person

My very strict rule is to use the name the person was born with as the primary name then document any changes of name, nicknames, etc..

And I might add that I NEVER use the term "Maiden Name" as "Birth Name" is likely to be more acceptable in today's world. No one would ever use the term "Bachelor Name" for a man. I use Birth Name for both females and males.

Birth Name also identifies the person with their parents which is the important fact in genealogy research. Maiden Name could be simply the name a person was known by prior to marriage and not be the same as their Birth Name.

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Name of Person

And I might add that I NEVER use the term "Maiden Name" as "Birth Name" is likely to be more acceptable in today's world. No one would ever use the term "Bachelor Name" for a man. I use Birth Name for both females and males.

Of course, "Birth name" is often a misnomer, as children may not be named for weeks or months after their birth.

Not that there's a better term to substitute

[Michael Talibard]

Re: Name of Person

I don't think there is any one rule that always gives the best answer. For literate people who seem to have chosen a spelling (or a whole new name) I prefer to respect their choices. With illiterates, of whom I have many, you find variations that are not of their doing. A civil servant or a priest recording a birth or baptism just wrote down what he thought he heard the parent say, which can vary (as to surname) from one child to the next: those changes are nobody's intention, and in such cases I stick to the more usual spelling for that family.