Change of name, anyone?

[col48]

Is there anywhere online where one can find a record of 20th-century name changes - deed poll etc?

I've been told about a family but the source is only moderately reliable and I can't square what I've been told with the records. Nothing unusual about that, perhaps, but the way it fails to match is peculiar.

I'm told of four people: father F (unknown forename but known surname, no other particulars other than curiously place of birth), mother M (known date of birth, first name, middle name, maiden name, place of birth), and two children C and D (known first and middle names and the surname of father F, no other details).

I can find one child's birth on BMD with full details including mother's maiden name. No sign of the other one unless I stretch to ignoring middle name and ignore any time/place connection with the sibling. But the only marriage I can find has a different surname for the father - a name which is similar but could hardly be a mishearing (M's middle name is unfortunately represented only by its initial). All the placenames are Southern England but these folk are 20th-Century so rather mobile. It's recent enough that although I know M's pedigree, the 1911 Census won't help with F's family.

None of the names is in the top ten for popularity but none is especially unusual either.

I suppose I could buy certificates, but these are not exactly close relatives so I can't really justify it. But it would be nice if there was a straightforward way to tie up the loose ends.

[Olde Crone Holden]

I don't know of any online records for changes of name, sorry.

However, most people didn't record a change of name - there was no legal requirement to do so, you just woke up one morning and told everyone you met that your name was now Donald Duck and that was fine. (Recently, it has become necessary to show a clear paper trail for any change of name, but it still doesn't have to be recorded anywhere, you can still call yourself whatever you like as long as it is not being done for "malicious impersonation").

I think the most likely explanation is a clerical misrecording of the name. Or perhaps no marriage took place at all.

What records are you looking at? There are believed to be about 2 million errors in the GRO records/indexes, mostly minor, but a few quite major ones.

OC

[Night Owl]

I'm pretty sure that the London Gazette is the only place that might be searchable online.

There's some guidance about name changes here

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/change-of-name.htm

[Olde Crone Holden]

Durh, sorry, forgot the Gazette! But the rest of my post still applies - not many people bothered with Deed Poll.

Roughly what year are we talking about?

OC

[clematised]

There was a WDYTYA program in the South of England, where the Father had married and had children to his wife, then they moved house and changed their name and it turned out that the Father had been an Army deserter in the First World War and the records were checked looking for them (deserters) and the family through the program found out about it.
I can see the mans face but cant think of his name, he is gay and has had his own Friday Night show. (I think)

Edna

[Christine in Herts]

There was a WDYTYA program in the South of England, where the Father had married and had children to his wife, then they moved house and changed their name and it turned out that the Father had been an Army deserter in the First World War and the records were checked looking for them (deserters) and the family through the program found out about it.
I can see the mans face but cant think of his name, he is gay and has had his own Friday Night show. (I think)

Edna

Your description sounds a bit like Graham Norton - but I think the programme was about Eddie Izzard? (Who describes himself as something far more complicated than merely gay!)

Christine

[clematised]

Thanks Christine Yes I was thinking it was Graham Norton but the name escped me, but the deserter story was the name change who ever owned the family.

Could it have been Alan Carr??

Edna

[Night Owl]

Yes I think it was Alan Carr

http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/episode/alan-carr

[Olde Crone Holden]

I always think that if you are going to change your name in order to evade some sort of past catching up with you, then the change ought to be COMPLETELY different, not something which sounds like your real name.

OC

[clematised]

Yes OC but this name change was because of him being a deserter and not wanting to be caught, I was just showing that sometimes there is a reason why our ancestors can not be found under the name we know them as.

Edna

[Olde Crone Holden]

Edna

Yes, I understood your point - I was merely remarking that col's relative probably didn't actually change his name at all, as he says it sounds similar to his real name (the marriage he found). I think it more likely it was a clerical error than a deliberate name change.

OC

[JBee]

I've got loads of different spellings for the same surname - also you have the problem of people being known by their middle name or pet name. Mum told me her uncle changed his irish sounding name when he joined the Army - so dropped the Mc and changed the rest to more english name.

Another name McPaden became Paden, Pader, Padon, Patton, Padden, Paddon, Pardon, Parran on different certificates and census. Even siblings spelt it differently.

As has been said you can call yourself anything as long as it's not for fraudulent/criminal reasons without doing it through a solicitor etc

[dopeyploppy]

Then there is also a change of name etc of someone put under witness protection - a girl I once worked with believed her Grandfather had something to do with the Kray Twins - his and family members names were changed and they were moved - she has yet to find the truth x

[col48]

After reflecting on all the details once more, I am inclined to believe that the marriage I found is a coincidence and not relevant to the family. I was looking on FreeBMD, and the marriage I was looking for would be recent enough that the transcription is quite likely not to be in the database as yet. The year would be 1960s or early 70s. I don't think the name could be mistaken for the one I am looking for - whether spoken aloud or written down it would be a hard error to make.

On name changes, one time when this can happen is on immigration; there are many stories of US officials writing down an Americanised version of what they heard and that becoming the new surname or of the immigrant being unable to communicate his name correctly and choosing something arbitrary seen out of the window. I have one instance here in the UK - an Italian family who changed their name to a fairly common English one because of WW2. And someone else whose (illiterate?) grandfather's initial got incorporated into the surname by an Army recruitment sergeant - like Mr L Boase becoming Mr Elbows, perhaps. That particular change could cause a puzzle or two!

[lennon2011]

Has anyone read "The Perfect Nazi - My SS Grandfather's Secret Past"?

Here's a video explaining it. At the end the family changed the name to Holm to escape prison (didn't help though) and then change it back to the origonal name. I'm suprised Carr's relative didn't try that..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk5HEHYVf0w