WHAT DO THE NAMES REVEAL?
Changing Surnames
A GUIDE TO SURNAME RESEARCH
Wayne Shepheard considers a complex surname situation, reflecting on how and why someone may wish to change their family name, and highlighting useful insights as he goes along
Wayne Shepheard
1884 birth and baptism records for Herbert Augusta [Augustus] Madsen.
from General Record Office document; bottom from baptism register of St. Peter parish, Liverpool, Lancaster
(Source, Liverpool Record Office; Liverpool, England; Reference Number: 283 PET/2/84)
Case study
The marvellously ‘monikered’ Rev. Herbert Augustus Warburton Gardner- McTaggart
Iam the Online Parish Clerk for Cornwood parish in Devon and have in my files a great deal of information about individuals who lived and worked in the area over the past several centuries. A couple of years ago I was asked if I had any information about a man who had served as the Vicar for the parish: Reverend Herbert Augustus Warburton Gardner-McTaggart.
The individual requesting the information was a member of No.255 Squadron RAF and was writing a biography about one of the Reverend’s sons, Chrysostom Herbert Macpherson Gardner- McTaggart. The biography was published in late 2018 on the website of the 255 Squadron Association.
Over several weeks we discovered a great deal about the Gardner- McTaggart family, particularly about Rev. Gardner-McTaggart. The piece in question, of course, was focused on Chris McTaggart, but we believed at the time that a more in-depth look at his father would be interesting.
I was introduced (by email) to the grandsons of Rev. Gardner- McTaggart who provided material about the family for the biography and for this article, and to whom I am immensely grateful. It may be noted that in my recent research I have found out a few things that even they did not know and was happy to share with them.
1901 England census, showing Herbert A. Madsen at school at the Wendt Home of Sacred Mission in Mildenhall, Suffolk
Changing surnames
A primary focus of this article is on changing names in England and Wales, outside of the adoption process. An emphasis is also placed on the use of compound surnames, described as double surnames, double-barrelled surnames or hyphenated surnames. Many such names are written without a hyphen, though, which adds to the confusion in searches. Individuals may often go through much of their life using only one of the names.
It has not been uncommon to include the maiden name of a child’s mother in his or her name. In my studies these are often not shown as compound surnames but as additional forenames. Sometimes more than one of the children in a family – but not necessarily all – might be given this additional name.
The use of a second forename was more popular in continental Europe in the past. In Britain, it did not catch on until well into the 18th century, mostly among the aristocracy among who it was important to demonstrate the pedigree on both sides of a marriage.
In my review of baptism registers for the four parishes in southwest Devon I look after as an Online Parish Clerk, the use of second names begins in the 1700s. Compound names are rare in the registers. Of a total of 15,370 entries in the four Devon parish baptism registers, only 54 had hyphenated surnames, 10 of those in two families.
1911 England census, showing Herbert Augustus Warburton Gardner- McTaggart living with George Henry Somerset & Isabel Florence Gardner- McTaggart