Family Historian User Group

I've had a few people who's name on the Birth Certificate differs from the name in the Baptism entry.

Also have one person, see below, who used a different middle name on their Marriage Certificate.

Birth Cert - Lily Florence
Baptized - Lillie Elizabeth
Marriage - Lily Sophia

Two Census entries, one gives Lilie, before marriage, the other Lily, after marriage. No middle name on either.

Which should I use as the primary name ?

ID:4605

I wouldn't give much attention to the difference between Lily and Lilie in the various records -- those say more about the census enumerator's / vicar's etc. spelling than anything else.

In the absence of anything else, and if you're certain they're all the same individual, I'd use the name at marriage as primary, because that would be a name she gave and presumably used for herself, unlike the others given at or near birth.

But I don't think there can be hard and fast rules. I have an ancestor who was named Stanley Reynolds Wright on his birth certificate, John Stanley Wright on his marriage certificate, Stanley in censuses and on his childrens' birth/marriage certificates and John William Wright on his widow's death certificate. So I use Stanley as primary as it's the most common...