* Name change forename and Surname.

[jsphillips]

A member of my wife's family and his siblings decided to change their forenames and surnames after a suggestion that this surname caused a lot of embarassement to many people although they themselves were all OK.
It appears that this was an "unenrolled" deed poll change. I do not know all the details although I have all of their former names and all of their new names.
Some were married with their new names and their children born after this event obviously had the new surname.
How do I make this entry it is not AN AKA ! Also both forenames and surnames changed. This was over 40 years ago.
All I have done at the moment is at birth record their original name and when a new event happened not change it but only the children. There does not appear in any of the popular genalogical programs a situation to deal with this !
Any suggestions welcome

[Gowermick]

I have a similar situation, where the father changed his name (I do not know whether by deed poll or otherwise) . His marriage and his daughter were registered using his original names, but a subsequent son was registered under his newly assumed surname.
I adopt the principle of recording everone using their officially registered names, and in this fathers case, he was also given an aka showing his new name.

This situation made the national newspapers at the time, as father was a bit of a rogue
I also added copious notes to the father, outlining the situation.

To summarise, everyone involved is recorded in FH as per official birth registrations, which meant son and daughter show different surnames, and the father with the added aka, which involved a complete change of forename and surname

[AdrianBruce]

The precise usage of each type of name is not particularly well defined in GEDCOM style software. In fact I would use the Secondary Name facility - or AKA - to cover what you describe.

I justify it in my head by saying that there are at least 3 different types of AKA name:
1 An alias such as a pen name (John le Carre and David Cornwell) where both names are used at the same time but in different contexts.

2 An alternative used at the same time in the same context - my GG-GF was sometimes James Maddocks and sometimes James Griffiths. His reason seems to be to disguise his bigamous marriage but eventually he seemed to use both indiscriminately. The parish register referred to one child as "Griffiths alias Maddocks".

3 Your case of the name change that replaces the previous version in all contexts.

Because of the lack of clarity, I end up using the Secondary Name mechanism for all 3 types. The one other thing that I would also do in a case 3 is to use a Name Change fact dated from the apparent change - if you don't want to use the Secondary / AKA name facility - and I can understand your reluctance - then a Name Change fact is the only other thing that I can think of right now. What I can't remember is whether I downloaded that definition or made it up myself.

I think that there may be a section in the Knowledge Base on the topic.

[LornaCraig]

I think that there may be a section in the Knowledge Base on the topic.

It's here: How to Handle People With Multiple Names

The page includes a link to the fact set for Name Changes