Changing Name.....

[Tracey]

My grandfather was born Noel Huston Gray on 4th November 1904 at 43 Regent Quay Aberdeen.
At some point between then and starting school his name was changed to Norman Hutton Donaldson. Would this name change been done officially and would there be a record of it ?

[Guest]

Tracey,
As David has often said, in Scotland you can go by any name you wish, so long as you are not trying to elude the law. I have several in my lines who were given one name at birth and then switched to another later. Two even went by one name and then by another and then back to the birth name over time. It made the research interesting as it took years to prove their identities.
Catherine

[Tracey]

Tracey,
As David has often said, in Scotland you can go by any name you wish, so long as you are not trying to elude the law. I have several in my lines who were given one name at birth and then switched to another later. Two even went by one name and then by another and then back to the birth name over time. It made the research interesting as it took years to prove their identities.
Catherine

Hi Catherine
I know why it was changed i just want to know if it was done officially and how i can find out. Two of his "brothers" did the same thing for different reasons. I have a letter from one whilst in the Highlanders and was in hospital who had been arrested for deserting and striking an officer . He had somehow changed his name from his sign up name and had a different army ID and its highly unlikely that his birth name is his first original sign up name ( he was born in U.S and so far there is no record of his or -his siblings- birth under the sir name) . I darent tell you what the rest of the letter says he is going to do but he was in a rush to get out of the hospital as he thought someone had found out his true ID
Yes it does make for interesting research as at first i wondered if my true sir name should be Gray. Judging by photos i think not but who knows But luckily for us we have written evidence for some of this but our main bone of contention concerns American births - children born there under one name bought to Scotland under a different name
and had ficticious parents names on marriage certificates
Unless the only two alive who knows all about this blabs (huh, we dont have long they are both in their late 90,s) we will never know and i dont fancy spending the next few years growing old at The National Archives

[DavidWW]

Tracey

It's very unlikely that there will be any official record of the change of name.

As the birth is registered as illegitimate with no father's name shown, am I correct in guessing that his father turned out to be a Mr Donaldson?

David

[Tracey]

Hi David

Yes, Mr Donaldson it was ......................who did a dissapearing act around 1906 never to be traced again (so far) k