Kathleen Matilda Mason

[Aks]

It appears that "Kathleen Matilda" Mason was in fact "Elizabeth Maude" Mason, born Sep Qtr 1888 in Builth. According to "Iand8", her death certificate and Grant of Probate document refer to her as Elizabeth Maude, whereas all other documents, including her marriage certificate, refer to her as Kathleen Matilda.

Curiously, there seem to have been two daughters called Elizabeth in her family, i.e. Elizabeth Maude had an older sister called Elizabeth Ann, both of whom survived to subsequent censuses. Could that be why she started calling herself Kathleen?

Does anyone have any idea :

(1) Why would the family give two daughters the same Christian name?
(2) Was it common for people to change their Christian names like this?

Thanks.

[Rowley]

Hi Aks, In Wales they often used the second name instead of the first, but unfortunately not on every occassion, so in your case the children would be known as Maude and Ann, I have incidents of people changing their names in my family tree, so it is possible, regards Rowley

[avm228]

Ah - so we had the right family all along - she's the younger sister of "Janath"/Janet!  Older sister Elizabeth seems, however, to have had the middle initial J rather than A in 1891 at least.

Maud(e) is actually a contraction of/pet name for Matilda, though it developed an independent existence as a self-standing given name. Perhaps Elizabeth Maude was a girl of a romantic disposition, and decided simple Maude was too plain, replacing it with the more fancy Matilda.  And Kathleen was a smart, fresh and fashionable name as she grew into a young woman so perhaps seemed a good substitute for Elizabeth, which she after all shared with a sister.

I have, though not that often, seen census examples of families where more than one living child had the same first name.  Most often it has been cases of each son having the father's first name but a different middle name by which they presumably were known. There's no reason why a similar thing should not happen with the female side of a family, though in this case their mother was not Elizabeth - perhaps there was an important Elizabeth elsewhere in the extended family after whom they were named.

I don't suppose it was that common for people to change their given names this significantly, but in every era there are people who, for one reason or another, wish to change their names.  I'm getting the impression that Kathleen was a feisty, spirited young woman who knew what she wanted!

Anna

[Aks]

Dear Rowley and Anna,

Thank you very much for your answers and for your invaluable comments and insights. It really helps to put this situation into perspective. I did not know that Maud(e) was a diminutive of Matilda : that's very interesting and would explain her second name.

It is indeed hard to understand how, under the circumstances, with two Elizabeth's, there could be confusion about their middle names. At least, as far as I can tell, the older Elizabeth was Elizabeth Ann in the birth records, but effectively Elizabeth G or J on at least one of the censuses. I wonder if Janath is a Welsh version of Janet.

(Now, all I need to do is to track down her even more elusive husband, Charles Frederick Froude Curtis), who may or may not have been in my indirect lineage.)

Alan