An ancestor having the last laugh...

[Geordie daughter]

Jomot, your story brings to mind a friend's family: there were twins named Daisy Mary and Lily Martha, and both opted to use their rather plain second names, which seems a shame! If I'm right in my guess, your sister's name is a variation on Margaret, derived from the French Marguerite.

Maureen, I went off to see where Mason's Place was, and it's just off the City Road at the junction of what is today Moreland Street (Charles Street in the 1870s) with Central Street.

[Rena]

I've got more than one branch of my family tree that had a tradition of giving their children more than one name - usually the first name was the child's name and the middle one or two names were either historic or had some other connection. 
One family didn't have this custom and led me a merry dance. He was always "William" on the census until he grew old enough to fill in his own census form when he called himself "Henry".  That's when I learned of the custom in that line - the child's name was the one nearest the surname - the other forenames being donated by godparents/sponsors. These people were mostly family or one would be someone of esteem in the community and presumably who the parents hoped would give the baby a job when it grew old enough. 

[bibliotaphist]

That's the fun part - I've never been able to locate a baptism for any of the children, who were born between 1825 and 1834, nor their parents' marriage. Hannah came from Newport Pagnell originally, and after Charles's/James's death, married a James Goddard (in 1851). Alfred and Charles were in their late teens around the time when their dad died so I doubt it would have been a case of confusing the stepfather's name with their father's name.

I've often dealt with friends' family trees where they've switched Christian names around or added in new ones, but this is a first for my lot!

Don't be too quick to rule this out. I have seen several instances where the correct surname is used, but the stepfather's first name. I have never been sure if it was the bride or groom mixing it up, or the minister or clerk making assumptions.

Me too. I have several of these. I can imagine a situation where the minister asks "What is/was your father's name" and the bride or groom replies with just the first name of their stepfather - this gets written down with the 'natural' surname added without checking the assumption. I wasted a bit of time looking for Peter Corr when really the mother's two husbands were Felix Corr + Peter McDonald.

[Geordie daughter]

Don't ancestors just love to give us the run-around? I helped my neighbour trace his tree recently as his dad died when he was about 5, and he desperately wanted to know more about the family. We had a devil of a job with his grandfather who was called Thomas in most of the paperwork we found, but it turns out he was registered at birth as JOHN Thomas. What helped to confirm this was him being referred to as "Mr J.T." at his wife's funeral.

Pstainsthorp: it's even more fun when the bride or groom are illegitimate and tell porkies about who their father is.

[Chilternbirder]

Not just the earlier generations. My mother's family were very keen on using middle names. I only discovered that her eldest sister was Alice Doreen when filling out the collateral lines on my tree and my mother had totally forgotten that her youngest sister was Mary Patricia. Her father was always called by his middle name and from his army and later records don't think that he knew his "correct" name until after his discharge from the army in 1922. My aunt even put his name on my grandmother's death certificate the wrong way round.

[Geordie daughter]

What's also frustrating is when they have an unusual middle name that would make them much easier to find in searches when they have fairly common first and last names, but never use it!

[pinefamily]

What's also frustrating is when they have an unusual middle name that would make them much easier to find in searches when they have fairly common first and last names, but never use it!

Or go and use a different, more common middle name instead.

[Tricia_2]

Yes, I have had to deal with this problem on a number of lines where second names, confirmation names, nicknames, etc etc have been used.  So confusing

[Gillg]

My gt-gt-grandmother Thomasin was born illegitimately to Elizabeth Lawson, who later married a Richard Voss.  Thomasin's baptism entry shows her surname clearly as Lawson, as does her parish register marriage entry, but after her mother's marriage I think she must have taken on her stepfather's surname.  One of Thomasin's children, Naomi, emigrated to Australia, and on Naomi's (Australian) death certificate her mother's surname is given as Voss. It would seem that Naomi's family only knew of the Voss surname and not of Thomasin's true surname, Lawson.  Thus was a myth created which led several of us family researchers astray for a while.

Incidentally my family is one of those annoying ones referred to earlier who gave children two forenames and then called them by the second name - I'm one of those who has suffered from this practice and am still annoyed to be called by those who only know me from documents by my truly awful first name!