Multi Surnames. Why is it so ?

[Liviani]

Perhaps my comment was not clear. It seems to me the OP is asking if there were a common tradition or practice in Scotland around this era to take different names. My answer to that is No.

Are people referred to in different records by different names on occasion? Certainly, for all the reasons given above. Was there a tradition of switching between your given name, an abbreviated form of your name, your wife's name etc? No.

So again, to answer what I think is the original question - Names can differ in records for any number of reasons, but it was not an established tradition or custom to do so.

I would agree with the comment about spelling - I used the word in a modern context. I once read a quote from the diarist John Evelyn in which he derides as a dullard anyone who cannot think of at least three ways to spell any word. The idea that there is a "correct" way to spell words is a modern concept. The problem for the genealogist is when those spellings are so eccentric as to become closer to a different name.

Apologies I think I missed your point.

What you say is true. I have a surname in my tree commonly spelt as "Cloudsley" in my tree, there is a known variation of "Cludslaw". When I first saw it, I had thought it was Eastern European until I did more research. 

Sorry if I'm derailing the OPs topic here. Back to that; I do have a feeling that Alexander McGlashan is either, someone else (not sure as no records specifically mentioned) or this is his "middle" name that he was known by in the community/by his family or it was "unofficially" added later. That's the most logical conclusion I can currently come to.

[Skoosh]

Black's "Surnames!" gives some MacGlashan's Anglicising the name to Gray?

Skoosh.

[Forfarian]

The main circumstances when you find people changing their surnames are

1. When someone born illegitimate and known by one parent's surname decides to be known by the other parent's surname.

2. When a Gaelic surname was anglicised by translation. The classic example of this is a blacksmith. The Gaelic word for a smith is gobha, and some adopted the soundalike Gow, while others went the whole hog and became Smith. Other examples might be òg becoming either Ogg/Oag or Young or dubh adopting either Dow or Black.

3. When they were known by an alias. This did occur fairly widely in the Highlands after the failed Jacobite rising in 1746, when people adopted a different surname to try to evade retribution by government agents. I have come across aliases well into the 19th century. Usually the alias is unrelated to the original surname. One example is a family who used the names MacDonald and Burgess for many decades until eventually some settled with MacDonald and a few with Burgess.

There is also Clan (Mac)Gregor, whose very surname was proscribed so that they had to take other surnames.

4. To evade the law/angry husbands, fathers or brothers/the parochial board/an employer/creditors etc etc.

5. To divest oneself of a surname one does not like.

So to answer the original question, no, it is not commonplace but yes, it happens in certain circumstances.

[Skoosh]

Another reason for adopting a by-name is living in a village where there were very few surnames, people had little use for a surname anyhow until they started the school, but the by-names stuck. 

Skoosh.

[McGroger]

One unusual instance I came across was a Hay/Hey family which moved from Yester Parish, East Lothian in the first half of the 18th century to a portion of Dull Parish south of Loch Tay. Locally they were variously called Yester/McYester/McEster/McEaster and other variants, for 2 or 3 generations, before reverting to name of Hay.

I'd been totally lost until I came across this sentence in the book, “In Famed Breadalbane”: “The Hays of Kenmore district are said to have come originally from the parish of Yester, and were therefore called ‘MacYester’, locally.”

This became an important step on the way to proving that my ancestor who married as “Elspeth McEaster” had originally been “Helen Hay”.

Peter

[Skoosh]

@ Peter, Trotter in his "Galloway Gossip!" lists the four versions used of the local names with some weird & wonderful examples.  The real name/usual name/familiarly & genteel wey. Mac Gil Wham becomes Meiklem for example & McTim becomes King. The clerks must have had a hard time of it!

Skoosh.