Middle name conundrum (Scotland)

[Vendee]

I'm doing some more research into my paternal tree. Unfortunately because my parents divorced when I was 3, I've got very little first hand information.

My grandmother was Margaret Ann Giverin nee Burns. I'm told she was known as Annie Giverin. However when I downloaded her birth entry from the Scotland's People site last week, I was surprised to see her recorded birth name as Margaret Allan Burns.

Her wedding record lists her as Annie Burns. The death entry for one of hers sons lists her as Margaret Ann Giverin. So perhaps just a transcription error on the birth record then? Well when you check for her death entry on Scotland's People, the record itself isn't available but the index lists her as Margaret Allan Giverin.

What I would love to know is.... Would Scottish Records Office have consulted her birth record and taken the Margaret Allan name from it when issuing her death certificate? I'm guessing not and I guess that Margaret Allan was her real name and she hated it so called herself Margaret Ann instead. As I said, I've got little first hand knowledge of my paternal side but I'm in email contact with a cousin (who I've never met) and she insists that out gran was always known as Margaret Ann or Annie.

Thanks.
copyright images removed

[loobylooayr]

Hi Vendee,

Your grandmother's birth record would not be looked at by the registrar when her death was registered.
Whoever registered her death has obviously known her name was Margaret Allan Burns / married name Giverin ( perhaps they had the original copy of her birth certificate?)  Therefore they have provided the correct birth name to the registrar.
Through the years , it seems your grandmother preferred to call herself Margaret Ann , or in the case of her marriage, Annie.

Looby 

[Kloumann]

Maybe she just wanted to use her mother's christian name, Annie.

[Kloumann]

On the 1901 census for Partick, she was listed as Annie, 7.

Also on the census. Arthur, 50, Annie, 48, Bridget, 22, Peter, 18, John, 10

[Kloumann]

On the 1911 census she is Margaret Ann

Peter is Thomas Peter & John is John Henery

[loobylooayr]

On the 1911 census she is Margaret Ann

   

So it seems her family have used the name Annie for her since childhood .
I wonder if her parents followed the traditional naming pattern , calling her as second daughter after her paternal grandmother, then regretted their decision!
If so there is a chance Margaret Allan could be the name of her father's mother.

Looby

Apologies- I amended this post as I made an error

[Vendee]

Thanks to everyone who replied. I think its very likely that whoever registered my grandmothers death must have had her birth certificate to hand. She seems to have lived over 80 years of her life as "Annie" and as the 1901 census shows, her own parents knew her as Annie so I'm assuming that one of her children would have registered her death and they would have know her birth name and presumably the reasons behind that.

[zetlander]

Had an Aunt Polly - never knew her by any other name - went to her funeral and was surprised to see the name Mary S**** on the Memoriam Card.

Evidently she was baptised as Mary but because another family sharing their house also had a daughter named Mary they decided to change Mary's name to Polly and Polly she became for the rest of her life.

[loobylooayr]

Had an Aunt Polly - never knew her by any other name - went to her funeral and was surprised to see the name Mary S**** on the Memoriam Card.

Evidently she was baptised as Mary but because another family sharing their house also had a daughter named Mary they decided to change Mary's name to Polly and Polly she became for the rest of her life.

 

Funnily enough, my great grandmother was called Polly....but her proper forename on her birth , marriage & death certts was Mary. My understanding is , in Scotland, Polly and Molly were interchangeable with Mary, just as Janets were often called Jessie.

Looby