Wales - middle names added not in Civil Registration entries

[SiGr]

Hi,
In researching my 19th and 20th Century Merionethshire and Denbighshire ancestors, I have come across many instances of birth registrations with just one first name but then in Census entries and all later documents a middle name appears. As most of my ancestors in Wales were 'Chapel', I have not been able to find baptism entries to see if these middle names were added shortly after birth or not. Does anybody know if this addition of a non-Civil Registration middle name was common practice in mid-Wales at those times ?
Any other thoughts/suggestions/ideas welcome.
Thanks in advance for any replies.
Simon

[Andrew Tarr]

Can you give some examples ?  Are they typical given names, or more usual surnames ?

[SiGr]

Hi, they are mostly Christian names that are added. So, for example a 'Robert Roberts ' becomes a 'Robert William Roberts'. An 'Evan Roberts' became an 'Evan William Roberts', a 'David Roberts' became 'David William Roberts', and 'William Roberts' became 'William William Roberts'. and that is just within one family but I have similar examples in the wider families. In this case they clearly had a thing for the name 'William' - possibly because it was that of their paternal grandfather - but I am speculating, of course.

[Gadget]

Many of my ancestors were from Denbighshire and Merionethshire ( and  I was from Denbighshire).  I'll have a look through my records but I'm sure second names were not always recorded on certificates; usually only an initial .

Gadget

[Gadget]

Just checked my birth registration and the index just has my second name as an initial, although my birth certificate is written in full. 

Gadget

PS - I'll check if any of my older  double named ancestors were entered like this.  Have you got an actual birth certificate of any of yours

[Gadget]

mmmmmmmm - interesting. two of my mother's elder sisters, b. 1898 and 1900 both have both of their first and second names listed in full.   Their father (1866) was registered as first name, initial. All others on the index page are in this form too

I'm thinking it might have been  instructions  from RG.

Gadget

[Jebber]

I have come across many instances of middle names being added long after registration, some at baptism and others long afterwards. Although mine were generally English.

Given that so many Welsh people share very common surnames, I think it highly likely that many of those with only one forename choose to adopt a middle name to help distinguish them from others with the same fore and surnames.

[Gadget]

None of the ones that I've just reported had a second name added after registration.

[Gadget]

Simon

I do have the Clwyd  non- conformist records. They're not complete . I think they maybe similar to the online records but if you give us some names, dates, parent names and possible places, I/we could look up possible baptisms.