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Re some points that have been raised.
Just about the only time you can't call your vhild whatever you like is when you're registering their birth. You are restricted in the surname to using the mother's current name, unless the father is present, when you can use his surname too (but you do get both). Regarding forenames, the registrar general of New Zealand complained he had very little power to disallow names. He could refuse names that would cause offense to a reasonable person, that are more than 100 charcters or that include titles, military ranks, punctuation or numerals. Names rejected by the office included Fish and Chips, Yeah Detroit, Stallion, Keenan Got Lucy, and Sex Fruit. He got interviwed following a custody battle between a NZ couple in Sydney, NSW, where the judge placed their daughter Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii in the guardianship of the court until she was renamed.
[Vancouver Sun article 25/7/2008 p A8]
There are also significant differences in registration requirements between England and Scotland. In Scotland, birth registration was always compulsory. I have seen estimates somewhere that there was a non-compliance rate of up to 25% in 1855q1, but this soon fell, and was essentially complete within a couple of years. On the otherhand, registering a marriage was not required. In England, for a legal marriage, the registrar or an approved priest or rabbi would officiate, so this wasn't really a problem. However, in Scotland, this was only the case in so-called regular marriages. In an irregular marriage, anyone (or even nobody) would officiate, so long as the forms were observed (the classic example is the blacksmith's weddings ar Gretna Green). Also, marriage by cohabitation and repute (what would be called a common-law marriage in England) was a legal way to contract matrimony in Scotland.
The former ceased to be legal 1929ish and the latter 2006. Registration rates for irregular marriages were generally thought to be very low.
There is an example of a Scottish marriage register page at:
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?r=554&403
Had you ever wondered about (or even noticed) the heading for the penultimate column?
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Thanks mgnv,
I had noticed the column where generally the minister etc places his details, I am assuming this is what you are referring to? I realise people lived together then as they do now, I just thought when it came to official papers etc they would use names of a marriage or birth. I am aware of irregular marriages in Scotland's history, however not coming from that country myself I am reluctant to make judgements just based on what I have read in books about the subject, I would rather ask and see what the general feeling from other's experiences have been.
Sorry I am a bit unclear on what you are pointing out with the first name? I didn't have a query with a given name, only a surname, and I think Evie sorted it out and headed me in the right direction.
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