Legal name change ?

[trish58]

Hello team

I have another question for your experts please,.

My family changed their name way back between 1840- 1870's from O'Raw to Raw then to Rae, I do know that it was Raw when Gr Gr Grandad married 1840, then became Rae in early 1870/2, this is clear from certificates that I have.

My question is, did this have to be done in a legal way ? or could they change their name on a whim??
If it had to be done legally where would I find this information ?

Thanks again
Trish

[Russell]

Hi Trish

In Scotland you can be who you want to be without any legal processes having to be carried out - provided that you do not harm or put at risk someone else's identity.

The name changes you describe are extremely common in Scotland for a variety of reasons.
Although English was supposed to be the common tongue, regional dialects meant that an incomer to a district might have his/her name recorded with a different spelling.
Irish immigrants often had very strong accents and a census enumerator would record what he thought he heard as their name but, not knowing how they chose to spell it, would write down a different name altogether.
In earlier years many Scots spoke the gaelic but birth, marriage and census records had to be in English so the Registrar would have to Anglicise the name they gave in order to record it. A good example of this is the Colonsay name of McGilvra. Since there is no 'y' in gaelic it was anglicised to McGilvray. On Mull the same name became McGillveray or some other spelling.
Some Irish families deliberately changed their name to sound more Scottish and your Rae name is probably an example of this. Sometimes it is possible to trace the movements of your ancestors through the name changes as they moved from their first landing off the ferry at Stranraer or another point on the Ayrshire coast. Then moved up country to Paisley or Glasgow.
Just remember there were no standard spellings of any place or family names until the formal, official Registration process was established in 1855, and it took years to settle on agreed forms of name.

It makes for interesting searches.

Russell

[trish58]

Hi Russell

Thanks for your response.

The explanation you give is the same as came down through the generations of our family, this being that Gr Gr Grandad Richard thought the "O'Raw" sounded to Irish and dropped the O, he must have thought the same about the Raw much later when he finally dropped the Raw, & yes it made for very interesting research finding half of his 14 children named Raw, the other half Rae.

Thanks again for your reply

Trish