Given names..Change?

[Pat Byrne]

Hi all,
As you maybe aware,i am tracing my Dublin families and i seem to come across a little puzzle with the female side.
Was it a common thing for the wife to change there given name from birth to a different name,
i have come across this a few times where the wifes were called Catherine at birth but when they have married and have children have changed it to Mary.
They then seem to have reverted back to the birth name in later years and on the death certificates.
Could someone in the know shine a light on this,was it a common thing or a reason behind it all.
Thanks,
Pat

[Taidquest]

Hi Pat,I  have seen this with my own family.
My grandmother married as lillie and also
used this on the birth cert' of at least her first child.
She was also called this name by my grandad
but as informant on g'dads' death cert she becomes Mary
and also on her own death cert' and her gravestone,
I'm not sure it was just the women though,my
grandad was known as George  though on official
papers his name is Edward.Two of my own family
are known by a second given name too but on official
papers have the correct first name,I'm still trying to
figure out how my gran' got away with using the wrong
first name on official documents.
                                                          Anne

[Pat Byrne]

Hi Anne
it just puzzles me why this happens ,an ideal example is on the civil marriage cert it says Timothy Shea married Catherine Sullivan but on the parish record it has her name down as Mary Sullivan
so this does not make it any easier
Pat   

[Taidquest]

Hi Pat, I'm not sure why the name should change within
 documents for the same event unless the correct name was
discovered when being registered but she'd already signed
with the incorrect name and as her signature makes it a legal document....?
                                                              Anne