Why do they add extra names?

[zetlander]

'Aunt Mary' - registered and baptised as Mary was 'renamed' Polly as a child because there were a number of 'Mary's' in the household.
So she became Aunt Polly and signed all letters/documents as Polly Mary ......

[Treetotal]

My Grandma was always known as Margaret Ann, her Sister called her Annie and my Grandad called her "Peg". When I eventually got hold of her birth certificate, her name was Marguerite Ann.

My Mother went by the name of Kathleen Rose and always signed as Mrs. K. R. Followed by her married name. Most people called her Kath or Kay. Years later when I got her birth certificate, she was Rosie Kathleen.

Carol

[JAKnighton]

I see other researchers doing this a lot once they get to the pre-civil registration era and beyond. Parish registers are much more 'fragmented' when it comes to online research, not one single website has all of them and what they do have may not be fully covered.

So an inexperienced researcher might search for their 'John Smith' born 1750 in Hartford near Huntingdon and only get a 'Thomas Smith' born 1750 in Hartford. Instead of making the correct assumption that this is not their man, they believe that this is the same man going by a different name and therefore they combine these two men into 'John Thomas Smith'.