Hi Meg,That middle surname is often the name of a relative or of a town worthy.  In my family, for instance, I had an Elizabeth McDonald Irvine in the family tree.  I couldn't find any McDonald's in the tree so far and then I discovered that the grandmother's sister named Elizabeth Murchland had married a McDonald.  She must have been a well loved great aunt.  One I'm working on now is Henriette Taylor Anderson.  I can't find the Taylor anywhere. Elizabeth Message: 3 Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 01:58:51 -0600 From: "Meg Greenwood {scotquester@bartnet.net}"     <scotquester@bartnet.net> Subject: [AYR] 1855 Births Mauchline, list of names from filmed     Registrations To: List - Scotland - Ayrshire <AYRSHIRE@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <548FE63B.7060904@bartnet.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed List of children born in Mauchline, 1855 are listed below, request information on any of interest.... Some have what looks like DOUBLE SURNAMES.  These are confusing names to read, some of them have the mother's maiden surname for the 2nd name, others have a 2nd 'surname' for seemingly no reason, that surname is not on their Register entry anywhere.  Since I am capitalizing the surnames in the list below, its been difficult to figure out how to write the names.  It seems unusual to think of "Halliday Mary" as a given name and the child's surname be HADDOW.  I have therefore CAPITALIZED what seems to be the surnames and not the more recognizeable given names like Mary, Robert, Jane and James.  Some surnames were written with obvious hyphens between them making a DUAL-SURNAME. If someone can explain the naming patterns here, please write with an explanation, I am pretty confused and can't really tell the correct SURNAME the child has. This is not happening because of illegitimate births being recorded and many times, its not the mother's maiden surname.  Meg Greenwood / Oklahoma USA ALEXANDER, Hugh ALLAN, John BALLANTINE, James BROWN, Elizabeth Merry BROWN, James BROWNLIE, Margaret BRYSON, Matthew CAMPBELL, Anne [posted to Ayr List] CLARK, John COOK, Helen CROMBIE, Margaret CUNNINGHAM BELL, Daniel CUNNINGHAM NIEL Matthew CUNNINGHAM, Robert DRUMMOND, James DUNNING DUNLOP Frances FAIRLIE, Marion GIBSON-GAUDIE, Robert GIBSON-DICKIE, John HAMILTON, Elizabeth HADDOW HALLIDAY, Mary HYSLOP, Jean JAMESON MURDOCH, James KILLEN, James KILGOUR CONNEL, Jane KIRKLAND, James LAMBIE, Elizabeth LAMBIE BLACK, Daniel LAMBIE, Margaret LAMBIE, Mary LAMBIE, Mary [not same as above] LOYAN, William LYELL, David McCOLL, Thomas McLAREN, Thomas McMILLAN, Margaret McALPINE HUNTER, Jean McMILLAN, John McKAY, Andrew McClymont McCLYMONT, Ann MARSHALL, Alexander MARSHALL, Elizabeth MUIR, Margaret MUNN,Margaret MURDOCH BLAIR, Janet MILTON, Agnes MITCHELL CAMPBELL, Lillias NAVIN, Mary NISBET, Robert NISBET, Robert [not same as above] PEARSON, Christina RAMSAY ANDERSON, Margaret REID-SMITH, Janet REID, Janet RICHMOND WYLLIE, Janet SHARCOTT, Helen Witherington McCall SHARP, William SILLAR, William SMITH, Elizabeth McCulloch SMITH CAMPBELL, Mary SMITH WHITE, James SMITH, John TAIT, Hugh TRAIN, Adam VALLENTINE, Jean WADDLE, Agnes WATHER, Isabella WILSON, Agnes WILSON, Jean WILSON, William WYLLIE RICHMOND JAMIESON, James ===================================== ------------------------------ To contact the AYRSHIRE list administrator, send an email to AYRSHIRE-admin@rootsweb.com. To post a message to the AYRSHIRE mailing list, send an email to AYRSHIRE@rootsweb.com. __________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to AYRSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word "unsubscribe" without the quotes in the subject and the body of the email with no additional text. End of AYRSHIRE Digest, Vol 9, Issue 244 ****************************************