Hi Rose, In my wife's family we had two very similar occurances. Her great grandmother's birth was registered as Harriett Harvey. She appeared in the 1851 census under that name, but shortly after was baptised with the name charlotte, and she remained Charlotte for the rest of her life. The other occurance was with Charlotte's son. In the 1881 Census, Ernest John albray was just 5 days old. Thankfully for me, the unusual surname of Albray made it easier to find his birth was registered as Percy Douglas Albray, and a baptism record later that year showed it was the same child. You could well find that his birth was registered under a different name to what you expect. I also remember a similar query on another list not so long ago, and the outcome was that the birth index simply showed "Male", and no forename at all, but the date of birth matched that of the child in question, as did the parents names. So don't give up hope yet, the answer could be there, but just not how you are expecting to find it. Kindest regards, Jon