Name Changes Records People's names were changed for a variety of reasons. Sometimes there was a simple change in spelling, as in Whitefield to Whitfield. A divorced woman may have taken her maiden name again. (I have found in the early div records of KY that the women were given back their maiden names and were instructed that the children of that union ALSO use the mothers maiden name. Jd) A child's name may have been changed upon adoption. A spelling error or name change may have occurred when a person came into the new country. Other times, people changed their names in order to assume a new identity. While name changes were not always done with the benefit of the legal process, you may sometimes find records in the county in which your ancestors lived documenting a legal name change. If you run against a dead end in locating an ancestor, don't overlook the chance that there may have been a name change.