This is a concern of many genealogists. If you take his line of action be sure you can remember "your mother's maiden name" when asked again! Some ask instead where you were born, also readily available information. The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2003 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.RootsForum.com. - The Security of Your Mother’s Maiden Name This article is an updated version (with minor changes) of an article I published some months ago. The topic of "keeping your mother's maiden name secret" keeps reappearing all the time so this article still seems to be timely. I see frequent articles bemoaning the fact that genealogy information on the Web sometimes includes the maiden name of a living person’s mother. These articles are usually accompanied by great hue and cry that this is a security risk because this piece of information is often used for security reasons. These same articles often suggest that ancestral information should not be placed on the Web because of "security issues." That's dumb! From where I sit, this is a perfect example of backwards thinking! Any institution that uses the mother's maiden name "for security purposes" is really behind the times and needs to quickly hire a security expert. Even novice security managers would immediately change that policy. In the United States and many other countries, mothers’ maiden names and other personal information have always been available from numerous public sources. This information has always been in the public domain. The invention of the Internet did not really change anything. A mother’s maiden name could easily be discovered fifty years ago, and the same is still true today. Any corporation that uses a mother’s maiden name for security purposes obviously doesn’t know much about security. I usually refuse to do business with companies that insist upon using my mother’s maiden name as a security identifier. I don’t want to do business with any company with a lame security policy. I advise you to do the same: boycott companies that have inadequate security policies. However, if you really want to do business with a company that has a policy of using your mother’s maiden name for security purposes, please remember that you can always create a fictitious name on the spot. I did open a bank account some years ago and the bank clerk smiled when she asked for my mother's maiden name "for security purposes." She did blink a couple of times when I replied, "Fudpucker," but she wrote that name in the blank on the application form and didn't say anything. Nobody will ever find that name on a genealogy Web site of mine! There is no legal requirement to supply the correct maiden name, and the bank or other corporation really doesn’t care what name you give them. All they want is something to enter in the blank space on their form – a name that you can remember when they ask. I use "Fudpucker" because it is a name I can remember and also because I find it amusing. However, you can use any name you wish. My recommendation is that you never, ever supply your mother's correct maiden name. By using a fictitious name, your security will not be compromised by a Web site or by a criminal’s surreptitious visit to the state Vital Records Department. If an elected official or other bureaucrat ever tries to limit access to vital records, please feel free to send them a copy of this article. Tell them it’s time to wake up and look at the real issues, and to stop trying to protect a maiden name policy that is ludicrous to begin with. Then vote against the politician in the next election. You don’t want a backwards mentality like that in public office! If you send a damned fool to Washington, and you don’t tell them he’s a damned fool, they’ll never find out. -- Mark Twain, 1883 A smarter politician would sponsor a bill to make it illegal for a financial institution to use a mother’s maiden name or any other piece of public domain information for security purposes. But, then again, when did you ever see a smarter politician?