Hi, I think we have two issues here, one is names which really are alternative names, such as John for the Gaelic Iain, or Hugh for Ewan. The other issue related more to official records keeping. Since much of our information is from census returns, we are dependent on what the census taker wrote down. English census takers were dealing with Gaelic speakers. In this day and age, we are also dependent on the ability of transcribers to read the script from the old censuses. I have two children just entering university and I have come to realize that they cannot read cursive handwriting with any ease. Many of my ancestors came to Canada in the 1800's and, while available Scottish censuses show Donald, Canadian censuses show Don'l which seems some time to have been picked up as a short form of Daniel. I would not look for any deep meaning where Donald has been replaced with any other name. Having said that, I am still wondering why my great uncle put his mothers name down as Helen Cameron on his marriage certificate, as opposed to Helen McPhee as she was known legally. Cheers, Margaret in Toronto