Can we alter how we enter middle names, esp for women after marriage?

Question

Many women (my late mother, my aunt, my sisters, myself and my daughters included) have chosen to alter their names after marriage to substitute their maiden name for their middle name, instead of hyphenating the name.  They don't necessarily wish to be rid of their middle name (except my mother, who hated hers), but it is no longer part of their legal name due to the length.  Both versions of the name are important for tracking the correct individual when doing research.  However, there is no way to account for this in the name entries.  Would it be possible to find a way to include this?

Comments

Which country or culture?

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United States, Anglo.

Also, it's not so much that the woman chooses to use her maiden surname, it's that the government does it deliberately after she reaches a certain age.

Answer 1

There was recently a discussion on middle names here in the Forum. I can't locate it at the moment. In the case that you mention, however, that discussion would not matter.

I don't think it matters that a female takes her maiden name as her middle name when she marries. She still had a first name, middle name and last name (LNAB) when she was born and those names should go in the appropriate boxes. Her married name goes in the appropriate box for it. These names all have a place when doing a search and one or the other can be removed in the search criteria when searching for sources.

Comments

For the record that discussion was here, but Virginia is right that it was of limited relevance to the present question.