A maiden name is the family name that a woman carries before she is married.  Some people may refer to the name as a “birth name.”  “Birth name” may be used for a man who changes his name upon marriage.  In most instances, however, maiden names refer to the birth names of woman only.

• Instant Maiden Name Lookup! Detailed report contains: Prior Last Names, Address History (both current and previous addresses) Reverse Phone Lookup, and possible Aliases.
• Access Billions of Public Records Instantly!

Instant Criminal Records      Background Check      Instant People Search      Reverse Phone Search

Traditionally, U.S. woman assume their husband’s surname, or last name, after marriage.  This is never legally required in most states.  Children tend to take their father’s surname once they are born, so that the mother’s maiden name is not used by her descendents.  In some circumstances, couples have chosen to hyphenate the last names of children if the mother and the father have two different surnames.  By naming children with their father’s surname, this means that the female children will inherit their surname from their father and then change it to match her husband’s surname when they are married. 

Some women may also use these last names interchangeably.  This may make it somewhat difficult to determine if a person has an “alias” or is just using their maiden name.  For example, many women have chosen to use their maiden names professionally, while they use their married name socially.  If you are performing a maiden name search, it may be difficult to ascertain if this is the case. 

Changing a maiden name to a married name has been expedited in most circumstances and usually only requires that the woman change her name on her Social Security Card.  A combination of state identification, the old Social Security Card and the marriage certificate is often enough evidence of marriage in order to change the name.  This does require that a woman contact credit cards, utility companies and other organizations to alert them of the name change.  Because this is somewhat of a hassle, there may be instances where it is easier for a woman to keep using her maiden name, such as if she is attending college and it is difficult to change several records, etc.  This means that a woman may be identified as two separate names on certain public records because she chose not to change her name in certain areas of her life. 

Another situation where a woman may choose to not change her name is if she is nationally recognized by her maiden name.  For example, many celebrities choose to keep their maiden name because they are widely associated and recognized by it.  The same is true for woman who would prefer to not have their pre-marriage work disassociated from them.  If they have had a rather important academic career or professional career, they may choose to keep their maiden name.

Many genealogists will refer to women, particularly their mothers, by their maiden name when they are constructing family trees and family pedigrees.  This is because it is a precise way to present this type of genealogical information.  When performing people searches, background checks and other public records searches it is wise to know a woman’s maiden name first.  A simple maiden name search can provide you with this information.