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A maiden name is a woman\u2019s surname before she is married, usually the family name of her parents and the name registered at her birth<\/a>. The term is typically only used for women who also have a married name.<\/p>\n Banks and other institutions used to commonly use a customer\u2019s mother\u2019s maiden name as an additional security question but this practise is not recommended now that information like this is so easy to obtain.<\/p>\n Marriage certificates<\/a> for England and Wales do not necessarily include a woman\u2019s maiden name. The bride supplies her name at the time of marriage, but this will only be her maiden name if it is her first marriage. If it is her second or later marriage, then she should supply her previous married name. You may be able to work out what her maiden name is by the surname of her father which is usually supplied, unless the father was unknown. Sometimes the father on a marriage certificate will be a stepfather and in which case he will not have the same surname as the bride\u2019s maiden name.<\/p>\n In Scotland, the bride usually supplies her maiden name even if she was previously married. Scottish marriage certificates also include the maiden surname of both the groom\u2019s and the bride\u2019s mother. In Scottish records<\/a> many married women continue to be recorded by their maiden name.<\/p>\n Birth certificates for all of the UK include the mother\u2019s maiden name. In the printed indexes that are used by most subscription websites to create their birth indexes, the mother\u2019s maiden name is not included until 1911. However, the GRO has an index on its website<\/a> for English and Welsh births that includes mother\u2019s maiden name back to 1837.<\/p>\n