Maiden name

A "maiden name" is the family name carried by a woman before any of her marriages. A maiden name may be indicated using the word "née" (pronounced as either "nay" or "nee"), from the French for "born", hence Margaret Hilda Thatcher née Roberts.

Use of maiden names in genealogy

Most genealogists prefer to refer to a mother by her maiden name when they are constructing a pedigree, whether in chart form such as a family tree or in some written form. This convention is used because it is a concise way of presenting genealogical information. Thus they would write (or show on a pedigree chart) a child as e.g. the son of John Smith and Mary Brown.

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However, some novices might describe the child as eg the son of John Smith and Mary Smith or perhaps as the son of John Smith and Mary Smith née Brown.

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