More about names

First names and initials

First name is another term for forename or given name. Some people were given only one first name, such as George Smith (the son of Mr and Mrs Smith); others were given two or three, such as Elizabeth Ann Smith and Albert George Frederick Smith; and a few were registered with even more first names. Sometimes for convenience, where there a person has two or more first names, FreeBMD may refer to the first first name as the first name and any subsequent first names as middle names; they are, however, all first names or given names.

By default, and in contrast to the other names, first names are matched to names that begin with the characters given (unless “Exact match on first names” is checked).

Once again, beware of names that are wrongly spelt, particularly unusual names or names not spelt with the conventional spelling.

Middle names and initials

Where the person you are looking for has middle names, this can be a great help in narrowing down the search, but remember that the middle names might have been left out of the index, or shortened to initials.

If the person you are searching for was called David William Robert (for example), his name might appear as ‘David W R’ or perhaps ‘David W’. Searching for ‘David W’ is probably your best starting point.

Note: do not use full stops (periods in US English) after initials. FreeBMD changes ‘David W.’ to ‘David W’, so a search will not find anyone named ‘David W.’ or similar.

Exact match on first names

If this box is checked the search for the First Name is done on the letters as typed. Otherwise, the search is done as if you typed a * (an asterisk or ‘star’) after the characters.