Why do people use aliases

In some states, companies face civil or criminal penalties for non-compliance with assumed name laws. An entity may have difficulty filing a lawsuit for business conducted under the assumed name if the assumed name is not registered. Beyond legal implications, many banks require proof of assumed name registration if a company wants to open an account and receive checks made out to the assumed name.

As you can see, there are many good reasons for a company to want to use an assumed name — and many good reasons to ensure registrations and renewals are handled correctly. This article is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered, or relied upon, as legal advice.

P: Place An Order Pay Invoice. State Level Registration When forming or registering to do business, entities register their names with the appropriate state filing office. While states will often accept a scanned form, the states where a county filing is mandated require original signatures, meaning more time and trouble involved gathering those required signatures for submission.

Getting the correct form. Each county is likely to have its own specific form. As town and county websites are often less sophisticated than those at the state level, it can be challenging to even obtain the form needed to register. Some California counties, for example, used to accept a generic form but those days are long gone. Other requirements possible. For example, there are publication requirements on initial fictitious name filings in California, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Nebraska and Pennsylvania.

Multiple filings may be needed. In certain states, multiple filings may be required depending on the number of business locations. In Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nevada and Virginia, an entity should file its assumed name in every town or county where it is used.

Other states, like Texas and California, only require that the entity file in the location of its principal office in the state. If the entity does not have a principal office in Texas, the address of the registered agent is used. The background screening process relies on accurate identifiers, which include name and date of birth, to produce accurate and comprehensive reports.

But without considering and searching these name variations, records vital to your hiring decision may slip through the cracks. An alias can be any name used in place of a birth name. While it is against the law in many states to use a false name when arrested, some can slip through.

Some individuals living in the US with difficult to pronounce names often take on an alias. Others feel it shields them from undue racism when applying for jobs and the like. A great majority of people use a shortened version of their birth name, which can also complicate a background check.

Those that use Katie instead of Catherine, Jim instead of James, or Bob instead of Robert, may not be found under one name but perhaps both. Spelling, however, was fluid, and most frequently records were in Latin. By the mid's, the practice of using aliases had diminished to the point of obsolescence, except in the criminal classes, and as noted in the definition first given, court cases where it was paramount to identify an individual.

As for forenames, persons were often given the fore-names of their godparents. In the 's when five Erisey daughters in one generation were baptised, four of whom were given the name of one godmother.

Many families gave multiple children in the same generation the same, or almost the same, forename For instance, Marianne Symons, Mary Ann Symons, Mary Anne Symons, and Mary Symons were all baptised circa , born to the same parents.

Only one died in childhood. During the early 's, it became fashionable to give the paternal grandmother's name as a second given name. It can greatly benefit a researcher when a family used that name for several generations, as was frequently done.

Often these names reflect two or more of the above factors, which become additional bonuses. The maternal grandmother's maiden name was also used in this manner, but less frequently. It is always worthwhile to investigate "middle names" as possible maiden names for a mother or grandmother. In all these cases, use was made of the names to distinguish a particular line, or family, from another, and to tie the family to the maternal line as well.

It always benefits a researcher to keep in mind that names found in the census which don't agree with baptismal records are not necessarily a mistake - they could reflect an alias. As Jim Thompson, a Cornish genealogist, has said "These aliases or nicknames can often help with genealogy, or more often defy attempts to figure them out until more research is done.

The Katie bit was self-evident, and later the old bit was logical as she lived to be , but Clinch was a mystery until I obtained some old large-scale maps and some help from a person well acquainted with the area. She was born at Polmanter, according to all family lore, but there on the map near Polmanter was a tiny lost hamlet of "Rough and Clinch".

When I did finally get her birth certificate, her birthplace was listed as "Clinch". While the use of aliases may seem to be a plot to discourage genealogists of future generations, it can be a fascinating, if not perplexing, topic for all genealogists to study.

Memories Overview Gallery People Find. Sign in Create Account.