Thursday 9 April 2015

Learn the Lingo - Alias

Alias

The term alias is used when an individual used more than one name. Most commonly, this will be found in criminal records - for example 'John Smith alias George Jones was found guilty of...' This is because people in trouble with the law often changed their names to avoid their pasts and evade detection.

The second most common use of an alias is in the case of illegitimacy. Where a child was born outside marriage, they may be known by both their father and their mother's last name, for example 'John Jones alias Evans,' this can also happen in the case of fostering, informal adoption, or remarriage of one of the child's parents. 

There are of course also many individually unique reasons why someone may be known by more than one name.

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