How To Find Someone By Their Maiden Name | Birth Name

Last Updated on August 30, 2021

So are you looking to find someone by their maiden name or birth name? Say a long lost friend, classmate or someone from your past of present? No matter the reason this article will help you learn to search by maiden name and you are trying to lookup.

Quick note: if you don’t have the maiden name at hand and are actually trying to get hold of it, please read more it here > maiden name search.

What is your reason for the people search by maiden name?

There are many reasons why you would be looking to find this person and the different reasons call for a different approach. In this article we will make a few assumptions even though they might not be exhaustive.

You may be trying to do a reverse people searches to find a physical address, email address, social media profile or any other piece of information that will help you get in touch. It might be you are even looking to do a  free phone number lookup, still this article will be helpful to you.

Tip: In order for your maiden name search to be successful I suggest you source as much information as you remember about the person.

This Include her age (it would be awesome if you know the exact date of birth because you can search by maiden name and age), previous address, last known details e.g. school, place of work etc. It will even be better if you know their marriage surname but if not don’t worry too much about it.

Use Social Networks to find Person by Alternative Name

I will start with the obvious yet lesser known method. Did you know that social media (people search free) sites like Facebook allow married women to input their maiden name for this very reason? They basically want to make it easy for anyone to find their long lost friends and relatives who may be using a different surname. There is a whole tutorial developed by Facebook to show how to add an alternative name or maiden name on a profile.

Facebook maiden names

A significantly large number of people use social networks especially Facebook. This means you can search by maiden name on Facebook and chances of finding your friend on the site are high. Simply sign on to Facebook and enter their name and maiden name on the search bar.

It would be a really good idea to also enter their current name as well. This way the results will show you the exact person you are looking for –  instead of a list of people with the maiden name.

Depending on how generic the name and surname of the person is, you will possibly have to go through a number of results verifying if it is indeed the person you are looking for. Below is a cautionary note to users by Facebook;

“Keep in mind, if you don’t check the box to have your other name listed at the top of your profile, it’ll still be visible in the About section of your profile and in search results” – Facebook.com

You can learn more about facebook people search.

Linkedin Maiden Names

Another site you can use is Linkedin. It also has the feature that allows for the listing of a former or maiden name on a users’ profile.  So login to the site and do a search as you have on Facebook to see it no results will be returned.

While these two are the best I know and recommend, you can also try out more social network like Instagram, Pinterest (more and more women are falling in love with this site) and others that are gaining popularity as you read this article.

The only challenge to this type of search is that the user is allowed to set some restrictions on who can see the birth or former name. See below a screen show from LinkedIn Help center.

This means the best option is to look up all the people with the name and trying to connect with them. It’s even better if you know the last name because that will make your job much easier.

There is also a special cautionary word from LinkedIn’

“Public profiles don’t display the Former/Maiden Name field, so searches done with search engines like Google or Yahoo! using this information will not yield any results.” – Linkedin.com

This basically means you have to be inside LinkedIn to access this feature and to be able to find people by maiden name on this site.

Use Public Records – Birth or Marriage records (marriage certificate or license)

Public records can be accessed by anyone online or offline (in each state, county or local government level). These are usually free to access but can pay a fee to a website that collects them and make them conveniently available at a click of a button. These are helpful in the case where you don’t know the person’s current last name.

The three records you might wish to use are marriage records to find a marriage certificate, a marriage license or birth records to find the parents.

Marriage certificate

Typically a marriage certificate will list the spouse’s name and some other details you can use to track the person down. So if you don’t know the marriage name or now used last name, the marriage certificate is your best bet.

Also use it to try and locate the husband, who knows maybe they are easier to access than the actual person you are looking for. As well, now that you know the person’s last name, you can use the very same social networks and other ideas on totally free people search to find them.

Birth certificate

The birth certificate will list parents of the person you are trying to find, which means you can then try to locate these ones to see if they can help you locate your person of interest.

Tip: You can also check divorce records because a maiden name is usually restored in a divorce.

Ideally you can do this by going to the country court where the person changed their name or where they were possibly issued the certificate(s). The department of vital statistics or records in the state may be able to help.

Please note that not all states will readily give this information away, however you can now access public records via websites online. I have a full guide on how to use public records to find people. Here you will be able to find the best websites I recommend and pro tips.

Other recommended ways to find someone by their birth name

You can also check out alumni websites and genealogy sites where they will list people with their current surnames and then add the maiden one as “Nee”.

Some of the best recommended sites include Acenstry.com, Familysearch.org, classmates.com, searchbug, IDTrue and FindMyPast.com.  If all fails maybe you can consider creating a Craig’s list ad with a title that says “Looking for [name of friend]” and then provide your contact details. You may never know this could just work. Also see how to find someone free of charge for more ideas.

We also recommend free white pages

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