Surname on marriage certificate is not maiden name

[whataboutbob]

I have been researching my father's family tree (I learnt everything I need to know about my mum's from my gran who I was very close to). It's been a lot harder to know anything about Dad's, sadly now he has dementia so i can't ask him anything.
Anyway, I was surprised that on his mother's wedding certificate (marriage to his father, my paternal grandfather) , her surname is not her maiden name as per the register of births. Yet there is no evidence of a prior marriage for my grandmother, to another man bearing said surname on wedding certificate. How should this be interpreted? Thanks.

I have an elderly family member who was pregnant with one man's child when she married another man who obviously wasn't the father. It has always been an open secret, if that makes sense, so it does happen.

From my experience of family history it wasn't at all uncommon for brides to be pregnant on marriage, so it doesn't prove it one way or another, but it's a interesting theory.

Love this sort of mystery. Very frustrating, but adds a bit of spice to an otherwise boring family tree.

Taxi that sounds shocking by today's standards, I share your suspicions re the baby's father!
I think it will probably be impossible to know who the father was, it's so long ago. maybe my uncle actually knows and was told by his mum, but he hasn't shared that info with any of his siblings.
My father always was a great prude, horrified when i told him, unmarried and 35 yrs old, that I was pregnant. I think he actually expected me to be ashamed! It's like the family carried the stigma of my gran's unmarried sexuality.
Fireside it is indeed the case in this country that being pregnant and unwed was not uncommon. I have it on both sides of my family tree. My maternal gran actually changed her name by deed poll to that of the (married to someone else) father of her daughter.