At the time of a birth or death registration the person themselves does not speak their name for the record. However, for a marriage the wedding couple are providing their own names to be written down. The front of the paper shows the groom and bride were John Dwyer and Alice Webb. The condition of the certificate suggests that it was carried around for a long time, which perhaps indicates the personal value of the document or the relationship it documented.
He was born in 1875 in Upper Glanmire Road, City of Cork, Ireland, baptised the next day in St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Lower Glanmire Road and then the civil registration took place two weeks later. Both the church register of baptisms and the copy of the civil registrar's book of births have clear handwriting and both show the name John James.
She, on the other hand, was born in late 1881 in an area of Hampshire in England which is now absorbed into Southampton. As a baby she was registered as Mary Alice but baptised as Alice Mary then later recorded as either Alice, Alice M or Alice Mary on census records and in a newspaper report I've seen as well as for her marriage certificate and death registration.
Also passed down to me in the same bundle is a cemetery receipt for £2 15s. It too is very well worn although not to the same extent as the marriage certificate. I have visited the couple's shared grave and seen their family headstone, initially for him and subsequently also for her after the second burial seven years later. The text reads "In Loving Memory Of My Beloved Husband John Dwyer ... Also Alice Mary Wife Of The Above John Dwyer ...".
Since the bride's surname changed when they married, one might summarise by saying that she began life as Mary Alice Webb and ended as Alice Mary Dwyer. She is not the only one amongst her many siblings whose name evolved over the years, which has made tracing this family across the decades an absorbing challenge. But that's what it's all about.