hidden-metaphor

Manx Genealogy Archive 1

Children born out of wedlock

I've noticed that sometimes the child appears at baptism to carry the mother's name and then in later records has what is probably the father's name.
Sometimes the mother and father marry.
Sometimes they don't, child remains with mother but later carries the father's name--as in a census. Is this some sort of acknowledgement by the father? or is it just a custom?
It makes it "interesting" to track some of these folks.