We must also consider that, just as there are today there were people who had lost their grip. Also, apart from 1911, we really don't know who filled in the original form. I have an instance of a very respectable family, parents married for 30 years or more but everyone in the household has the wife's maiden surname on the 1861 census. From other records I know that they did not use that surname. What I think happened was that the enumerator called, had a nice cup of tea and a chat, then went home and transferred the census information, couldn't remember the wife's married name but knew she and her husband and children lived in what was HER parent's house. After all, what did it matter, the census information was never going to be seen by anyone other than the number crunchers.
OC
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