A blog post for a University of Victoria English class, citing birth and baptism registries, suggests that her given name was Catherine not Caroline, and asserts the use of the latter rests on a mistake made by Mrs. MacArthur, a relative, who supplied the biography used in The Scottish Minstrel and relied upon by subsequent biographers. Richardson's published work was anonymous, initialled (C.E.R.; C.E.; or R.), or as Mrs. G. G. Richardson. Scottish Women Poets - Mrs. G. G. Richardson (1777-1853). The ODNB concurs in its use of Catherine.