Gender and legitimacy of birth have been held to be quasi-suspect classes.

Limpieza de sangre and legitimacy of birth had to be proven to take the veil.

This marked a break with older traditions, when the question of legitimacy of birth was not of consequence in inheriting the kingdom.

Legitimacy of birth was essential; hence the care in the keeping of the genealogical records and the distrust of one whose mother had been captured in war.

Strictly speaking, marriage does not contribute directly to population change, but, because of its association with the legitimacy of births in most countries, marriage rates have been of some interest.

The Family Law Reform Act 1959, and the Legitimacy Act 1959 are of significance in considerations of legitimacy of birth which might arise.

It was also under Haakon Haakonsson, himself the illegitimate son of king Haakon Sverresson, that legitimacy of birth became a factor in the line of succession.

It is sometimes supposed that Levana was invoked in a ceremony by which the father lifted the child to acknowledge it as his own, but the existence of such a ceremony is based on tenuous evidence and contradicted by Roman law pertaining to legitimacy of birth.