Female nicknames

[ElizabethHerts]

This is interesting:

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/England_Female_Nicknames_(National_Institute)?fbcl id=IwAR3PSw4L_t3kT2sjPWxPujNSCnVS5tpUaeyoT03VYadwq PSveP8rmgogQ-c

[ElizabethHerts]

I don't think I'd like to be Haggy!

[Merry]

Lol Me neither!

Fanny for Sarah (my name) in Hampshire? I didn't know that. :eek:

[kiterunner]

I see they say Molly for Mary but Polly for Mary Ann. I don't think that's right? Surely Polly could also be a Mary?

[Olde Crone]

These are not nicknames. A nick name is a jokey thing - Bojo for Boris, for example. This is a list of variant spellings and diminutives!

I have Amabel in 1200-and something. She appears a few times in land transactions etc as Annabel and just as many times as Amabel. As far as I am concerned, her given name is Amabel or Annabel, no nickname or alternative involved.

My mum was Mary. No middle name. Dad called her Polly. (Mary - Molly - Polly). Great Aunt was Mary Emma, also Polly. Her NICKNAME in the family was Auntie Thinny, because she was tall and thin.

Lancashire makes Mary into Mally (dialect variation of Molly). It's not a nickname.

There! Glad I got that off my chest.

OC

[ElizabethHerts]

When I posted this I had only given the list a cursory glance and on further inspection some of the names seem slightly odd.

I have never seen Matthew for Martha!

Perhaps they should call it a list of diminutives.

[Olde Crone]

Lol Elizabeth.

I remember on GR years ago, how we all looked for Stuart somebody and couldn't find.him. Poster shouted that Stuart was a girl's name, we were all stupid.

OC

[Phoenix]

I have never seen Matthew for Martha!



I have. You get it a lot in Norfolk, usually pre abt 1720.

[Margaret in Burton]

I see they say Molly for Mary but Polly for Mary Ann. I don't think that's right? Surely Polly could also be a Mary?

My grandmother was Mary Ellen and known as Polly

[Muggins in Sussex]

My nickname appears to be "Jug"! (for Joan) - never heard of that before :confused:

[Phoenix]

I'm always wary of diminuitives. They often turn out to be very much of their time and place. And misinterpreted by the clergy.

My C18th Lucy has descendants called Louisa. I suspect they were all called Lou, but given a different gloss in the C19th.

My Millys in Surrey clearly did not pay any attention to what the officials thought, as they appear in official records as Amelia, Emily or Millicent. Millicents will turn up as Amelia, Amelias as Emily.

[Olde Crone]

I think a lot of clergy assumed names were diminutive when they weren't, and the peasantry was too polite to correct them.

I've told this before, but in 18th and 19th century Darwen, Lancs, the name Mally was very popular. The vicar of the day refused to baptise this godless name, so they were baptised as .Mary and never used the name Mary again.

OC

[vita]

Maternal great aunt was Mary Ann Elizabeth,known as Doll - never did find out why.

Her sister was Jane, always referred to as Gin, which is a bit more understandable.