Our ancestors changed their names for a variety of reasons. By far the most common was a surname change for a woman upon her marriage, but there were many other reasons a person might change the name they were given at birth. From using a preferred nickname, name contractions, altering names to fit a new home, or completely changing a name to escape the past - there were many reasons you might find an ancestor under a different name.
We also need to remember that it was often a clerk, secretary, enumerator or other official who recorded names on official documents, and mistakes were often made and not corrected. The name was recorded as the recorder heard it, and so spelling variations abound. They all can make tracing your ancestors that much more challenging.
There
were the commonly used spelling variations, abbreviations and
diminutives. For example, if you don’t know that Polly was a diminutive
of Mary or that Nellie was a diminutive of Ellen and Eleanor and Helen,
you may struggle to find your ancestors’ entries. Harry for Henry,
Bill for William, Fred or Alf for Alfred, Dick for Richard, Charlie or
Lottie for Charlotte, Maggie, Meg or Maisie for Margaret. Elizabeth was
another extremely common name with multiple diminutives - Eliza, Liz,
Lizzie, Betty, Betsy, Beth, Bessie, Lisbeth, Liza - the list goes on.
I
have one female ancestor, baptised Elizabeth, who was known throughout
her life as Betsy. This was the name she used in census records, her marriage record, her
children's birth/baptism records and on her death certificate and burial
records. The only time I can ever find her referred to as Elizabeth is
at her own baptism.
Naming patterns were common in many families, although they are by
no means a reliable way of predicting the names of children.
Traditionally, the first son would be named for the paternal
grandfather, the second son for the maternal grandfather and the third
son for the father. For females, the first daughter would be named for
the maternal grandmother, the second daughter for the paternal
grandmother and the third daughter for the mother. Providing, of
course, these names were not the same.
For my German branch of my family tree, anglicization of names when they emigrated from Germany to Australia saw the entire family change their names. Friedrich became Frederick, Suatus became Susetta and eventually Susan, Heinrich became Henry, Margaretha became Margaret, and so on. It helped to family to fit in with their new homeland.
