The name game

Your name is an important part of who you are. In addition to identifying you, it links you to your family, nationality and history. And you’re probably pretty particular about how it is spelled and pronounced.

But standardized spelling—of both surnames and given names—was adopted only relatively recently. In generations past, when many people were illiterate, few people knew or cared how their name was spelled, and it was not unusual for an individual’s name to be spelled in various ways, even within a single document. Those who were able to write (parish clerks, local registrars and census takers, for example) simply wrote down names phonetically, based on what they heard, and this could have varied depending on pronunciation differences or the accent of the speaker. Take my mother’s maiden name of Strachan, for example. In some parts of Scotland it is pronounced “strawn” (which is how our family says it) while elsewhere it is “strak-han.” Spelling variations include Strawn, Strahan, Straughan and Stracken.

In addition to differences in spelling, names may have been deliberately changed over time, perhaps when emigrating to a new country or for legal or political reasons. 

This presents a number of challenges, then, when undertaking family history research. Because most surnames were likely spelled in a variety of ways over time, the fact that someone shares your family’s name does not necessarily mean you are in any way related, nor is a name’s current spelling always an accurate indicator of its origins.

My married name is a good example. Some people assume that Visima is perhaps an Italian name when, in fact, my husband’s paternal line is Estonian. The current spelling does not at all resemble the original family name. Peter’s great-great-grandfather bore the surname Fišman—alternately spelled Fismann, Fischmann, Wisman or Vismann. (Many Estonians originally had German surnames, assigned to them in the early 19th century as a consequence of the emancipation of the serfs.) Following Estonian independence in 1920, a movement began to Estonianize surnames, and often given names as well. Thus Peter’s grandfather, born Arnold Peeter Vismann, became Aarne Viisimaa. (Most of Aarne’s siblings also adopted the Viisimaa name—although two brothers chose a completely different surname, Helmeste.) The family name morphed once again after my father-in-law emigrated to Canada and decided to eliminate the double vowels. Peter followed his father’s lead in adopting the simplified spelling and thus our children were registered as Visima, making that the now-official family name for our branch of the tree.

Surname origins

Hereditary family names, or surnames, didn’t always exist. There was a time, when communities were small and few people interacted with others beyond their own community, that a single name was sufficient to identify individuals, although informal nicknames were often used as well since children’s names were drawn from a rather small list of possibilities compared to today.

With increases in population and urbanization came the need for more specific ways of distinguishing one person from another. Surnames were adopted based on one of four general categories:

• Patronymic (or matronymic) — based on the first name of the father (or mother). An “s” or the suffix “son” may have been added to the father’s name (Williams = the son of William; Davidson = the son of David) or the suffix “kin” used as a diminutive (my maiden name, Aitken, is a diminutive of the name Adam, derived from “Adkin,” meaning son of Adam or little Adam). The Irish “O” represents grandson (thus O’Brien = grandson of Brien) and in Scotland and Ireland, the prefix “Mac” or “Mc” means son of (so McDonald = son of Donald). A patronymic surname would initially have changed with each successive generation—while John, son of William, was John Williamson, John’s son would have used the surname Johnson. This means that people having the same surname were not very likely to be related; they just happened to have fathers who had the same first name.
• Locality — based on a specific place name (such as a country, town or estate) or geographic feature. Names ending with suffixes such as ville, berg, head, well, hill or wood fall into this category. Some names have evolved with language but can be traced to a geographic origin: Douglas, a surname in my maternal line, comes from the Gaelic “dubh glas,” meaning “dark river” or “black stream.”
• Occupation — derived from a person’s line of work. The meaning of names such as Naylor (maker of nails), Carter (transporter of goods) and Falconer (trainer of falcons) is fairly easy to decipher, while others are less obvious. For example, the name Farmer once denoted a tax collector; Porter was the name given to a doorkeeper or gatekeeper; a Cooper was a barrel maker; and a Baxter was a baker.
• Nickname — commonly based on a person’s character or appearance. This could denote a personal characteristic (Long, Armstrong, Beard, Moody, Wild, Goodfellow) or an animal (Lamb, Finch), relationship (Cousin), weapon (Spear) or other association. Not all nicknames were flattering; in fact, many were downright insulting. The surname Kennedy in my family tree comes from the Gaelic “Ceannéidigh,” meaning “ugly head”!

Given names

While the naming of children today is often heavily influenced by popular culture, our ancestors were more traditional in their choices. In 18th and 19th century Great Britain, it was not uncommon to follow a pattern in naming children after family members, although not all families adhered to it:

• The first son was named after the father’s father, the second son after the mother’s father, the third son after the father, and subsequent sons after paternal and maternal uncles.
• Similarly, the first daughter was named after the mother’s mother, the second after the father’s mother, the third after the mother, and subsequent daughters after maternal and paternal aunts.

Repetition of names, both within families and geographic areas, was significant, which can lead to some frustration in family history research, particularly when dealing with common surnames as well. Scottish records are replete with names like William, George, James, Mary, Margaret and Jean. Cousins were often named alike, particularly if they were named after a grandparent, and names could be repeated for generations. My paternal grandfather was the son of William Aitken, who was the son of William Aitken, who was the son of William Aitken, who was the son of William Aitken. My grandfather himself was a George, but his older brother? Yep, William Aitken! And they had at least three first cousins also named William Aitken.

“OK, I have a nickname. My family calls me ‘Trey’ because I’m William the third. My dad has the same name, which is always confusing because my dad is well known, and I’m also known.” — Bill Gates

Sadly, in centuries past, child mortality was high. While it would seem odd to most parents today, couples who lost a child in infancy or early childhood might reuse the dead child’s name for a subsequent child. Four of the 13 children of my 4G-grandparents William and Margaret Moffat died between 1801 and 1806, all before the age of two. Those children’s names—James, John, Margaret and William—were reused for the next four children born to the couple, beginning in 1806.

As with surnames, alternate spellings of forenames were not uncommon (examples: Joanna/Joannah/Johanna; Margaret/Margret; Jacob/Jakob; Maurice/Morris) as were diminutives, pet names and abbreviations. In Scotland as well as several other countries, many given names were interchangeable. My 6G-grandfather Peter Wyness is found in some documents as Patrick, and one of my 4G-grandmothers, Grace Martin, is alternately recorded as Grizel or Grisal. A Jane will just as often be known as Jean or even Jenny, Jessie and Janet were interchangeable, and Isabel was a common variation of Elizabeth. My own name, Nancy, is synonymous with Agnes. Abbreviations were used in some records and they were not always intuitive, sometimes being derived from the Latin form of the name. A few examples: Jno = John; Jas or Jac = James (Jacobus in Latin); My = Mary; Hy = Henry; Chas = Charles.

Middle names

Middle names can be quite useful in family history research, particularly in differentiating between individuals with common names, although they were relatively uncommon until about the 19th century. 

Sometimes a middle name was a family reference, frequently the mother’s maiden name, or may have been given in commemoration of a loved one who had recently died.

A middle name might also have been bestowed to honour a close friend, a respected employer or a person of importance in the community. Four of the sons of my 4G-uncle George Aitken shared the name Johnston: John Johnston Aitken, Alexander Johnston Aitken, Forbes Johnston Aitken and Johnston(e) Aitken. All but the last were born on a Scottish farm during the timeframe when the tenant farmer was one John Johnston. George being an agricultural labourer, it’s likely John Johnston was his employer and George’s sons were named in his honour. George obviously thought highly of his boss.

Sometimes the source of a middle name is a mystery until research into collateral lines reveals its origin. My grandfather was George Sinclair Aitken and I had always wondered where the Sinclair came from since that name did not appear anywhere in the family tree—until I found the marriage record for his mother’s sister, his aunt Isabella. Her husband’s name was George Sinclair. Bingo. (Similarly, George’s sister, Margaret Murrison Aitken, was named for Margaret Murrison, wife of their paternal uncle John Aitken.)

Researching names

The bottom line: when searching records and databases, one must consider the possibility that a name might be recorded differently than expected. Ancestors may be referenced in any number of ways in various documents—it would be pretty unusual, in fact, to find a particular person consistently recorded exactly the same way over his or her lifetime. So it’s important to check under variant spellings, abbreviations, nicknames, middle names (including the reversal of first and middle names) and initials and to document all the variations and aliases found for an individual.

In transcribed indexes, it’s not uncommon for names to have been transcribed incorrectly due to difficulty in deciphering handwriting or typographical errors in entering data. In such cases, creative thinking and the use of wildcards in search fields can be very helpful.

Sources

• Name and Word Spellings
• The Movement to Estonianize Surnames in Interwar Estonia, Toivo U. Raun, 2012
• The Internet Surname Database, Aitken
• Aiken/Aitken Name Origins
• The Surname Origin List, Jeff Chapman, Family Chronicle Magazine, May/June 1997
• The Origins of Family Names, Jeff Chapman, Family Chronicle Magazine, July/August 2000
• Last Name Meanings and Origins
• Many English Last Names Began as Nicknames, Hayley Hudson, Business Insider, 30 Jun 2014
• The Importance of Names and Naming Patterns
• Surname Variations & Name Changes: Elusive Ancestors
• What’s In a Name
• Abbreviations Lists for Personal Names (English)
• First Name Abbreviations
• What’s In a Name? Your Link to the Past, Paul Blake
• Guessing a Name Variation
• Pronunciation of Strachan and Etymology

Tagged names, nickname, spelling, surnames