strange family names

[maidmarion]

My grandfather was called Ptolemy. The ways it has been transcribed are numerous including a school register for my dad and his siblings which said Thomas

I guess the Welsh accent wouldn't have helped LOL

I admire my Gt Grandfathers choice of name and think it was a wonderful choice. Unusual but not strange I don't think.

[Jean McGurn]

I have an ancestor who has the name PASHON as his third name. Strangely apart from granmother who only had one given name all the rest have two given names all of which are what I tem as normal names.

This ancestor wwas born in 1887 and I have yet to discover why PASHON was added or what the name means.

Jean

[Siamese Girl]

One of my Gt Uncles born in the 1890s had Stancliffe as a middle name - no family connection - he was named for the curate. If I hadn't known I could have spent years trying to track down the elusive Stanciffe side of the family 

Carole

[Miss Trees]

I don't know if I would call this name strange, but it is a mystery. I've always wanted to post about it and thought this thread might be a place for it

My grandfather spoke affectionately of a great aunt called 'Auntie Timmie' (Timmy?). Funny name for a lady. Now it is many years later, and we have discovered living relatives who had also heard stories passed down about 'Auntie Timmie'. She came from Ireland but moved to England with her second husband, and in her elderly years (and presumably after her husband passed away) came to live with some of the family in north London.

It wasn't until finding an elderly relative (grandfather's cousin) who told us Auntie Timmie's real name was Emily!

I have a fairly good idea where and after when 'Emily' died, and I've been told the second husband's surname... yet I have been unable to track her down. I know it does not add much, but I can't help wanting to unravel the mysterious name and give some place on the Tree to this lady I've heard so many stories about. Could 'Timmie' be short for some other name she went by? Maybe I'm barking up a wrong tree looking for an 'Emily'?

[suzard]

Timmy/Timmie is a nickname for Timothea, Timandra and Timberley

but Emily may be her correct name - often aunts were known by a name some child in the family, as they started to talk, called them.

If you have your aunts d.o.b. and surname - as well as a rough idea when she died and where - why not search surname only? Do you know where/when husband died ? She may be buried with him???

I had great aunts who were Dot (Doris), Trot (Dorothy) Bubbles (Beryl), and Bud (Violet) -we never knew their correct names until after they died!!!

all of the Sarah Ellens in my family went by the name of nellie and 2 of the marthas were known as Patty!

the strangest one is Uncle Bink - his name was Arthur!!!! We never knew where his nickname came from !

Suz

[betton39]

i quite fancy one i came across whilst looking for ancestors in my local archives......... Ealing Hands Greaves ... Poor Child. (no joke)   

[Miss Trees]

Here's one from my tree: Able Doolittle (married to Thankful Moss)

Re: 'Auntie Timmie' (maiden name O'Neill) would have been born mid 1800s in Ireland. I have no idea who her first husband was but her second was apparently a man by the name of Duke, as we were told that she felt therefore she could call herself a 'duchess'! No idea when he died. I believe she would have died around Enfield Middlesex where she was living with family, somewhere after 1924. I've checked O'Neill, Duke, Duce, Duck... tried surnames only,  so far no luck.

I know that when she left Ireland with her husband they settled first in Middlesbrough (don't know why, or when!), and I did find an suggestive Emily & William Duke in that area in the 1901 census.

I know exactly the address she was at early 1920's, so perhaps mystery will be solved with the next census (or just my luck she will have moved there a month after it was taken)

[Spidermonkey]

With regard to odd nicknames - a elderly family friend of my childhood had a friend called Regatta.  We assumed that she had some exotic family ancestry - perhaps from Iceland...............

Many years later, we found out that Regatta was a nickname from school because her surname was Henley 

[genealogynetwork]

A teacher in Wisconsin's name:  Marijauna Pepsi Sawyer
URL:  Chicago Sun Times March 8, 2009 http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1466840,w-marijuana-pepsi-jackson030809.article