What's in a name?

[mofid42]

I have two women, mother and daughter, on my tree who both have the first name Tanzier or Tansier

The mother was born in London in 1908 and her daughter also in London in 1928

Its such a unusual name and they appear to be the only people in on-line BMD records who have the name.

 I am wondering where it may have originated.

Any ideas?

[stanmapstone]

It could be a variation of Tansy http://www.behindthename.com/names/letter/t

Stan

[mofid42]

Thank you Stanmapstone

That certainly is one possibility.

I did wonder if it was a corruption of Tangier.
 
Tanzier senior was the twelfth child of her parents and the only one to have such an unusual name ...maybe the parents had heard it somewhere when looking a for a name but where uncertain of the exact spelling.

added: Her full name was Tansier/Tanzier Unity Lockyer and when she married she gave her daughter the same two first names.

[Deb D]

I thought of the name Tamzyn, and wondered if there'd been a mistranscription.  However if she named her daughter the same, that would seem unlikely.

 

(PS - not sure but I have a feeling Tamzyn is a Cornish name?)

[davidft]

Well this is a real whodunnit, which is kind of ironic as

Unity Tansier Hall was a crimewriter \ writer allegedly and there are several books on amazon by her - if its the same Unity Hall she was also a journalist


(seems she changed her name round from Tansier Unity Hall to Unity Tansier Hall)

[mofid42]

Hi Deb D...thanks for the suggestion of Tamzyn.

Her name definitely seems to be Tanzier so its not a mis-transcription.

I did a Google search and did find a couple of living people with the name Tanzier as a first name and some  the 1940 US census who had the name as a surname but no obvious signs of its origins

[mofid42]

Hi Davidft

Yes you are right Tanzier Unity Hall was the daughter and she was a journalist/writer and later in her life an agony aunt for the News of the World.

Most of the time she called herself Unity Hall, even after she married (several times). She had quite a colourful life. I have discussed her before on another thread, but not by name.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,609790.msg4591066.html#msg4591066

[davidft]

OK so you may also know there was someone registered with the Tanzier name in 1962 - do you know this person or if not have you tried to contact them to see if they know where the  name comes from ?

[mofid42]

What type of record was the 1962 entry?...was it a marriage?

If so then that is for Tanzier Unity Hall's second marriage.
Why she used a different surname is a bit of a mystery , although she did live briefly with a man with that surname but as far as I can tell she did not marry him.