Why change the name?

[JohninSussex]

The recorded fact you seem to be giving us is that all the church records for the family members were Wildman up to a certain date and then were all Wileman.  Relatively few people were literate at that date and effectively the spelling of someone's name was determined by the clergyman - unless the family member was confident enough to correct the man of God.

So I suspect the change coincides with a change of incumbent.  Could it be that the population had long been used to pronouncing the name as Wileman, the previous vicar interpreted it as Wildman based on earlier records, and the new one took a different view and spelled the name as he heard the locals sound it.

[Top-of-the-hill]

   I have something similar, though a bit less drastic. Over about 20 years from 1810-1830, in their part of East Kent, the Codhams became Colthams. It is not a common name, but they were in several parishes and some in Canterbury. When I was working backwards and first came to a Codham, I assumed it was a mis-spelling of Coltham, but soon realised it (and several variants) was the original version of the name.

[aghadowey]

In the mid-1800s several brothers of my great-great-grandmother left Ireland and went to Australia. They took with them a reference from their minister. By co-incidence this minister had the same surname but with a different spelling, so when he wrote the letter he used the same spelling of their surname as his. When they got to New Zealand it was, according to family stories, easier to use the 'wrong' spelling of their name. After a few years several sisters followed and adopted the 'new' name. Thus, the New Zealand branch have one name and the rest of the family another.

About 20 years ago one of the N.Z. descendants got in touch and sent me a copy of a huge family tree he had gotten from the Records Office but asked where our family came in because they weren't on the tree. Yes, it was the minister's family- no relation to us!

[andrewalston]

You have to remember that clergymen wrote down what they THOUGHT they heard. When you have someone in authority, possibly with an Oxford or Cambridge education, understanding the local accent in a country district could be difficult even if they were trying.

I have ancestors called HOWCROFT. In other places the name is usually spelled HOLCROFT. Some who moved 10 miles away in the 1870s get their surnames adjusted, while clergy in their home parish copied the spelling their predecessors had used since the 17th century.

The surname BAXENDINE (and its many variants) was almost extinct by the start of Victoria's reign, having been "adjusted" into BAXENDALE by all and sundry, while the Lancashire town from which it derives remains as BAXENDEN.

[BW252]

I have three female relatives born Tobit who managed to change their names to Talbot.   None of the men changed their names.

[lydiaann]

Back in 2014 I posted something similar.  A family which went through Crouther/Crouthers, Crowther/Crowthers to Carruthers.  This was not a progression, the official documents switch between all of them over a number of years.  To add insult to injury, one of them married a Malseed (or Malsed, Maltsead, Malstead, Maltsteed).  I believe it was probably an amalgamation of illiteracy or semi-literacy, deafness and family mis-hearing over the years - to say nothing of the inability of the Archives people to decipher names when adding them into data-bases, record cards, etc; however, it makes for a very frustrating time when searching for relatives!