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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Canuc on Sunday 04 April 10 20:08 BST (UK)
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A relative has popped out of the ether with nothing more than a photograph (still working on its age and his age in the photo) with the annotation Bucky Sewell.
No idea if Bucky is a nickname he picked up or if it is short for, or corruption of, something. Might anyone have any ideas please.
The person is way back in the family and the photograph came at me from a fourth cousin, unless I can unravel the name he's not going to be attached to my tree anytime soon (pity, because he looks quite a character).
Happy hunting
Canuc
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Hello
Another Bucky! I have the same problem. I have a William Loftus aka Bucky Loftus in my tree. He was born c. 1875 in Lancashire and it is a mystery as to how he came by his name. I know he enlisted in the army at one point - could it be something to do with that???
Sandgrounder
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Sandgrounder
Curious thing is one of the possible candidates for my Bucky is a William, but I'll take it as a coincidence. No army for me, but some of the family did work with horses.
anuc
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One of the main problems with nicknames is they often have no rhyme or reason to them, mu Uncle Charlie was known as Dilk or Dilkie, no one in the family has been able to tell me why.
The same will go for people who are known by a name other than that given at birth. I was 11/12 before I knew my mothers name was not Rita but Julia. She never told me why she was not known by her real name and her longest living friend from school does not know either.
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Plummiegirl
I fear you have set out the reality of the situation.
Canuc
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Actually, from what I've seen, Bucky is commonly a nickname for the name William similar to how Billy. I've seen before a family with three generations of William where they went by, in order, Will, Bill/Billy, and Bucky... It's not that Bucky is a common nickname for William, but if there's a Bucky, it's usually either 1) based off a last name like Buchanan, 2) based on something random and weird, 3) short for William... Best guess is that it came from that weird trend where they just started changing name sounds to make nicknames... Richard to Rick to Dick, William to Willy to Billy to Bucky...
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I knew of someone in my teen years called Bucky who had buck teeth, cruel nickname. I don’t know what his real name was.
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You mention the Family, years back, were associated with horse's. Rodeo horse 'bucking' springs to mind, where the animal is doing it's best to unseat it's rider. Maybe 'Bucky' originated from Him taking part in Rodeos, or just 'breaking' horse's in.
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Although some given names can attract a particular pet name, others may have no better origin than a school or college fad. Bucky sounds more transatlantic (I see you are Canadian) than English, where Bunny seems to be equally peculiar.
One recent example comes to mind which may seem equally hard to explain for future generations: the ex-cricketer Andrew Flintoff, who everyone knows as Freddie because his surname resembles Flintstone; that may already be meaningless to the young generation.
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Buck Rogers first appeared in 1920's so i imagine anyone with surname Rogers could have been given that nickname but i suppose you are talking about earlier. Whats the rough era of photo ?
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Buck also is a male deer so might have been used as a boy’s nickname.
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An old flame of my mother's was always known as Bucky, it was years before I discovered his name was Arnold.
Names can lead you off on false trails at times.
My mother hated her name, as a teenager she chose a name she liked and was known by that for the rest of her life. It caused confusion in the family when I displayed my family tree to newly met family members. I had put her real name, they only knew her by her chosen name. It was not helped by the fact my father was always known by one of his middle names, I had shown his first name, a couple of people were convinced I had made a mistake on my tree. ::)
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I suspect there may be a multitude of reasons for the various instances of the nickname Bucky/Buckey.
Take for example, William Owen O'Neill a.k.a. Bucky O'Neill, captain in Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, mayor of Prescott, Arizona, as well as newspaper editor, lawman, lawyer... and a big gambler - his nickname apparently came from his tendency to "buck the tiger" (ie. play contrary to the odds) at faro and other card games.
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What interesting stories !
It would be interesting to see the photo.in question
CANUC
The photo forum board would readily.help you to date it
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Brigidmac,
My notes are buried at the moment, but for sure I don't have a hard copy it came at me via an Ancestry hint and now I cannot work out exactly who I was looking at.
Thanks for the offer to date it, I'll post if I locate it.
Canuc