Wrong surnames?

[Comosus]

After looking at the 100 most uncommon surnames thread in the lighter side, I realised those that I couldn't find seemed to be spelt wrong.

I now think Crammack was actually Crummack.
In the past I also had a Lilliker who was actually Lineker.

Now I have a Coninor, who I've just realised was actually Connor.

So just check those rare surnames to make sure - I think they're actually likely to be mis-spellings or mistranscriptions.

Andrew

[healyjfch]

Wrong surname on Marriage Certificate
Kelly became Kenny

[annesthreads]

Yes, when a lot of people were illiterate, they must have often have had to rely on clergymen and enumerators to hear and spell their names correctly - and I think that sometimes names got changed as a result of errors. My family tree includes the name Saycell. I wondered if - and have since confirmed -  that was a corruption of Cecil, presumably because at some point it was written down wrongly. I also have Brandishes from Salford, Lancs who originate around Brundish, Suffolk. My theory about that one is someone with a Suffolk accent saying "Brundish" in Lancashire - it might well be heard as "Brandish". I may be wrong, but it's a good theory!

[fifer1947]

Have a census where family GASSER were down as JASSER

[Gillg]

My ancestor Thomasin Fairey was recorded on the passenger list of the the boat she emigrated to the US in 1888 as Tam Ferry.  I expect she used a shortened version of her first name, but suspect that her Huntingdonshire accent was responsible for the surname mistranscript.  She was in her 70s at the time and was illiterate.

[andrewalston]

People write down what they THINK they hear - not what is said. You should see the spellings of my surname which come through my letterbox - even if I use the phonetic alphabet over the phone.

Most of the time it doesn't matter; do you care how your name is spelled on something you will use once and will never refer to again, like a train ticket? How about the ticket your relative used then they emigrated? No cross-referencing with passports until quite recently, remember.

Even when those concerned were literate, they would be unlikely to correct an authority figure such as a clergyman if the spelling was "off". They might, though, sign a marriage certificate "properly".

But they would be even less likely to correct an officer of the law if they had been accused of something nefarious!

[jbml]

People write down what they THINK they hear - not what is said. You should see the spellings of my surname which come through my letterbox - even if I use the phonetic alphabet over the phone.

It's not just what they think they HEAR ... it's what they think they SEE.

You spell it out with the phonetic alphabet, and the person you're speaking to writes it down correctly. But if their manuscript is less than fully legible, then somebody else trying to read it may think it says something different, and so it gets mistranscribed at that stage.

A case in point is the village I live in: Elstow.

Like you, I ALWAYS spell it out using the phonetic alphabet (have you noticed how many people interrupt you to say that they "don't know how to use it"? Well, duh, if you're on the receiving end, it's pretty obvious, isn't it???) and yet about 90% of the time those same organisations send things to me spelling the village Elston. Why? Because the person who wrote down "Elstow" did so pretty illegibly, and the person who had to decipher their script just assumed that the ending was "ton" because that is by far the more commonly encountered ending for a British place name.

And let's face it, if you're working with early certificates, you'll know that in the 1840s and 1850s even the Registrars and Deputy Registrars often had pretty illegible handwriting!!!

[Gillg]

A relative married in London in 1867.  The vicar entered her first name as Rebecca in the Register, but she corrected him by saying that the spelling was Rebekah and signed as such.  The correction is clearly visible on the register page. 

My own family's surname has been spelled Fairey, Fairy, Faery, Feary, Farey, Ferry over the years, so I have to look out for all these variations when following the family's history.  Before I was married I used to get Fairlie and Fairley quite often.  I'm married now, but I still get variations on my new surname, no matter how often I spell it out. 

[lydiaann]

The problem is, because English is not a phonetic language when related to the written word (e.g. Chalmondeley is 'Chumley', etc.) it has been the case that registrars, etc. put down what they think they hear; and we are not a 'listening' race.  Greek is a phonetic language and thus they listen to what they hear.  I used to live in Athens and when I rang up to book tables in restaurants, appointments, etc., when I got to the place at the appointed time and checked their books, the name (long, Scottish, not always pronounced the way it looks!) would be perfectly,phonetically written in the appointment book and the receptionist, or whomever, would also pronounce it almost perfectly.  Since doing the family research I have learned to put down every variation I can think of, and then some, and can usually come up with an answer.