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Author Topic: Macroy becomes Roy - any suggestions?  (Read 664 times)

Offline carolmasip

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Macroy becomes Roy - any suggestions?
« on: Monday 26 January 15 12:57 GMT (UK) »
Hello,
Could anyone suggest as to why the following name change would have occured (excepting allowances for the enumerator's personal interpretation of name):

1844: James MACROY (marriage cert)
1851: census: James MCROY
1854: James MCLEROY (son's birth cer)
1861 census: ROY

- I appreciate how MAC becomes MC - but where does the 'LE' suddenly come from in 1854 and why has the MAC/MC been dropped by 1861?

Any thoughts welcome - and many thanks in advance.
Carol

Offline JMStrachan

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Re: Macroy becomes Roy - any suggestions?
« Reply #1 on: Monday 26 January 15 13:06 GMT (UK) »
I suspect James McCroy (or whatever his name actually was) couldn't read or write, so whoever completed the various documents simply went by what they thought they'd heard. You should see what various registrars and fillers-in of census forms made of the name Strachan!
AYRSHIRE - Strachan, McCrae, Haddow, Haggerty, Neilson, Alexander
ABERDEENSHIRE (Cruden and Longside) - Fraser, Hay, Logan, Hutcheon or Hutchison, Sangster
YORKSHIRE (Worsbrough) - Green, Oxley, Firth, Cox, Rock
YORKSHIRE (Royston and Carlton) - Senior, Simpson, Roydhouse, Hattersley

Offline greenrig

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Re: Macroy becomes Roy - any suggestions?
« Reply #2 on: Monday 26 January 15 13:34 GMT (UK) »
I agree with this. Also, Mcleroy or whatever, may be influnceced by "le Roi" - that is, the King, in French.  This gives us the personal name "Leroy" etc.   Mc, Mac etc seem to get dropped more often when the name is recorded in England - perhaps Mc/Mac was heard as a prefix to surname and dropped as superflous.
NEILSON - Erskine/Bishopton, Renfrewshire and Glasgow
BROWN - Hamilton, Lanarkshire
CAIRNS - Hamilton, Lanarkshire
FINDLAY - Kirriemuir area, Forfarshire/Angus
PORTER - Tobermore, Derry, Ireland

Offline Ruskie

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Re: Macroy becomes Roy - any suggestions?
« Reply #3 on: Monday 26 January 15 13:50 GMT (UK) »
If the MacRoys were Irish, the Mac may have been dropped in order for them to appear less Irish, and presumably fit in better in England.

Offline fifer1947

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Re: Macroy becomes Roy - any suggestions?
« Reply #4 on: Monday 26 January 15 14:06 GMT (UK) »
Also worth checking the name MacIlroy  ;D huge variations on spelling.  http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/McIlroy
Ireland, Co Antrim: Kerr; Hollinger; Forsythe; Moore
Ireland, Co Louth: Carson; Leslie
Ireland, Co Kerry: Ferris
Scotland, Perthshire/Glasgow:  Stewart
England, Devon/Cornwall: Ferris, Gasser/Jasser/Jesser, Norman

Offline aghadowey

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Re: Macroy becomes Roy - any suggestions?
« Reply #5 on: Monday 26 January 15 14:42 GMT (UK) »
From your earlier thread-
Quote from: carolmasip on Saturday 15 November 14 20:49 GMT (UK)
Could anyone please advise where I can look into a birth record for a James Mcroy (Macoy) born around 1812 in Antrim (father also James Mcroy/Macroy a labourer)? Many thanks.

Such spelling variations are not at all uncommon for the period.
Away sorting out DNA matches... I may be gone for some time many years!
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