When does a nickname become a wrong name?

[scottishlad]

Just a thought I've been pondering recently. The matriarch of my tree is recorded as Margaret, Bridget and Betsy. I have other evidence to support they're all the same person, but with legal names today it just confuses me how there could be such a discrepancy. She was from Ireland originally so perhaps Margaret was her catholic name. Her mother's name was Bridget so that makes sense, but where does Betsy come from? Anybody else have multiple names attributed to the same person?

[KGarrad]

What is a "legal name"?

A person, in UK or Ireland can call themselves anything they like - just as long as it isn't for purposes of fraud or deceit.

[oldfashionedgirl]

As long as they don’t want to fly on Ryan air 

[oldfashionedgirl]

Seriously I think it’s probably the advent of the internet that made us so exacting with what we call ourselves.

People were often baptised with names that were hardly ever used, my father being a case in point.
Child no.9 arrived at school to be told another one of Sam ****** kids so just call him Sam and so it was until the internet. Although we put his registered names on his head stone we also put Sam at that’s what people in the village knew him as.

Pet names often stuck, especially at school if there were others of the same first name at school or it was the same name as a parent.

If you have good evidence to support that she used three different names then she is likely one and the same.


Have you followed through with birth, marriage, birth of children, census, death ?
If you are looking at a Scottish relative then you will have the advantage of her name being in her children’s birth certificates.

[Jebber]

Another point to consider, children were often named after a parent or aunt/uncle, then were often known by a middle or pet name to avoid confusion.

[brigidmac]

Case in point James the grandfather Jim the son & wee Jimmy

 I never understood how Margaret could be Peggy or Maggie
Or Polly from Mary but they were common abbreviations

I think census records are more likely to state what people were known as

Birth certificates more likely to give more formal names of the child but not necessarily the parents
Marriage certificates also more likely to have full names

Death certificates can only give the name that the person was known by to the person registering the death

To get "legal " name it's worth looking at probates as they sometimes give alternative
Name versions for the same person .

[hdw]

In the fishing villages of north-east Scotland certain surnames would be so common that families and their members would be distinguished by a "tee-name" or nickname. In Buckie for example there might be more than a dozen men called Jimmy Cowie. Sometimes a particular tee-name would be adopted as the main surname. I used to know a woman from Buckie whose maiden name was Cornell. I used to think it was an unusual name then discovered it was a tee-name for some of the Buckie Cowies and her family had adopted it as their surname.

Harry

[Forfarian]

To get "legal " name it's worth looking at probates as they sometimes give alternative
Name versions for the same person

There is no such thing as 'probate' in Scots Law. The corresponding process in Scotland is Confirmation, despite what Ancestry and so on would have you believe.

[hdw]

And there are no coroners' inquests in Scotland because there are no coroners. Accidental or suspicious deaths are investigated by the local crown agent, the procurator fiscal. In exceptional circumstances a Fatal Accident Inquiry may be called for, usually years after the event from what I can gather, when people's memories are unreliable. Not the best aspect of Scots Law.

Harry