Message: "Nessie & May" - Behind the Name

[Facts] Nessie & May

by Bryce (guest)

9/14/2006, 5:40 AM

I had some relations called Nessie and May, but know one seems to know anything about them. I've searched a census and the closest names to the actual people are Jessie and Marjory. I was just wondering if anyone thought that these might be the same people?

#May #Nessie

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- Speranza(nsi) (guest) +1

9/14/2006, 9:21 AM

If the rest of the details match,ie if they live at the address you know your relatives lived at,were the right age, etc then there is a probability that they are the same people. Census takers in the past usually wrote down the information themselves and sometimes names were mispelt, misheard or misread - so Nessie could become Jessie. Likewise it is feasible that May could be used as a nn for Marjory,but she would give her official name to the census taker.

I suppose the only way to find out is to try and trace Jessie and Marjorie through another census, homeownership records,death certs,etc.

- genis (guest)

9/15/2006, 4:35 PM

I agree...

I got distracted and posted my comment without really addressing your question. Sorry. The census records are notorious for inaccuracies, formal vs. nickname differences, etc. I also recommend looking at other census years and comparing the information because some census takers were more accurate than others, the residents had improved their English since the prior census, etc.

- genis (guest)

9/14/2006, 8:56 AM

See Neasa and May.

- Anneza +4

9/14/2006, 7:19 AM

Nessie isn't the Loch Ness Monster ... or I hope it isn't ... it's a nickname form of Agnes. May could be Marjory I suppose, but it's also often a form of Mary so that might be worth a try.

Nicknames are a minefield; some are pretty standard but some can arise spontaneously from some trivial event that no outsider could possibly guess at. Good luck!

- Chrisell +3

9/14/2006, 7:43 AM

"some can arise spontaneously from some trivial event that no outsider could possibly guess at"

Lol, that is very true. My aunt - real name Helen Gisela - has been known her entire life as Penny, to everyone. Why? Because her hair was the brassy colour of a new penny when she was born, and the nickname stuck. But people still wonder how the family got Penny from Helen!

♦ Chrisell ♦

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.

- Anneza

9/14/2006, 10:34 PM

Remarkable! I also know a Penny who is actually an Yvonne Frances - in her case she was known, as a baby, as Penny Squeaker. When she got to university, she acquired the new nickname of Lopes (as in Walks like a cowboy) as a component of Penelope ... she answered to it quite happily.

- Tassiegirl

9/14/2006, 12:05 PM

I had an aunt who was always called Pat, even by her husband-her name was actually Elsie. I don't know why, though I suppose someone must. As a sort of post-script-her niece was named after her--Patrica! always called Patty, or really, Paddy.
another addition-an uncle (same family) names Edgar, was known as Tee-Tee. not by his friends though, they called him Ed.

- gigibee (guest)

9/14/2006, 10:00 AM

Your aunt's getting her nickname as a baby makes me think of Ronald Reagan, who was nicknamed Dutch by his father, and went by Dutch for a long time. His father thought the baby Ronald looked like "a little Dutchman."
My son Garrett's nn is Wally. His big brother called him Wally when they were little -- for what reason, I don't know.

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