Hi Sy, What you have said here is useful and I agree its interesting to know about Robert Young, particularly since some of mine were in Kincardineshire. It bears the possibility that others were doing the same thing. Janet ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sandy PITTENDREIGH" <[email protected]> Hi Folks, The following thoughts may be of some interestregarding name variations. As others have said the spelling of a name in an OPR by the record keeper, be it the minister, session clerk or whoever, varied according to the whim of the individual recorder. I can think of a couple of reasons why the person presenting the information may not have been able to dictate the spelling of the name. He may not have been literate enough to tell the difference or not confident enough to challenge an authority figure to have the spelling of the name corrected. The power of such an authority figure is evident in the records kept by Robert YOUNG, the first Registrar in the District of Benholm, formerly Benholm Parish in Kincardineshire. He seems to have appointed himself as the authority on the correct spelling for a number of family names. He changed McBEY to McBAY, BLEWS to BLUES, MOUAT to MOWAT and McKAY to MACKIE. Robert Young is not likely to have been unique. After the setting up of Regstrars in 1855 families were issued with certificates, these ordinary families now had important documents which would be kept. The names recorded on marriage certificates would determine the spelling used later registering births, birth certificates would determine the spelling on death certificates. It was inevitable that the spelling of names would become fixed through such a process. Today of course, as Alyson has shown us, it is the individual who has the power to dictate how their name should be written and pronounced. --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com