Hi Janet If you are talking about OPRs then in the main the name spelling [forename, surname AND placename] in the records was very much at the whim of the scribe until the first part of the 19C. We have found one record in the 18C where the same surname of the father and two of the witnesses is spelt differently in all three cases. How one spelling was fixed rather than another is very much a matter of where and when the people/places so named became the subject of formal education. I have mentioned before that my surname has had around two dozen spelling variants. Some of them were a bit fanciful [e.g. "Enersea"] but most are in general use. For instance, my dental practice had a dentist called Henesy and a hygienist called Hennesy. Go figure!! Regards Ray Hennessy www.whatsinaname.net On 20 October 2013 14:29, Janet <[email protected]> wrote: > It seems as though we could never exhaust the topic of name variations. > A cousin of mine asked "Who put the additional "n" in our name?" > Some names appear to have been changed because someone wrote them, > transcribed them or > pronounced them differently. > Did that apply to Parish records or was it after formal registration?. I > find both > applies. > I have an OPR marriage without the "n" and an OPR birth with the "n". > One could perhaps ask frivolously, "Did someone get to the edge of the > page and not put > another consonant on the name where it should have had two?" I suspect > we may never > have clear answers but I would like to get near to realising the facts. > Has anyone done a study of a name change? > > Janet > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Gordon McLeod" <[email protected]> > > > > This was all posted on Electric Scotland and ancestry.com. > > > > It may be remarked that the prefix Dal is not, or at least not often, as > > generally stated, from the Saxon dahl or dale, but is more frequently a > > corruption of the Norman del or de la, as Dalmellington, De la > mouline-ton, > > of the town of the mill. Dalgarnock may therefore imply Del-garnock, or > de > > la garneoca, of the large enclosure or defence for cattle, - garne in old > > French signifying a defence. > > > > In the early 1100s few surnames were recorded. The surname Dalgarno comes > > from Dalgarnock which in turn comes from the Gaelic dal gairneig meaning > the > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >