I am trying to puzzle out some names in the census of 1860 for Madison County. I was about to accept a prior researcher's interpretation of an ancestor's name as Mary A.R. Neaves (although I thought it was uncommon for a Scotch-Irish family to have more than 2 given names) when I noticed that other people in the next family down on the page also had the same "initials" after their first names. My entry <looks> at first glance like this: 401/361 Noah Neaves 29 M Machanic Mary A. R 28 F John P. 2 M then names in the next family appear like this: Ashley Rozell 34 M Farmer Elizabeth 42 F Mary L.L. (?) 10 F Margaret A.R 9 F John J. 7 F Sarah N.M.(?) 5 F Wm. A.R. 3 M Dawson G.B. 1 M I DO know that names were often abbreviated such as the Wm. for William, Jno. for John-- but I can't think of any name that might be a female and a male name the abbreviation for which would look like A.R. Does anyone have any ideas? Or have I just found two really weird families living next door to each other, one of whom is kin to me? These names are in the Northwestern District / Madison Cross Roads P.O. district, households 401 and 403; families 361 and 362. I didn't notice this perculiarity until I got home with the copy of the microfilm page so I don't know how "widespread" it is within this district. I would deeply appreciate any enlightenment from you more experienced census readers: I am losing sleep over this! Teresa Neaves