On 19 Jul 2013, at 10:20 PM, Jim Stallard wrote: > Hi Everyone, > > This is a bit of a long shot but how is the name Luckey pronounced > down in > Cornwall? > > Is it Lucky, Loo-key, Luke-kays...? > > I'm looking for a Christian Luckaes, married 22nd February 1821 in > Sixpenny > Handley Dorset. > > Lucas/Luckas was a common name around there and yet the Rector > crossed out > Luckas and rewrote Luckaes - as neither the bride or groom could > write I > very much doubt they knew how to spell or whether the Rector was > spelling > the name correctly: I'm just wondering if he was trying to get a close > phonetic spelling?? > > Thanks > > Jim An even longer shot, perhaps: but any chance it could be a Dutch name? In Dutch, and particularly in Flemish Dutch, the long A is often spelt AE; however, for this to be the case, the C would almost certainly be incorrect. Also in Dutch, the name equivalent to English LUKE is LUKAS, i.e. a short A, not a long one; and in Dutch, the single letter A is not pronounced as in CLAP, but as in the German MAN, with the AA or its AE variant being the same sound but longer. But if the bridegroom was illiterate and the Recto ignorant of Germanic languages, there might have been nobody present to give a correct pronunciation. Dutchmen would not be specially rare in areas near the sea, but my trusty old Michelin tourist map of the UK doesn't go small enough to show the place in question, or any near variant in the West Country. Andrew Rodger rodgera@audioio.com