I have nothing to add to the list of nicknames, but will say this, I have only seen in two instances of nicknames used in official Baden or Hessian records, and one of those was Hans. The other, I only came across last week and I've forgotten it already. To be sure, I only looked at a few thousand records, so my experience can't be said to be extensive enough to draw any conclusions from. I have seen many names abbreviated. Really any name, depending on what names were common in the town at the time. Such as Magd. for Magdalena; Joes for Joannes/Johannes; A. Maria or M. Ana (with a bar over the n); etc. Was Appolonia a common name? Maybe it's abbreviated. Maybe she was baptized in one faith and raised in another? Maybe she was baptized in her mother's/father's church and married in the other's? She may have died with her husband's name, and you won't find her maiden name in the record. Did her family emigrate? Did she emigrate as a single woman? Brian On Fri, March 18, 2011 10:36 am, Helen Sanders wrote: > > > Is there a common "nickname" for the name Appolonia? A young girl > by the name of Maria Appolonia was b in 1740, but can't be found after > the birth record. Under what other name could I search?......She's not > under Mary or Maria or Polly. > > Thanks for any help! > > Helen