The Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames lists the two names separately, but offers Pickstoke as a variation of Pickstock. It's a little easier to see how Pickstoke might have become Pickstone. Peter > Not for the first time, I have come across Pickstock and Pickstone > being presented as variants of the same surname > (http://www.namethesaurus.com/Thesaurus/search.aspx has them so, for > instance) > > To be true variants, this would mean to me that a family documented as > Pickstock somewhere, over the years, has turned into one documented as > Pickstone, possibly over several generations. Or vice versa. (And I > discount occasional spelling "errors"). > > I have no idea whether there is any documented justification for this > variant pair or whether someone has simply run through a census, > evaluated the Soundex values for surnames and decided that all > surnames with minimal difference in their Soundex are variants. > > I've seen several changes in my families' surnames - Healow ends up as > Heler (I think the underlying pronunciation is probably "Healer"), for > instance, but I am, in fact, sceptical of this Pickstock / Pickstone > change as the "k" sound and the "n" sound are surely quite different. > > So, does anyone know of any documented justification for either this > change or one similar? Or any authoritative work on variants? > (Probably too much to expect there, as each would need to be driven on > a family by family basis, like my Heler origins). > > Thanks for any thoughts > Adrian > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > SOG-UK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message