Hello to all Listers, Very often we become stuck with a Family Name, sometimes our very own surname, and cannot find references when searching databases, church records and various lists. Many have discovered that for various reasons their surname had changed in spelling or pronunciation over the centuries, sometimes many times. Occasionally we find a baptism entry, marriage entry and death notice for the same person, but the name is recorded quite differently each time. There would be many reasons for this, ie. illiteracy (shock and horror at first but one gets over it), also Dutch, Huguenot and German names changed in spelling and then some names were anglicised. For the experienced genealogist living in South Africa, very often this is no problem. Many overseas listers with roots in SA are also familiar with the variations having lived and grown up there. However, there must be some younger listers who have never lived there and are at a total loss for clues which would help them with searches. Examples: FAMILY NAMES Villion - Viljoen Snyman - Snijman de Klerk - le Clerq NICKNAMES-PETNAMES Johanna - Jannetje Jacob/Jacobus - Japie Then there are instances in names with double letters where one is dropped. eg. Greeff - Greef Some surnames ending with "s" have an "e" added eg. Davids - Davidse, Abrahams/e, Jacobs/e And, one could go on and on............. Perhaps other Listers could contribute by listing just a few examples they have come across when doing their own searches. This will surely help us all when we don't know what else to try. Regards, Elva