General Chat

I have seen on a lot of my husband'a ancestors their name was Mary Ann, but were always called Polly.
His great grandmother was Mary Ann, but even on her marriage certificate, she has her name as Polly,.
Can anyone tell me why Polly was substituted for Mary Ann, they are nothing alike?

Mo

I really do not know but when I first found out about my greatgrand/mother
from someone who knew her she said everyone called her Polly and they also said that is what most people with Mary Ann were called

Margaret

One suggestion I heard of was that Mary is associated with the nickname Molly (I've got a 4xgreat aunt Mary Hurst who called herself Molly) and this sounds similar to Polly.

I've got at least one Mary Ann and also a Mary Elizabeth in my tree who I am told were known as Polly.

Interestingly, I knew a girl at school whose mum was named Pauline but called Polly by her husband . . .

Maybe that's another instance - Margaret can be shortened to Maggie or Meg. From then you could get to Peg (because it sounds the same) and then to Peggy.

I wonder if there's something about the letters M and P, becaus I can almost see a pattern emerging here . . .

A bit like Ellen - my 4xgreat grandma was named Ellen but on the parish records when her children were born she crops up in all manner of names - "Ellen", "Eleonor", "Helen" and "Nelly".

MY GGRAN WAS MARY JANE,
AKA MARIA,JANE ,GINNY

HER SISTER MARY ANN [YEP 2 MARYS]
AKA POLLY

WINIFRED
AKA QUEENIE

CHARLOTTE
AKA DAISEY

Hi All,
I can't figure out why my relative Mary Elizabeth would be called aunt Pops, & her sister Florence Anne was known as aunt Babs?
Any suggestions/answers on this one?

Lynne

One of my many maternal great-aunts,Mary Bowden was known as Polly. As far as I know her name was simply Mary not MaryAnn. Never got to meet any of my 14 great aunts and/or uncles, Mary/Polly died age 25.
My paternal aunt Mary Ellen was known as Nellie.
Also have a rellie (daughter of one of the 14) whose name was Jane Beatrice, known as Daisy.
Mary

My gt aunt was a Polly, and a Mary or Margaret we're not sure as she was just "Aunt Polly!,.......she had some type of mental illness with, from the sounds of it, dellusions of grandeur.........she used to sit in a high back chair and issue orders etc., they say she thought she was Queen Victoria!!

Dizzi, you have just reminded me of a distinctly odd group of siblings in my tree. I suspect they were probably Catholic . . .

Mary Ellen Hurst married John Tickle - they had seven children. Mary Winifred, John Joseph, Mary Magdeline, Mary Elizabeth, Joseph, Ellen Mary Josephine and Margaret Mary.

So I don't know whether they were very religious or just short of ideas when their babies were born! (To add to the confusion, their children were written down on the census with some initals in a different order - perhaps even they couldn't remember!)

My Mary Ann born 1863 was called Pol and Polly.

I think these days a lot of the old shortenings and nicknames have been forgotten because many of them are now used as names in their own right.

There has long been a tendency to change endings to an l
Derek becomes Del, Terrence or Terry, Tel.

Sarah became Sal or Sally

Ellen became Nell or Nellie

William became Will or Bill

Henry became Henry or Hal

Mary became Mol or Molly and that was frequently changed to Pol or Polly.

Margaret was Meg but often Peg.
Margaret can often be changed to Daisy because Marguerite is the French for Daisy and Daisy is the meaning of the name.

It's sometimes a good idea when doing family history research to look at a book of the meanings of first names and variants. That can give you a clue why some relation isnt named how you expect in a census or on a certificate.

Sue

I`ve got a friend called EILLEN, which is Nellie backwards , she ws named after a relative, you pronouce it ELEN.I had an aunt who was ANNIE FRANCES but was called NINA, Ros xx

KATE
THEY MAY HAVE BEEN PRESPETARAN
WHERE THEY WERE BAPTISED AT GREAT MEETING
HORSE FAIRS,,I HAVEONE LOT SAVED FOR 4 YEARS
TO HAVE 4 DONE BUT LOOKS LIKE ALL BORN SAME YEAR....CONFUSING