My grandmother's name was Harriet.  Her sister called her "Sis Hattie".
When my father was a toddler, he tried to say that and it came out "Sad".
For the rest of her long life all her family and close friends called her
Sad.
My sister's name is Harriet also; as a little girl she liked the comic strip
"Herby", so we began to call her that, and she is still called Herby by most
people.  Another girl named Harriet thought Herby was the nickname for
Harriet and began calling herself Herby.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kathleen Much" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 12:03 PM
Subject: nicknames/given names


> Having a baptismal name different from a name in ordinary use is
> extremely common. The reasons vary all over the map. Some people don't
> like the name they were given: I have a friend named Ruth Ann who
> decided when she was 13 that henceforth she was Libbi. Some people
> have a new name conferred on them: my husband's grandmother was named
> Ethel, but her kids and their friends were known collectively as
> "Ann's Fools" (from some popular characters in the '30s) and she, by
> extension, became Ann for the rest of her long life.
>
> Sometimes misspellings take on a life of their own: it took years for
> us to discover that "Cader" was really a derivative of Cager, itself a
> misspelling of Micajah.
>
> Even surnames can vary. Leonard Tarrant is evidently the same person
> as Leonard Terrence Vicus. In fact, an Albemarle Co deed actually
> refers to him as "Leonard Tarrant Vicus (also called Tarrant)". Hannah
> (Lee) Corbin had two children named Corbin (in church and county
> records) after her husband had died; subsequently it was revealed that
> the children's father was named Hill and they assumed the surname Hill
> for the rest of their lives.
>
> If two different names appear to belong to the same person, keep
> looking. There may be a reason for the discrepancy. Land records may
> help to pin down the truth.
>
> Kathleen Much
> [log in to unmask]
>
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