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
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