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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: eagleye on Wednesday 22 July 09 16:28 BST (UK)
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Anyone know please?
(I thought Mary Elizabeth was commonly known as Polly)
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Would a Mary Elizabeth be known as Lucy?
Not that I know of.
I agree with Polly for Mary - but there is no accounting for the names people choose to be known by. :-\
Nell
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Here are the various synonyms for Lucy:
http://www.whatsinaname.net/php/search.php?action=search2&search_name=lucy
It's a Scottish site but very relevant to other countries in the UK.
Like Nell, I've not come across Lucy as an alternative/pet name for Mary or Elizabeth or in combination.
Maybe it was just a personal choice.
Gadget
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I had a great aunt Mary Elizabeth,who was always known as Dolly.
It wasn't till I started doing my family tree that anyone in the family knew that was her real name- they had all presumed her name was Dorothy(Dolly).
She died the day before her 99th birthday,in 1999.
I also have a Mary Ann who put herself down on the census as Polly.
Carol
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My late mother Emily Hannah was known in the family as Jim. Reason her uncle emigrating to Australia in 1903 and knowing the baby was expected said to my grandfather "If it's a boy call him Jim after me!" It was of course a girl, but she still got named Jim! So why not Mary Elizabeth known as Lucy.
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Thanks for link Gadget. I was just wondering if it was a common pet name for Mary Elizabeth (as Polly apparently is).
Mum's name Jim!! Any Irish stock in the family Redroger?!! I'm still chuckling.
Carol, what a fantastic age and such an achievement having been born a late Victorian (even though only just).
Thank you all for replying.
Eagleye
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My aunt Enid Louise was also known as Dolly. It seems her father, going away to serve in the Great War when she was a child, would sing "Goodbye, Dolly Gray" to her at each leaving, and the name stuck. Another aunt Dorothy who might have been known as Dolly, was always known as Paddy - only a nickname. However, a Eugenie in my tree seems to have settled for Dorothy. There's no accounting.
Some short forms seem to bear no relation to the original name. I had aunts Elizabeth who were Cissie and Bunty, but I'm assured these are genuine pet forms and not nicknames. Elizabeth to Lucy, though not usual, seems reasonable on this basis. Chris
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I think its possible they could call themselves anything!
My gt-grandma had a wonderful name - Planceana Mary................. Birth & Baptism records no problem, spelt wrong, but there she is, her childrend birth records, again different spellings but shes there no problem, death cert, yeah no problem, n in the burial records I gound her in the ledger in seconds much to the amusment of the official who told me without knowing the exact day of burial I wouldnt find her.
Her marriage however I just could not find despite knowing the place & timescale she married, this was the days before internet searches and I literaly spent 2 years in Family history centres & Record offices searching..................... finaly gave up & admitted maybe she hadnt married, which was when my nana (her daughter) dropped a bombshell she had held back from me .............. up until her mother had died SHE hadnt known her mums name was Planceana ..............she had used the name Blanche all her life!
My neigbour here is called Geoff.................. but all my life he has been called Sam - the reason being he doesnt like Geoff!
Gaille
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Amongst my relatives there's a Sylvia called Jake (after rhyme she liked as a child), Charlotte called Bobby (father named Robert), Evelyn called Tootsie and Florence called Toodles, Margaret called Rufus... so anything is possible.
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There were rumours of Irish stock Eagle Eye in my mother's side. Not found any yet, though on my father's side my 2X great grandmother's maiden name Walsh!