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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: ThrelfallYorky on Wednesday 24 June 15 15:01 BST (UK)
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Recently cam upon the name "Minnie" for a child - apart from "Minerva", which sounds unlikely for a working-class mob in N of England in 19thC - what could it be short for? Surely it couldn't be a name in its own right (Unless you're a Mouse, of course).
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I think it's short for Minnie Ha Ha ???
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My gran's best friend was Mary but was always known as "Minnie".
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Minnie was originaly a Scottish pet form of Mary, but it became a popular name in its own right in Victorian England. It can also be a short form of Wilhelmina. I have several Minnies (not short for anything) in my own tree.
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My great-grandmother was Williamina but was known as Minnie. Her fifth child was christened Minnie. Both in Glasgow, Scotland.
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My mother in law was called Minnie, but that was the name she was baptised as, so not short for anything and, Milliepede, she was certainly not a Minnie ha ha, quite the opposite.
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Thanks for those ideas - haven't found her birth records yet, or baptism, can't believe she'd be a Wilhelmina, again, too fancy to fit in with the names of the rest of the mob - but on censuses up she pops as "Minnie". None of them quite fit - there's another child "Mary" so that pet name's not likely - and on that line there doesn't seem to be a Scottish influence. Just really can't seriously imagine calling a child that!
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When was she born and where so we can help with a birth?
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Someone's just given me something that sounds very likely - it fits in with others, too, in the generation above : MIRIAM! Off to see if it's right.....
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I've an Auntie Minnie who was a Minerva. Need to check later on re occupations, but the family weren't from the higher echelons of society
Added: definitely not - father was a farm labourer!
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I've seen two separate Minnies:
- Mary Ann
- Amelia
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My greatgrandfathers second wife was named Minnie. That was the name she was baptized with. Not short for anything.
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Like Josephine...I have a Minnie who was Amelia.
Carol
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My Great Aunt was a Minnie (later just Aunt Min) and she was a Marion at her christening and registration.
alanmack
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I had a great Aunt Minnie, not short for anything - registered as Minnie.
Plenty of Minnies on Freebmd, averaging over 20 per quarter between 1880 and 1900 in Nottinghamshire alone (just happened to be searching on that place and time period).
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According to the "Oxford Names Companion" Minnie was the pet form of Wilhelmina and was at the peak of its popularity in the latter half of the 19th Century. It partly fell out of use because of its association with cartoon characters such as Minnie Mouse and Minnie the Minx (in the Beano) :)
Stan
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I've got a gggreat aunt named Araminta who was also called Minnie.
Jen
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I just did a exploratory search via FreeBMDs "Search Names" page.
http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search-names.pl
They have 467,135 official (indexed) records that include the given name "Minnie".
For further example, there were 49,893 births of people called "Minnie" in the UK between 1900-1930.
BugBear
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What's wrong with Minnie?
Where do you think Walt Disney got the name from? ;D ;D
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Many years ago I used to work with a lady called Minnie, it was her given name she was born in the 1920's.
Patty :)
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I have an ancestor who was known as Minnie but she was Christened Maria. I think it is most commonly used for Mary or Maria but obviously there are others. Of course it could also be a nick-name for someone who is short or petite.......... or an ironic nick-name for someone who is neither of those!
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I came across a "Minnie" who was christened Margaret for her mother and known /buried as "Minnie". So maybe "Minnie" in this case was instead of Margaret Junior?
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Queen Alexandra had a sister Dagmar, married to the Tsar, she was called Minnie within her family.
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It could just be a nick name for the youngest child, especially if there were a five year gap between the next youngest.
It could be Lilian?
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I had a car once called Mini
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I think actress Minnie Driver quite likes the name?! ;D ;D
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Interesting discussion!
My Great Grandmother was given the name Minnie, named after her maternal aunt, Wilhelmina.... who was known as Mina! There are a few Minnies/Minas in that side of the family.
On the other side of my family I was finding Minnies where there hadn't been before. I soon found that the family used Minnie as a nickname for Jemima! ;D
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I think actress Minnie Driver quite likes the name?! ;D ;D
Her full name is Amelia Fiona J. Driver
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Ok then, how about Minnie Riperton?! ;D
Or Minnie D Craig - First female speaker of the US House of Representatives?
Or Minnie Fisher Cunningham - leading suffragette?
Or Minnie Marx - mother and manager of the Marx Brothers?
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Minnie Cauldwell ;D ;D
Now that HAS aged me :o
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That Minnie Ripperton........... she could hit some high notes!!!!
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Thanks, everyone - "Miriam" was the right one! Amazing you could all think of so many names it could be a shortened/pet version of. But it's solved. Mine was a Miriam.
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No one mentioned Minnie the Moocher?!
;D
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I have two Minnie's on my grandmother's side, born in London in the late 19th century.
One died at a young age and the parent's named their next daughter Minnie Rose.
My g-grandfather used to say about his sister that "Minnie Rose and fell again"
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My late wife had an aunt ...... 'Minna'
Joe
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My great aunt was registered at birth as Minnie in 1890 but showed up as "Mary Letitia" in the 1901 and 1911 Irish censuses. We always knew her as "Aunt Marie" but she was married and buried as Mary L.
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So many Minnies - I have a “Minnie Cooper” on my tree! Then, again, I also have a “Frances Barnett”.
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I have Minnie which seems to have been passed down through various generations. however it seems to have originally started as Martha and then a Martha had a daughter in 1850 named Minnie... No idea if Minnie was a nickname for Martha or if this is useless info
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I wonder if she was Minnie just meant that she was named after her mother a 'mini Martha/Mary/Jane/etc'
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Being fairly sure that Minnie was a given name, I have checked the Kent baptisms between 1840 and 1920 on Findmypast. They list 6,824; there is some duplication, but that is a lot of girls baptised Minnie just in one county. And they wouldn't all have been baptised!
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I wonder if she was Minnie just meant that she was named after her mother a 'mini Martha/Mary/Jane/etc'
According to etymonline.com, mini as a prefix meaning “small” came into common usage around 1960, derived from miniature. I would guess the girl’s name was not related to size.
Just guessing here, but Disney probably chose Minnie just because it went well with Mouse and with Mickey, too.