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Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Topic started by: ww1614 on Wednesday 05 August 15 15:10 BST (UK)
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Has anyone found that women from Ireland with the given name Bridget changed their given names to something less Irish sounding when they emigrated to the US?
I have twice found records for ancestors that are perfect matches except they list Bridget or Biddy for a first name, but in the US they have a different name.
Just curious.
Wendy
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Sorry can't help although I understand that quite often servants working in large houses were given "suitable" names by the mistress of the house.
Back in 1966 we told our relatives up in Yorkshire that we'd chosen the name Bridget if our baby was a girl. There was a gasp of horror from my husband's old grandmother who burst out with her protestation - with great emphasis as shown:
"but Bridget's a SERVANT'S name!"
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One of my mother's elder sisters was a Bridget, often called "Biddy" she took a dislike to the name and declared henceforth she was "Bee". A few days after, walking down the street of Ardee she heard a boy calling out "BIDDY BIDDY BIDDY!!!"
Aunty Bee grabbed the miscreant by the shoulders and threw him against a wall, screaming into his face; "WHAT IS MY NAME?", The poor boy wailing in fear, could hardly reply and the question was repeated till he finally whimpered out; "your name is, ... BIDDY NO MORE!!!"
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I have an example in my family that I've never got to the bottom of, though some people have told me that it is possibly an 'alternative'. My gg grandmother who came from Fermanagh was originally called Bridget. The family moved to Scotland in the 1830s and, by the time she got married to an Englishman in 1849, she was called 'Elizabeth'.