A stupid question

[cazza59]

Hi All

This might sound like a stupid question but can anyone tell me if the name "Flossie" is a nickname associated with a proper name e.g. Florence or whatever.

I have a certificate I downloaded from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the soldier's wife is listed as "Flossie" which to me sounds more like a nickname.

I'd love to hear others thoughts/opinions.

Cheers
Caz

[jeenie]

Florence, I believe.

I remember reading old books of my father's when I was very young, written in Victorian times, containing that abreviation for that name.

Cheers.     

[Necromancer]

The internet and Google are there to help you !

http://www.nireland.com/anne.johnston/Diminutives.htm

[sula_nebouxii]

OH's grandmother, born in 1910, was named Florence Maud after her mother.  She told me that  her father chose the name, but her mother did not want it because  "they will call her Flossie."  I got the impression that her mother had been called Flossie as a child and did  not like it!

Dad won, but she was always called Maud. 

Sula

[Mean_genie]

Not a stupid question at all. Although Flossie is generally regarded as a diminutive of Florence, it was also a name in its own right. A quick search on the FreeBMD database showed over 3000 births where Flossie is the given name.

One the biggest surprises I found when I started researching was how many people had a diminutive as a given name - I had always assumed that these were nicknames, and the birth certificates would always show the 'proper' name. But I was wrong. Your great-uncle Sam was not necessarily Samuel, nor was grandma Betsy always Elizabeth. Just try searching for these (or Fred, Bert, Polly etc) in the birth indexes and you'll see what I mean.

Mean_genie

[casram]

My grandmother was known as Fanny which I had always thought was short for Frances until I got her birth certificate which showed she was registered as Fanny

Carolyn

[nanny jan]

My friend Frances used to be known in her family as Flossie!


Nanny Jan

[cazza59]

Many thanks to you all, this has been a great help.  Unfortunately, I can't find a wedding entry for this chap which prompted the question but you've given me other avenues to follow!

Not a fan of diminutives myself, I think if anyone called me Carrie I'd thump them one as my first thought is Stephen King's Carrie!    

Cheers again, the help you get on Rootschat is second to none!

Regards
Caz  AKA Caroline

[willow154]

Hi Caz,
This probably won't help (as you've probably tried to find her using the name Flossie)  
I thought I'd look on familysearch, as it usually gives variations on names, and Flossie came up as a name in its' own right! So I tried the same surname I'd picked as an example, Brown, and tried Florence Brown to see if it came up as Flossie as well - and it didn't.
Hope this makes sense.
Don't know if I've helped, though
Paulene