Using middle names as first names?

[Gillg]

Thanks, nameless and Redroger.  I certainly heard the added "l" a lot when I lived there.  I'm not sure it was just added to proper names, though.  I'm sure it was also added to other words, such as "What a good ideal". 

Wikipedia has the following:
"A dialect of English is spoken by some Bristol inhabitants, known colloquially as Bristolian, or even more colloquially as "Bristle" or "Brizzle". Bristol natives speak with a rhotic accent, in which the r in words like car is pronounced. The unusual feature of this dialect, unique to Bristol, is the Bristol L (or terminal L), in which an L sound is appended to words that end in an 'a' or 'o'.[159] Thus "area" becomes "areal", etc. "

Gillg

[nameless]

I'm just an ordinary Bristolian but I have never added the notorious "l". 

People speak differently according to which part of Bristol they were born, perhaps because people moved there from various other counties.  I'd never heard anyone say "Gert Lush" when I read it on a tee shirt.

Gillg did you ever go to Bemminster?  (Bedminster)

Bristolians speak Proper English.  (Ducks behind a chair)

[Redroger]

Or Beemster (Beaminster) in Dorset? There seems to be a habit in English of scrambling long proper names into something shorter.The adding of the consonant to words that end in "a" or "o" in contradicted in the case of Bristowe, so I think the sauggestion of an ending vowel is likely more accurate.

[Gillg]

My daughter used to live in Bemminster, sorry Bedminster   and since she is a good mimic she very quickly picked up a passable imitation of the accent.  

Gillg

[nameless]

A lot of people from Somerset seemed to move to Bedminster.

Going back to the thread title, my Dad's ancestors used various names which makes it very difficult to trace. They seemed to use whichever they fancied each day.  How do I know if I'm searching for Edward, Thomas or George, especially as they were from other counties? 

I wonder if they were avoiding the law or rent man.

[danuslave]

I live in Thornbury, about 10 miles north of Bristol.  Actually there aren't that many 'locals' here, apart from the younger generation.  A lot of us are incomers

For some reason it's one of those places that's lots of people have heard of.  If I tell someone where I'm from, I often get the response 'Oh my aunty/second cousin twice removed/the lady I used to work with lives there'   And it's not even that big a place!

When I first came to this area (from Surrey, via Edinburgh Uni), my first introduction to the Bristol L was someone talking about that very popular car - the Ford Cortinal

I've never been able to work out what my son's accent is

born and bred here
mother from Surrey, father from Yorkshire (Bratford, as he would say)
maternal grandmother Surrey, grandfather Co Durham
paternal grandparents  Yorkshire

BTW - quote from the Alexander Armstrong WDYTYA

you can tell a family is posh if they don't pronounce their name the way it is spelt

Linda

[nameless]

There's a nice website for Thornbury.  Shame my nearest ones are from Almondsbury.  Do you have a Mop now?

[danuslave]

Mop was stopped in 2000, but I think Chipping Sodbury still has one.

I've often wondered why it was called a 'Mop Fair' and just found this

The Mop was a ‘hiring fair’ event held twice a year in Thornbury, in March and September.  The original intention was to bring people looking for work together with people looking for workers.  The term 'Mop' derives from the fact that each person was supposed to be carrying an implement to indicate the trade for which they were seeking employment and the mop was used by general domestic servants.

If I can help with anything from Almondsbury let me know

Linda

Sorry Nick29 this thread seems to have lost its way a bit   

[nameless]

danuslave

Thank you very much for the offer.  I'll get back to you.

Link to explain Bristol name.  http://www.buildinghistory.org/bristol/saxonslaves.shtml