Author Topic: "Minnie"??? what's that short for?  (Read 14802 times)

Offline ThrelfallYorky

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"Minnie"??? what's that short for?
« on: Wednesday 24 June 15 15:01 BST (UK) »
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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Offline Milliepede

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Re: "Minnie"??? what's that short for?
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday 24 June 15 15:13 BST (UK) »
I think it's short for Minnie Ha Ha  ???
Hinchliffe - Huddersfield Wiltshire
Burroughs - Arlingham Glos
Pick - Frocester Glos

Offline miriamkinga

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Re: "Minnie"??? what's that short for?
« Reply #2 on: Wednesday 24 June 15 15:15 BST (UK) »
My gran's best friend was Mary but was always known as "Minnie".
GOATER, LAN, ALL
BOURKE, MAYO/ LAN
LONERGAN, TIP
McGREAL, MAYO
FLAHERTY, GALWAY/ ALL
HOUGH, LAN/ ALL

Offline Manchester Rambler

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Re: "Minnie"??? what's that short for?
« Reply #3 on: Wednesday 24 June 15 15:16 BST (UK) »
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.
ANT: Nesbit, Potts; CHS: Gosling (Hazel Grove/Lymm), Hinton (Lymm), Johnson (Hazel Grove), Marsland (Hazel Grove), Massey (Daresbury), Sorton (Warmingham); LAN: Jackson, James, Potts (Manchester/Salford); MAY: Caulfield, Griffin (Leveelick); SAL: Goodwin, Johnson (Bridgnorth), Gregory (Wellington); STS: Goodwin, Gregory, Johnson (Wolverhampton); Hallett (Trysull); SOM: Dowding, James, Jones (Bath)

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Offline JonathanC

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Re: "Minnie"??? what's that short for?
« Reply #4 on: Wednesday 24 June 15 15:18 BST (UK) »
My great-grandmother was Williamina but was known as Minnie.  Her fifth child was christened Minnie.  Both in Glasgow, Scotland.
CRUST - Kent (Kingsnorth, Mersham)
BEATON - Isle of Mull
GODDEN - Ruckinge, Kent

Offline LizzieW

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Re: "Minnie"??? what's that short for?
« Reply #5 on: Wednesday 24 June 15 15:22 BST (UK) »
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.

Offline ThrelfallYorky

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Re: "Minnie"??? what's that short for?
« Reply #6 on: Wednesday 24 June 15 15:40 BST (UK) »
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!
Threlfall (Southport), Isherwood (lancs & Canada), Newbould + Topliss(Derby), Keating & Cummins (Ireland + lancs), Fisher, Strong& Casson (all Cumberland) & Downie & Bowie, Linlithgow area Scotland . Also interested in Leigh& Burrows,(Lancashire) Griffiths (Shropshire & lancs), Leaver (Lancs/Yorks) & Anderson(Cumberland and very elusive)

Offline Milliepede

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Re: "Minnie"??? what's that short for?
« Reply #7 on: Wednesday 24 June 15 15:42 BST (UK) »
When was she born and where so we can help with a birth?
Hinchliffe - Huddersfield Wiltshire
Burroughs - Arlingham Glos
Pick - Frocester Glos

Offline ThrelfallYorky

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Re: "Minnie"??? what's that short for?
« Reply #8 on: Wednesday 24 June 15 15:46 BST (UK) »
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.....
Threlfall (Southport), Isherwood (lancs & Canada), Newbould + Topliss(Derby), Keating & Cummins (Ireland + lancs), Fisher, Strong& Casson (all Cumberland) & Downie & Bowie, Linlithgow area Scotland . Also interested in Leigh& Burrows,(Lancashire) Griffiths (Shropshire & lancs), Leaver (Lancs/Yorks) & Anderson(Cumberland and very elusive)