Does anyone have evolving surnames?

[ThrelfallYorky]

Have you found it as "Molyneaux", as well?

[Mart 'n' Al]

There is a web site where you can enter the name of something you are seeking on eBay and it will do lots of auto-searches for likely wrong spellings of that item.  We could do with a genealogy version!

[Chilternbirder]

Going off at a tangent this thread has reminded me of having to deal with a Palestinian customer several decades ago. The name on her passport had been transliterated from Arabic to Hebrew and then into Roman script. The result bore very little relation to how she wrote her hame in  phonetic English.

[Redroger]

Going off at a tangent this thread has reminded me of having to deal with a Palestinian customer several decades ago. The name on her passport had been transliterated from Arabic to Hebrew and then into Roman script. The result bore very little relation to how she wrote her hame in  phonetic English.

I cam imagine when i was a personel officer at Birmingham New St in the early 1990s one of our drivers(Sikh)had one signature (native script) which he used to sign everything from cheques to timesheets and reports. Said it was easiest way. His English was perfect.

[joboy]

Does anyone have any really inventive alternative to use in a search for Briggs?
Biggs, Buggs, Bridge, Prida already found but I wonder if I'm missing some obvious possibilities.

We should all search for pluralized versions of names ........... even the experts make mistakes.
Using a reputable organization many years ago I was searching for a marriage of a namesake to someone and was advised that the name was BRIGG and I lived with that for years until,through my own efforts,I discovered that the actual and correct name was BRIDGES ........... I was very annoyed and told them so.
I did get an apology but it did not make up for the wasted time.
Joe

[kareneadie]

I was banging my head against a wall trying to find records for my 3x great grandfather Richard Eadie, I eventually found him under Richard Addis and his father is listed as William Addes!

[Jon_ni]

recently I came across reference to a historic GRO report on surname variation by the Irish Register General 1901 so googled & downloaded the pdf see the attached image of one page. He tabulated surnames & their variations on subsequent pages, may be one by an English Register general too somewhere as part of their annual reports but not come across it. https://archive.org/details/varietiessynony00math On a previous page to the image he writes: The name “Whittaker” appears to have come from Whiteacre, with which form it has been found to be used interchangeably. Thus—
Whiteacre.
Whiteaker
Whitegar.
Whittegar.
Whittacre.
Whitaker.
Whittaker.

This is supposedly for Surnames in Ireland but no reason why can't throw any name in to see what it comes up with for curiosity https://www.johngrenham.com/surnames/

[Jon_ni]

and of course for added fun placenames evolve too and swop back and forth even in the Parish Registers so Honyngham and Hunningham, Warwickshire are used by different ministers for births in 1860-80's and Hampstead Noreys & Hampstead Norris, Berkshire being recent off the top of my head. Just the phonetic variation then have the villages like Bugsworth, Derbyshire where the parish council decided should be Buxworth as they didn't like Bugs.

But to get back on topic Wetherall, Weatherall, Wetheral, Wetherel, Wetherill etc sometimes with the officiating minister writing it one way and the bride or groom signing another on the GRO/Parish entry.

What I find harder to understand is how Rymell became Ryman and then back to Rymill
Rymell / Rymel / Rymele / Rymill / Rymal / Rymall / Rimell. Ryman / Rymen / Riman.

[Andrew Tarr]

... The name “Whittaker” appears to have come from Whiteacre, with which form it has been found to be used interchangeably. Thus—
Whiteacre.
Whiteaker
Whitegar.
Whittegar.
Whittacre.
Whitaker.
Whittaker.

Whittaker has begun to appear in my Lancashire parish, apparently developed from Wadaker or Waddicor, which had been fairly common in 1700s, but less so later.  So maybe your net has to be even wider?