Could Eliza ever be short for Elizabeth?

[stevelord65]

Wondering if Eliza was sometimes a short form of Elizabeth or was it always just a name in its own right? (Am trying to trace an 'Eliza' through the records and not sure if I also need to be searching on 'Elizabeth')
Thanks in advance,
Steve

[trish1120]

Absolutely.
Also Lizzie, Elspet (in Scotland mostly) Betty etc

When searching for others on here sometimes a family names one Daughter Elizabeth and another Eliza also to confuse things even more

[Zaphod99]

Yes, I've got ancestors who seemed to swap between the two.

Zaph

[Jebber]

I agree it is quite common to find Eliza as a diminutive for Elizabeth.

 I would also advise being careful and double checking dates including deaths. There are a number of trees on  Ancestry that have an Eliza in my family as married with a family whereas if they had been more careful they would have seen that she died in infancy, it was a later sibling named Elizabeth who married  and had the family credited to Eliza.

[Andrew Tarr]

The fundamental biblical name is Elizabeth, which has accrued several diminutives, as said above.  Many girl children were baptised with a diminutive version - Eliza or Lizzie - and you will need to see the baptism record to find out.  And of course some personages have even used Lilibet, which isn't in the standard list 

[MollyC]

Well I think that was created by a child struggling to pronounce her own four-syllable name!

I have a lady who is recorded as Elizabeth all her life until aged 76, when she appears as Eliza in the 1901 census. Her death was registered as Elizabeth, aged 80.  So she was probably always known as Eliza.

[Zaphod99]

Throughout history names have changed, quite often if a man gives his new wife a nickname or a new derivative, which becomes almost standard use.

Zaph

[MollyC]

It also happened when a child had the same name as a parent, as a result of traditional naming patterns.  Polly is said to be a diminutive of Mary.  However my Elizabeth had a mother and a sister both named Hannah.  I could not find Hannah the younger in 1871, until I found her as a visitor in Elizabeth's household, named Polly.  The census form was probably filled in by Elizabeth's husband, who had only ever known his sister-in-law as Polly.

[Alison55]

Eliza is just one of many many forms of Elizabeth. I have three great great grandmothers named Elizabeth. All were shortened to Eliza in various records. One I could not find in a census until I discovered that her husband called her Bess. I think Queen Elizabeth the first was sometimes called Good Queen Bess as another example.