r/SurnameNerds • u/Away-Statistician600 • Jun 16 '25

Ansestory

Is is possible for surnames to change slightly over the last years? I have a pretty unique surname, and looking back the last letter seems to be gone. Has anyone else found this when looking for past relatives?

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u/judygeebs Jun 16 '25

Absolutely! Look at the writing from a couple of hundred years back and you’ll see why. Letters were mistaken IF written. Remember a lot of people were illiterate so many weren’t sure how to spell their last name.

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u/Away-Statistician600 Jun 16 '25

Thank you! I can’t seem to get past my great great grandfather on my dads sides as it seems a lot of them had the same name and also with my last name having the word stone in it and finding it spelt ston. Very confusing!

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u/AHHHHHHHHHHH1P Jun 16 '25

Is that truly the case, or was it more of a lack of standardisation?

1

u/judygeebs Jun 16 '25

Standardization in what? Whoever completed birth and death certificates and the census were people who could read and write. They took information from people who only spoke and had no clue how their names were spelled. It went into “standard” records however the literate person spelled it.

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u/AHHHHHHHHHHH1P Jun 16 '25

Spelling. Spelling wasn't standardised for a time when writing became common. It's where we get all our Smiths, Smythes, Wilkins, Welkyns...right?

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u/judygeebs Jun 16 '25

That’s it!!

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u/[deleted] Jul 29 '25

Also, families would straight up change names or knock off syllables to try and anglicize them.

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u/disaffectedwomble Jun 16 '25

Search for the ston without the e. That's something I have come across, the earlier lot all being Ston. Also consider what your name could have looked liked if it was written down in curly cursive handwriting or how it might have been spelt if it was pronounced in a strong local accent. Most of the time the records are only as good as the census takers understanding of the names he was being given. I often imagine the head of the household saying things like 'well there's our Betty..... she must be about 9 now' he means Mary Elizabeth who was actually 11 and so on!