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  #1  
Old 12-05-12, 17:17
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Default Grace and Nay

It's not just the current generation that have odd names.

My next door neighbour when I was small was a retired teacher. Her best friends were two sisters: Grace and Nay. Nay? Was she a Whinny-fred in diguise? Did she have an embarrassing laugh? Did she always put the dampeners on things by just saying her name? I never dared ask.

My neighbour died. In the way of things, my mother kept in touch with the Misses Hall, who retired themselves down to the south coast, to Portsmouth.

There was the death of a Grace Evelyn in Portsmouth, born 1887. There was a birth of a Grace Evelyn, in Portsmouth. Portsmouth family, and looking at 1891, Grace's little sister was Lizzie. Lizzie N!

By 1901, the family had moved to Belvedere, Kent. Right area. In 1911, Grace and Lizzie are both teachers. It's looking better and better.

Lizzie didn't die until 1992, aged 98. And her second name? Naomi! (Of course)
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Old 12-05-12, 23:47
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That's interesting - I'm sure some of my relatives used to say that the correct pronunciation of Naomi was Nye-omi and that it was only the younger generation who pronounced it Nay-omi.
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Old 13-05-12, 09:34
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Like my mum, who insisted it was Cly on sea and who how we sneered at the tourists calling it Clay -until I heard her uncle, born and bred there, say Clay! I bet it was an early C20th century form of snobbism.

I sometimes wonder how many ancestors names I completely mispronounce. Maria & Keziah for example.
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Old 14-05-12, 07:52
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One of my uncles was known as Flip. Everyone called him that, even at school and at work. Why Flip? Goodness knows - his name was William Keith!
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Old 14-05-12, 18:06
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Well done Phoenix!!

lol Sue!!


And, well, if we're going to compare oddities:

My great-aunt was baptised Celia Olive Bxxxxx she was always known as Thom (with the h).

My grandmother (other side of the family) was baptised Queenie Mildred Bxxxxxxxx - aka Peggy (???)

Her sister, Evelyn Mildred, was Millie (easier to understand)
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Old 12-08-18, 11:39
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My grandmother's aunty Emily Esther was always called "Aunt Polly Em". The Polly was because she kept a parrot!

Uncle Jim's real name was Jabez and sometimes his brothers called him Jabe.

No one alive now knows why my other grandmother, Annie Eliza, was called Peachy.
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Old 12-08-18, 17:15
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How satisfying that you've solved that mystery Phoenix.

My own little one recently was Trissie, a name that keeps cropping up in a school logbook from the 1920s which I'm transcribing. I won't bore you with all the searches I did but it turns out it's an abbreviation for Beatrice.
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Old 15-08-18, 11:56
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Don't know how I missed this thread first time round, as one of my daughters is called Naomi. We pronounce it "Nay Me" but lots of people struggle with saying it, reading it and spelling it. She is Nay for short and she hates that.

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