Family surname variants

Over the years the way in which the parish clerk and clergy have recorded the surnames of the parishioners has varied substantially. It was not until the advent of universal literacy that the spelling of surnames became standardized. When the bride and groom could not read, they were not able to insist on a standard spelling of their surnames. Please use this table to look for variants of surnames.

Besides the variants listed in this table, there were other, very common, variants. A letter e might be added to almost any name (Grant and Grante); a name ending in s might have a letter e inserted before the s (Hands and Handes), any character in a name, but particularly the last character or last but one, might be doubled (Lampit and Lampitt), and there were also combinations of these changes (Bishop and Bishoppe). These very common variants are not included in this table, to keep the table simple.

In addition, vowel sounds in what is probably the same name might be represented by several different characters, often representing the pronunciation of the north Cotswolds, and this is further complicated by the changes in pronunciation that may have taken place over the centuries. For example, Hands, Handes, Hans and Hannes could be the same surname. These possibilities are included in the table.

Every effort has been made to make this list complete, but you should consider whether other alternative spelling are possible. Listing as a possible name variant does not mean that persons with variant names are necessarily related: this is always a matter of interpretation and judgment. Proof of relationship is up to you!

The table also includes a list of aliases that appear in the registers, such as Harris alias Clark. If you are following a family some of whose members sometimes appears with an alias, you should also consider persons with the 'other name'. Some persons appear in the registers with one alias name first, and others with the other alias name first (for example there are people described as Harris alias Clark, and others as Clark alias Harris). The significance of the order is unclear.

You can use the 'Search' feature of your browser to search these name variants. Because of the spelling variants, it is best to search for a part of the name: searching for Har should find many of the Harris variants.