Genealogy

M Names with P Nicknames

Martha Patricia "Patsey" Bishop
Member tree from Ancestry

Someone has misunderstood the nickname convention for replacing M with P. Martha = Mattie = Patty = Patsy. That’s understandable, but when they then fabricates an additional proper name out of a nickname, I have to wonder about the quality of their research. Do they make other incorrect inferences?

So for the record, her name was only and ever Martha Bishop. Patsy/Patsey was just a nickname for Martha.

ETA: Also, that death date. It is absolutely not correct, but I have no i idea where it’s coming from. A bunch of member trees for Martha include it. The best I can tell is that she died between the 1900 and 1910 censuses. It’s possible she remarried after her second husband, Samuel Thompson, died. I doubt it, though.

Martha is, by the way, the unnamed wife in Samuel Thompson’s will. Martha is not, however, her own spouse. This tree is a giant hot mess.

6 thoughts on “M Names with P Nicknames”

    1. It’s a general convention. It seems to have mostly disappeared in the early 1900s, but if you have English speaking ancestors before that time, you’re likely to run into it.

      It’s the same convention that gives us Peggy as a nickname for Margaret. The M in Meg becomes a P.

      I wonder if this has to do with the recycling of common names in families? It’s hard to tell 2-3 Margarets apart, but if one is Meg and one Peggy, it becomes easier.

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