Why spellings change over time

Many families find their surname written in different ways in old records, and many given names exist in several spellings today. This is not usually the result of a single mistake. Spelling itself has a history, and names have been shaped by it.

Before spelling was fixed

English spelling was not always standardised. Writing in History Today, Stan Carey describes how people once wrote as they spoke, so that differences in dialect produced differences on the page, and how English stayed varied even after printing arrived. Samuel Johnson’s dictionary, published in 1755, became a landmark, but Britannica notes that Johnson himself recognised that languages keep changing rather than following fixed rules.

Names were no exception. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust notes that only six signatures of William Shakespeare are known, all on legal documents, and that they differ in handwriting and even in the spelling of the name, because there was then no set way to spell words. The Folger Shakespeare Library observes that he appears to have varied his signature rather than repeat it mechanically, as some other literate men of his time did.

Records and the people who wrote them

For most of history, names were written down by clerks, clergy and officials, often from the spoken word. Each writer chose a spelling, so the same person could appear differently in different records.

The Ellis Island myth

A popular story holds that immigration officers at Ellis Island changed people’s names on arrival in the United States. The evidence does not support it. The USCIS History Office explains that passenger lists were not created at Ellis Island but abroad, when immigrants bought their tickets, and that inspectors were instructed not to change a name unless the immigrant asked or the original information was shown to be wrong.

The New York Public Library adds that inspectors checked arriving passengers against the ship’s list rather than creating new records, and that immigrants more commonly changed their names themselves after arrival. USCIS also notes that teachers, employers and others often wrote names down without asking how they were spelled.

Variation is part of a name’s history

Spelling variants can come from sound, from local habits, from the conventions of a particular record-keeper, or from a deliberate choice by the person or family. Today, major official name statistics, such as those for the United States and for England and Wales, count each spelling separately, which is one reason variants remain visible. A different spelling is often best understood as part of a name’s history rather than as an error.