Don’t assume that because a name is short that it is short for something. Not everything that appears to be a diminutive is necessarily a diminutive for that person’s name. Bert Hendrickson owed my relative money in the 1920s. My initial attempts to locate him focused on searching for Albert–because that’s what Bert “had” to stand for.

Nope.

Turns out his real name was Bert after all. nicknames

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  1. My grandmothers name was Bess E. Just that. My cousins go by one of the censuses that she was Elizabeth. I was able to prove from her husbands diary on the actual census visit day that they were out of town and the info was most likely filled out by one of the farmhands. In every other record, including her marriage record, she is listed as Bess E. And I lived with her and asked her what her real name was.

  2. My husband has that problem. His name is Joe. He was named for a great uncle Joseph. He’s had to correct people who attempted to enter his name as Joseph as his given name on forms.

  3. I have a sibling name Stan. My mother went rounds with the state on his birth certificate because they wanted to name him Stanly. She said if she was going to call him Stanly she would of name him that., .

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