In many documents from The Past, one encounters seemingly standardized abbreviations for peoples’ first names, like Geo. for George, Chas. for Charles, Jos. for Joseph, and so on.
What are those called? And is there a list of them?
The Immigrant Ancestors Project does have a list of them, but they’re just called “abbreviations of common Christian names”.
Another list, from the Soc.genealogy,Britain FAQs
Like Wm Shakespeare, Queen Eliz…
Interesting! I knew about Wm. for William, which is the only one I ever see, but I hadn’t known there were so many others.
A friend of mine likes to mention that he went to school at Wm. & My. Which he of course pronounces, “wimmy.”
I like “Jno” for “John.” First of all, does the name “John” really necessitate an abbreviation? Second, it looks more like a typo than a legitimate shortening.
According to the 1990 Census data for males, Chas was more popular than Elroy or Jordon, and Wm was more popular than Geoffrey, Robin, or Sylvester.
Chas, could be due, in part, to a misspelling of Chase, I guess, but who the heck fills in their name as Wm on official documents? (I know, I know… .033% of the male population…)
The dean of the business school at the university I attend abbreviates his first name as “Wm.” on the nameplate of his office. I always thought it was kinda weird. I didn’t think people used those anymore.
Yeah, where did it come from? Johannes was a (the?) Latinized spelling, but the o isn’t in the right place there, either.
Chas is a shortening of Charles.
Yeah, but the Census people go by spelling alone–to them, there’s no difference among Chas as a short form of Charles, Chas as a misspelling of Chase, and Chas as an actual given name.