I never had a nickname…the closest was my older sister, Virginia, who was always known as Ginny. I think that’s a rather common nickname. My husband’s sister Patricia, was always known in the family as Tish. There was a 10 years difference in their ages and the story was that my husband, Brian couldn’t pronounce Patricia and it came out as Tish. Until she passed in November of 2023, she was always known as Tish within the family. I was always taken by surprise when someone called her Pat, looking around to see who they were referring to.
There were others in Brian’s family that had nicknames. My father-in-law, Bernard Francis was always known as Pat (a reference to his father, originally Little Pat), and inside his family he was often just called “Brother.” His youngest sister, Mary Theresa was known as “Sissy.” Sis was also the nickname of Brian’s maternal aunt, another Mary. Brian’s grandmother Bridget or sometimes Beatrice was just known as Dodsey…I have no idea where that came from!
Nicknames can sometimes cause us problems in our research. Because of the Irish naming pattern* there tend to be multiple people in the extended family with the same name. In the Moughty family, Bernard appears multiple times in each generation (as do James and Patrick). These given names were so important that if a child died, the name was frequently given again to the next child. Bernard Moughty (great grandfather) died in 1954. I had a baptismal record for him in 1854 making him 100 years old! Further research showed that sometime between 1854 and 1860 the family moved from Longford to Westmeath, and the second Bernard Moughty was born and baptized there. This was the Bernard Moughty that died in 1954 so he was actually 94, still a ripe old age. I have no record of the death of the first Bernard, but the naming of a second child to the same parents indicates the earlier child died.
Nicknames can also be helpful when researching in Griffith’s Valuation (a tax list done between 1845 and 1864). I often hear, “there are so many James, how do I know which one is mine?” There was a rule for the enumerators when facing this situation. The rule stated if there were two or more individuals with the same Christian name and Surname in the same townland they had to be identified differently using an “agnomen” or a second name. When you see this in Griffith’s it becomes a helpful way to identify various families. There was no standard list of agnomens, it was more or less the way the locals referred to an individual. One of the most common agnomens is the father’s name, and would appear as James M’Avoy (Hugh) or James M’Avoy (Pat). If there was more than one Pat, you might find something like James M’Avoy (Red), the one with red hair or James M’Avoy (Teacher) or James M’Avoy (Hackler), the occupation. Since Griffith's was a tax list and not a census an individual could be listed multiple times if they held multiple leases. Every time you see James M'Avoy (Hugh) within the townland it is the same person. If James M'Avoy appears multiple times with no agnomen, it is the same person.
When written, some names are abbreviated, or if they are in church records they may be written in Latin. You’ll probably recognize Thos for Thomas, but when you see Jacobus, it is likely James, rather than Jacob. I was trying to research a Darby Moughty without much luck until I discovered Darby and Derby were nicknames for Jeremiah.
I’m going to close by pointing you to an excellent resource on “Given Name Alternatives for Irish Research” a sample of which is at the top of the page. It was created by Dennis A Hogan and can be found on his website dennisAhogan.com. Click on Lectures at the top of his webpage, and select Course III. Many thanks to Dennis for this invaluable resource.
Happy Hunting!
*The Irish Naming Patterns
1st Son - paternal Grandfather
2nd son - maternal Grandfather
3rd son - Father
4th son - Father’s eldest brother
5th Son - Mother’s eldest brother
1st Daughter - maternal Grandmother
2nd Daughter - paternal Grandmother
3rd Daughter - Mother
4th Daughter - Mother’s eldest Sister
5th Daughter - Father’s eldest Sister
This pattern was not cast in stone and was not always followed. A death of a relative could cause a change, or the issue of everyone named Patrick or Mary.😀
Knowing all of the children and the birth order, may provide a hypothesis for the name of an unknown grandparent.