SOUTH-AFRICA-L Archives

Archiver > SOUTH-AFRICA > 2010-05 > 1273457075


From: Andrew Rodger <>
Subject: Re: [SOUTH-AFRICA] BEST/WOLFF
Date: Mon, 10 May 2010 12:04:35 +1000
References: <mailman.885.1273129279.29239.south-africa@rootsweb.com><4BE4D20D.00000F.03452@DENISES><53C2AC92C35144F7B22885134B68D47D@oemuvenry0wbi0><2D0EAEC2825248C382928531A549CC10@GrahamDesktop><B8613BE522D249FB98297C85C4A86EE6@oemuvenry0wbi0>
In-Reply-To: <B8613BE522D249FB98297C85C4A86EE6@oemuvenry0wbi0>


I think it is not necessary to be too exercised about the differences
in the spelling of the name WOLF, WOOLF, WOLFF, WOOLFF.

Such doubling of the letter F is not uncommon and spelling was pretty
flexible in Germany where there are as many dialects as there are in
English-speaking countries and words could be spelt in different ways
in different parts of the country; WOLF is the German for the English
wolf, but in English wolf is pronounced woolf, so it would not be
surprising if that happened to the surname also and the spelling
changed to match. These days we are rather fussier about spelling
with the growth of literacy (or at least some of us are!) but it was
not always so. I am currently engaged in transcribing some scans of
a Will from the registers of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in
London, dated 1856, and the spelling there, as well as the
vocabulary, is sometimes a complication in reading what to the modern
eye is a decidedly idiosyncratic handwriting.

The same considerations apply to a number of other names, especially
occupational names many of which have stuck in spellings that vary
from the names of those occupations today, the most obvious being
Taylor, the occupation now being spelt Tailor. Names of immigrants
are also frequently altered to suit the mispronunciations of people
in the new country, for example I know a chap who calls himself
Kiellerup -- but his grandfather was a Dane called Kjellerup,
pronounced Shelleroop in Danish.

This thread: