Spelling

Welcome to the FreeBMD District Aliasers' reference page that discusses whether to use a ! in front of any alias to indicate a misspelling, or whether to leave it as a variant. This page attempts to ensure that different aliasers will give the same judgement on whether an alias is an 'alternative' spelling, a variant, or whether it is a spelling mistake.

General Points

While this page provides guidance on as many topics as possible, there will always be occasions when a transcriber has entered something unexpected. In these circumstances the issue should be discussed among the district aliasers and where appropriate this page should be updated.

Punctuation

There are a myriad of characters other than A through z that have been transcribed. In the majority of cases these should be ignored when deciding if the word has been abbreviated or misspelt.

The exceptions are when any of the 'uncertain format characters' have been used, namely [ _ * ] or when a space between words has been omitted. These should be treated as spelling mistakes.

Standard Abbreviations

Any initial letter can be treated as a valid abbreviation
A ' can indicate one of more missing letters, either where it is located or earlier in the word
- e.g. B'p for Bishop
- e.g. Scarbro' for Scarborough
The ending borough can be abbreviated to either boro or bro without punctuation
Especially at the end of a word, the final letter with either a line or dot below it can be treated as a valid abbreviation
- Bradfd. Y (written with a superscript d and a . below it)
- Bradfd- Y (written with a superscript d and a - below it)
A dot at the end of a word can indicate the same as the ' for Scarbro'
- e.g. Bps. for Bishops

The table below summarizes the correct spellings of 2 or more letters for the words most commonly abbreviated in the names of the districts as recorded in the index books.

Standard Name	Abbreviation	Standard Name	Abbreviation	Standard Name	Abbreviation	Standard Name	Abbreviation
Abbot	Ab Abb Abbt Abt	Bierlow	Bier Bierw Bw	Bishops	Bhs Bps Bs Bshs Bshps Bsps	Bridge	Bge Br
Brigg	Bg Br Brig Brg	Buzzard	Bd Buz Buzd Buzz Buzzd Bz Bzd Bzrd Bzzd	Chipping	Chg Chip Chipg Chipp Chippg Chpg	Church	Ch
Damerel	Da Dal Dam Dame Daml Dl	East	Est Et	Edmunds	Ed Eds	Emlyn	Em Eml Emln Emly En Eyn
Frith	Fr Frh Frth Fth
George	Geo Geor	Glanford	Gland Glanf	Great	Gr Gt	Green	Gn Gr Grn
Hampshire	Hants	Hanover	Ha Han Hanr Hanovr Hanvr	Harborough	Harbro	Hemel	Hem
Hempstead	Hemp Hempd Hempst Hempstd	Isle or Island	Id Is Isd Isld	James	Jas	Kings	Kgs
Lancashire	Lan Lanc Lancs	Lynn	Ln Lyn	Mallett	Mal Mall Ml Mt	Market	Markt Mk Mkt Mt
Marsh	Ma Mrsh Msh	Monmouth	Mon Monm Mons Monsh Month Mth	Mortimer	Mor Morr Mort Mortr Mo Mot Motr Mr Mt	Mowbray	Mby Mow Mowby
North	Nrth Nt Nth	Norton	Nn No Nor Nort Nortn	Pagnell	Pag Pagl Pagll Pagn Pagnl Pg Pgl	Park	Pk
Saffron	Saff Saffn	Saint	Sa St	Severn	Sev Sevn Sn Sv Svn Svrn	Shropshire	Sal Salop Sh Shr Shrop Shrops Slp
Sodbury	Sod Sodby Sodb Sody Sy	Somerset	Sm Som Somt St	South	So Sth	Southwark	Sk South Southk Southwk Sthwk
Spring	Sg Sp Spg Sprg	Square	Sq Sqr Sqre	Stour	St Str	Street	St Str Strt
Stretton	Strett	Surrey	Sy	Thames	Ths	Trent	Tr Trt
Walden	Wn	Ward	Wd	West	Wst Wt	Westminster	West Westm Westminr Westmntr Westmr Westr
Wiltshire	Wilt Wilts	Wintney	Wint Winty Wt Wty Wy	York	Yrk	Yorkshire	Yk Yks Yksh York Yorks

The abbreviations that have been considered (FIOUY still need to be looked at for this category) and decided to constitute spelling mistakes are:-

Chipping
- Chips
Marsh
- Mh
- Mrh
- Ms
North
- Nh
- Nr
- Nt
Shropshire
- Sa
- Sp
South
- Sh
- St
Stour
- Sor
- Sr
Surrey
- Suy
Trent
- Tre
Tyne
- Te
- Ty
Walden
- Wd
West
- Ws

Incorrect Plurality is a Spelling Mistake

The majority view is that incorrect plurality is to be treated as a spelling mistake.

i.e. Bishop Stortford and abbreviations for Bishop are spelling mistakes for Bishops Stortford

Word Order

Changed word order constitutes

an alternative spelling if
- the change is between the order of 'parish, district' or 'district or parish'
  e.g. Westminster St James is an alternative spelling for St James, Westminster
- the geographical information is a prefix or a suffix
  e.g. Aylesford N is an alternative spelling for North Aylesford
a spelling mistake if
- the change is within the one of the clauses (i.e. parish or district)
  e.g. Westminster James St is a spelling mistake for St James, Westminster since the 'St' comes after the 'James' in the parish part
  e.g. Stortford Bishops is a spelling mistake for Bishops Stortford
- the parts of the parish and mixed in with the parts of the district
  e.g. George Hanover Square St for the parish of St George in the district of Hanover Square

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