(no subject)

[naath]

Died on this day in 1495 aged 80 Cecily Neville (my toy,wikipedia). Mother of Edward IV and Richard III. Grand-daugher of John-of-Gaunt and Katherine Swynford. She spelled her name Cecylle, spelling was less... standardised back then and not everyone agrees on the spelling of a name. I would like my database to know that mostly Catherine/Katherine/Kathryne are the SAME NAME but I'm not sure how to teach it that, especially considering that CURRENTLY people are very attached to their spellings, and presumably the Duchess of Cambridge would object should I get her name wrong (if she knew, I mean). (Note to self - one baby girl to add... further note - should monitor currently alive people carefully in general). Cecily was the aunt of the Kingmaker (it's a big family, lots of men with the same name).

Born on this day in 1105 to Count Eustance III of Boulogne and Mary of Scotland, Countess Matilda of Boulougne (my toy,wikipedia). Wife of King Stephen (yes, he knew LOTS of women called Matilda-or-maybe-Maud; no, I don't know why Matilda and Maud are the same name, it's a lot less obvious that Catherine and Katherine). She was Stephen's 8th Cousin, they are both descendants of Alfred the Great (I guess that by today most people are...), she supported her husband in the civil war in England.

Comments

[lethargic_man]

I would like my database to know that mostly Catherine/Katherine/Kathryne are the SAME NAME but I'm not sure how to teach it that

Genealogists have this problem a lot; the solution is to convert the name to a soundex (phonetic version), and then do the same for any name before you look it up. The Wikipedia page I just linked to says "Soundex is the most widely known of all phonetic algorithms (in part because it is a standard feature of popular database software such as DB2, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Ingres, MS SQL Server and Oracle)", so maybe that would solve your problem?

[naath]

I don't know if that solves the problem, but it's certainly interesting.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

"Maud and Matilda are variations on the same name; Matilda is the Latin form of the Saxon name Maud, and was usually used in official documents, especially of Norman origin." I can see the logic of having both, although the direct linguistic connection between the two forms escapes me.

Wikipedia has this to say about [C/K]ath[a/e]rine of Aragon: "Her baptismal name was "Catalina", but "Katherine" was soon the accepted form in England after her marriage to Arthur (who later died of natural causes). Catherine herself signed her name "Katherine", "Katherina", "Katharine" and sometimes "Katharina". In a letter to her, Arthur, her husband, addressed her as "Princess Katerine". Her daughter Queen Mary I called her "Quene Kateryn", in her will." Her tomb says Katharine. I guess before 1800 or so there has to be a certain amount of variation expected unless your name is Mary, George, or Henry. :)

[naath.livejournal.com]

Ah, interesting....

I think before printing was invented spelling was in general more... variable.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

Maud is pronounced 'mout' in Dutch, German etc.
The range of variants of Matilda on Wiki has Mathilde, then French Mahout (put glottal stop for t in Mathilde) which is pretty much the same as Maud.

[naath.livejournal.com]

ah, yes, of course our pronunciation changed...