By Kimberly Brown, Family Historian

One challenge of searching for your ancestors' names in old records is that they commonly used nicknames. Some of these nicknames-like Jim for James and Bob for Robert-are probably already familiar to you. Others, however, are no longer in use and therefore may seem strange and unexpected. Let's go through some of these unfamiliar nicknames:

. Millie is a nickname for Amelia
. Chet is a derivation of Chester
. Women named Christina or Christine or Ernestine were frequently nicknamed Tina
. Connie was a common nickname for Constance
. Nellie was a common nickname for Cornelia
. You're probably familiar with Liz, Betsy, Beth, Betty, and Lizzie as nicknames for Elizabeth. But don't forget Eliza and Bertha
. Flo is a common nickname for Florence
. Women named Frances were nicknamed Fanny
. Men named Henry were commonly nicknamed Hal or Hank
. The nickname Hal applied to men named Harold or Henry
. Girls named Harriet were sometimes nicknames Hattie.
. Hettie was a nickname applied to women named Esther, Hester, and Henrietta
. Ike was a nickname for Isaac
. The name Lois was derived as a nickname for Eloise
. Mabel is a derivation of Mehitabel
. The name Margaret-a very common nineteenth century name-had all kinds of nicknames associated with it. Women named Margaret could be called Madge, Maggie, Meg, Megan, Meggie, Peggy, or Daisy (think of Little Wives, the sequel to Little Women, in which Meg names her baby after herself but calls her Daisy). Margretha, the German form of Margaret, was commonly nicknamed Greta
. Mary, another very common name for women historically, had various nicknames, including Mae and Polly
. Pat, Patsy, and Pattie are all nicknames for Martha, believe it or not
. Nat was a nickname for men named Nathan or Nathaniel
. Rita comes from the name Margarita, a form of Margaret
. Sally was a common nickname for Sarah
. Tillie was a nickname for the name Matilda