What's in a name?

In the play Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare writes, "What's in a name?"  That's a really good question.  AND that got me thinking while I was researching today. 

According to Dictionary.com (2002) the word name is a noun.  It means "a word or a combination of words by which a person, place, or thing, a body or class, or any object of through it designated, called or known". 

I have attended classes and webinars on conducting genealogical research and I have given classes on research.  One point I remember from a conference I attending when I first became active in the local genealogical society was the point that old documents, especially the census, is affected first by the language and accent of the person giving the information, as well as other factors such as memory and how much information they have been told truthfully or even at all.  How many times have you seen a death certificate with "unknown" written in for the parent's names?  The second element to this is how the census take hears the information being given.  Whoa!  Imagine the language barriers then!

So today while I was recording information during my own research I started thinking, even my own culture influences how I am interpreting and recording my information. I always try to include conflicting information or additional spellings of names, but what I choose to display it as the primary data in my database is very much affected by my own influences. 

Confused?  Here are a couple examples:
Today I'm working on searching out burials for those in my database that don't have burial information.  (How I got this is another post).  I'm working specifically on a couple generations of the Loomis family line from the late 1400's to early 1500's.  The surname Loomis appears in multiple forms: Loomis, Lummyus, Lymmus, Lommance...  My preferred spelling: Loomis.  Why?  Likely because that is my maternal grandmother's maiden name and that is the way I grew up spelling it.  Do I have the other spellings included in my database?  Of course.  We all know that spellings can and do change over generations. 

Another example I can give is the first name, Thomas.  I came across the alternate spelling for Thomas Loomis as Thomis.  I also noted this alternate spelling in my database using the AKA (also known as) function, but display Thomas as my primary way to display this name.  Again, likely tied to my cultural influences growing up.  My paternal grandfather was Thomas. 

A somewhat humorous example I have is my daughter questioning the spelling of the word colour the other day.  I can't even remember where she was reading it, but it was in a book and she looked at me and told me I needed to email the publisher and tell them to check their spelling.  She is used to the word color.  Imagine her surprise when I told her that sometimes words are spelled differently in different countries! 

Share your interesting name examples in the comments! 

Happy Hunting.