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CULTURAL SPELLINGS

It was not unusual at all to have had a French person writing the French and English names in south Louisiana. Looking at the common name of "Smith" when the "i" is pronounced differently in European cultures.  The American pronunciation of the letter "i" is normally always the same, such as "it", "is", "mitt", etc.  In European cultures, the pronunciation of the letter "i" varies according to culture, such as: "eye" as in Smythe instead of Smith, or "e" as in "Si" pronounced "see" in Spanish or "oui" pronounced "wee" in French.  That is why we have variations in name spellings and also why we have variations of spellings in surnames.  Some examples in spellings based on different pronunciations are, "Smith," "Smythe," "Schmith," "Schymthe," "Smite," "Smithee" and so forth. All of the above are actually found as various spellings of the English "Smiths."

PHONICS

Spelling by sound is the most common method of recording names. It is a practice that still takes place today. Take the name of "Pearce." Or is it "Pierce," "Peerce," "Peirce," "Perce," "Parce," "Paerce," and/or "Piearce"? Let's take another name, "Fisher." Fisher is another that has several variations as "Pfisher," "Psfister," "Phfister," "Phister," or "Ffisher" to mention only a few. All of this depends on how the name is pronounced for a person with a different cultural background and how that person hears it.  The person writing the name for a document or census will interpret it based on their own previous knowledge and write it on paper as they interpret it. Many writers were not well-educated and mixed guesswork with phonetic sounds to record what they heard.

ADDING OR DELETING LETTERS

Adding or deleting letters from a name is uncommon, but has occurred in some writings.  The name "Booth" is generally spelled with only two "o"s, but has been spelled as "Boooth" by some writers. The name "Alexander" has been spelled "Allexxanndderr." and the name "Briggs" as "Bbrriggss" or "Brriggss."

The other extreme is a reduction of letters. In the example of the name of "Briggs," it has also been spelled "Brggs" or "Brgs", totally deleting the "i" and the double letter. Other examples are "Green" as "Gren;" "Hannah" as "Hanna" or "Hana;" "Allen" as "Alen;" "McAllister" as "McAlister;" and "Mitchell" as "Mitcel" or "Mitchal."