Find Ancestors

Re: Christian/Christina

My grandad's aunt was named Christian, after her gran (and my ggg gran).

Piece: SCT1851/218 Place: Longside -Aberdeenshire Enumeration District: 1
Civil Parish: Longside Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: -
Folio: 176 Page: 21 Schedule: 100
Address: Hill Of Mintlaw
Surname First name(s) Rel Status Sex Age Occupation Where Born Remarks
SLESSOR William Head M M 66 Farmer Of 15 Acres & Carrier Aberdeenshire - Longside
SLESSOR Christian Wife M F 52 Aberdeenshire - Old Deer
SLESSOR Mary Dau U F 26 Aberdeenshire - Longside
Page: 176/22 SLESSOR John D Son U M 17 Farmer & Carrier's Son Aberdeenshire - Longside
GREIG Christian Grndau - F 2 Aberdeenshire - Longside

Fe appears as Christian in 1861/71, but when my g grandad married in 1877, she signs as Christina (she was a witness), and appears as Christina thereafter.

It seems that Christian was once the common form of the name, but was replaced by Christine/Christina in the latter part of the 19th cent.
To catch the 3 forms, I looked up "christ*" on the Scottish census, and got 34956 hits (1841), 43153 hits (1871), 55695 hits (1901).
There was 64.3%, 14.7%, 4.5% of these hits having the spelling Christian.
The 1841 fiures for England were 2568 and 87.2%. I also looked up what 1841 percentage of Christians were male - 9% in England, but 0.6% in Scotland (which could all be mistakes - this item was not always filled in carefully).
I suspect Kristen is the most common variant for the 21st cent.

One orthographical oddity - I have seen Christian written twice as Xian, much like Christmas is written as Xmas.

One should also supplement the GRO index with a local index, when available, see:
http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/local_bmd

In this case, we have:
Cheshire Death indexes for the years: 1850
Surname Forename(s) Age or Year of Birth Sub-District Registers At Reference
HERVEY Christian 65 Wallasey Wirral WAL/3/84

--------------------------------------
Wallasey Sub-District
Created 1 July 1837. Abolished 1 April 1974. In Wirral Registration District (1837-61), Birkenhead Registration District (1861-1936) and Wallasey Registration District (1936-74).

[It included] Bidston cum Ford (1837-61 & 1936-74), Claughton cum Grange (1837-61), Liscard, Moreton (1928-74), Poulton cum Seacombe, Saughall Massie (1933-74), Wallasey.

Records now held at Wirral.
http://www.cheshirebmd.org.uk/subdists.php

Christian and Christina are very often interchanged in Scotland - just like Jane and Jean or Janet and Jessie. That's just a couple of examples but I'm sure those researching Scottish ancestors can come up with more. My 4 x Great grandmother sometimes gives her name as Elizabeth and at other times she's Isabella. I also have an Alexander who, apart from his christening and birth records, always appears as Allan.

Sorry, Erin - I overlooked your question about the details on her DC.

They are:
Place of death: Poulton cum Seacombe.
Informant: Elizabeth Dodd, present at the death, same address.

Thank you. :-)