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ArchivesReally confused about Scottish name
I like Lilias as an alternative to Lily but someone on Baby Names World told me another spelling is Lileas. Is is said differently? Which spelling is older or is more legitimate? Using google I seemed to find more hits of Lileas in Scotland from a few hundred years ago. Also, Lilleas and Lillias??? Which one would be more "Gaelic"?
And... assuming both are said the same. Is it LYE lee us or LIH lee us. I saw both.
Thanks
And... assuming both are said the same. Is it LYE lee us or LIH lee us. I saw both.
Thanks
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Replies
Firstly Lilias is a Scots, not a Gaelic name so none of the spellings are more 'Gaelic' than the other. As an old name it arose at a time when spellings were fluid and I have an ancestor who goes through pretty much all of the variants during her lifetime. I wouldn't therefore say any of those spellings are more legitimate than the others, although in my experience the commonest form is Lilias. I definitely haven't seen Lileas as much. As to pronunciation I have only ever heard LIH-lee-us, and my ancestor also appears as Lily which would back this up.
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That clarifies a few things I suppose. Still, it would be nice to know which form was more commonly used in 19th century Scotland, fluid spellings or not. The LYE-lee-us pronunciation threw me. It did not seem right. I also saw LEE-lus down for Lileas. Both were on Baby Names World which is supposed to have redone their database and use 'Name Experts'. I think I will stick with this site.
Thanks.
Thanks.
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Out of interest I did a search on the IGI on familysearch.com. This searches old birth and marriage records generally from the 1700s-1800s in the UK. Using the common surname Smith, I get 231 Lillias, 184 Lilias and 2 Lileas. Using another common surname Campbell, I get 228 Lillias, 121 Lilias and 0 Lileas. So I stand corrected, Lillias with 2 l's is the most common.
There is also 1 Lyleas Campbell, which might reflect a different pronunciation but this record is from 1654 when spelling was even less consistent so I don't think you can draw anything from it.
There is also 1 Lyleas Campbell, which might reflect a different pronunciation but this record is from 1654 when spelling was even less consistent so I don't think you can draw anything from it.
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Okay, that is interesting. Thank you for the help.
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