The Name Game

[Eva Elisabeth]

I, too, think most names were just spelled by the writer as he interpreted the pronunciation he heard.

As Laurie said, some mistakes may also have resulted from the print setting process. The movable letters of the alphabet that were used were placed in individual boxes within various trays. In addition to single letters of the alphabet, casts were made for abbreviations, punctuation marks etc., and some letter combinations. All together there were about 250 boxes to draw from. When a page of type was broken down, some letters ended up in the wrong compartment. Thus the next page of type set up would have typographical mistakes from the faulty redistribution.