Spelling Variants
This is the most common type of variant. It occurs where a name can be found spelt in more than one way. It is beyond the scope of these pages to examine in detail the causes of such variations - poor literacy is probably the main one.
Sometimes it is as simple as the variations between Smith and Smyth. Other names can be subject to a much wider variety. Take MacCartan for instance. The "a" in Mac could be omitted. The final "a" at the end could be replaced by "e", "i" or "o". The second "C" - the Capital in the Cartan piece - could be omitted.
A more difficult one arises with names such as Kilbride and Kilrane, where the leading "K" is replaced by "G". This stems from the Gaelic origins of such names - Mac Giolla Bríd in the first example - which gradually became Anglicised as MacGilbride, a name that sounds much like MacKilbride. As the Mac became redundant, the more correct Gilbride came into being, but so too did Kilbride. After that it became largely a matter of luck as to what the recorder of the name on a parish register or other record heard and chose to write.