Given names are always a challenge for genealogists. In historic records, people would often misspell names and sometimes they even used nicknames. Names were also commonly abbreviated to save room when space was tight on a page.
For example, old street directories and city directories always abbreviated common given names. Parish records often abbreviated familiar Christian names. This was done to save space and paper. In some jurisdictions, census enumerators would also abbreviate common names when going door to door to save time.
Knowledge of given name abbreviations can be very helpful in tracking down ancestors. For example, knowing that Chas is a short form for Charles, Geo represents George, My means Mary and Hy means Henry opens up many more possibilities when looking through historic ancestral records.
You should also be aware that many people used their middle names, rather than first names, and this can also cause problems for genealogists. For those who are members of the Qualicum Beach Family History Society, the September 2017 issue of “Voices of the Past”, our QBFHS journal, there is an article on “Using Middle Names in Your Family History Searches” that delves even deeper into ways to research your family history when searching with a first name doesn’t provide results.
Genealogy in Time magazine has a list of abbreviations for most common given names that you may find helpful when researching your ancestors. Some of the abbreviations may surprise you!