One of the topics which came up in our inaugural Zoom conference call on Valentine’s Day 2021 was the spelling of the name Bicknell. What is your weirdest or favorite spelling?
My great great grand uncle Clarence Bicknell (www.clarencebicknell.com) made a collection of hundreds of envelopes addressed to him with his name spelt anything but B I C K N E L L. He lived and worked in Bordighera in Italy so the linguistic issue was the first obstacle to correct spelling. I will try to pull out the complete collection for a future post. In the meantime here is a sample of envelopes near the top of my collection of his life and works.
Look online and you’ll find “Bicknell Spelling Variations”… “It is only in the last few hundred years that the English language has been standardized. For that reason, early Anglo-Saxon surnames like Bicknell are characterized by many spelling variations. As the English language changed and incorporated elements of other European languages, even literate people changed the spelling of their names. The variations of the name Bicknell include: Bicknell, Bicknall, Bickenell, Bickenall, Bickenhall, Bickwell, Bignell, Bignall, Bignold, Bicknoll, Bignal, Bignel, Bignoll, Bicknall, Backnall, Backnell, Backnull, Bechnel, Becknell, Beucknell, Bickenell, Bicknal, Bicknall, Bicknel, Bickneld, Bicknell, Bicknels, Bicknil, Bicknill, Bicknol, Bicknold, Bicknoll, Bignell, Bignold, Bricknall, Bucknall, Byckenell and many more.” Sources: https://www.houseofnames.com/bicknell-family-crest and http://creativegraces.net/genindex/bicknell.html
