Should Christian be Christina?

[valg]

My 4x G Grandfather John Chadwick married Christian Shatwell 1759 Prestbury Cheshire, their son my 3x G Grandfather John Chadwick 1762 Prestbury names one of his daughters Christian brn 1799 Prestbury, now 1841 census John has a grandaughter Christina brn 1826 Prestbury, now my question is not one of information I am just thinking Christian is an unusual name for a woman, I am thinking is it Christina simply transcribed wrongly, what do other members think?

Question I cant seem to find a birth for Christian Shatwell, I am assuming she would have been also been born around Prestbury around 1739.
Does any kind member have records for Prestbury?
Thank You

[malcolm99]

Just for starters...

A search of the FMP index for ‘Christian Smith’ with no age limit reveals:
1841 Census: 20 female 5 male
1851 Census: 17 female 2 male
1861 Census: 17 female 0 male
1871 Census: 18 female 3 male

[malcolm99]

A search of the FMP index for ‘Christian Smith’ with no age limit reveals:
1841 Census: 20 female 5 male
1851 Census: 17 female 2 male
1861 Census: 17 female 0 male
1871 Census: 18 female 3 male

A similar search for ‘Christina Smith’ gives:
1841 Census: 7 female
1851 Census: 12 female
1861 Census: 35 female
1871 Census: 39 female

[Ladkyis]

Christian might seem to 20th and 21st century eyes to me a male name but truely in the prior to the 20th century names could and would be used indiscriminately. and only fashion dictates what is considered a male name or a female name. Once I discovered this I became ever more watchful and reluctant to assume a gender from a name, I had made mistakes though.

There were several Scandinavian queens who were called Christian.

[malcolm99]

From: 'A Dictionary of First Names', Patrick Hanks, Kate Hardcastle, and Flavia Hodges. Oxford University Press, 2006.

"Christian - From Latin Christianus ‘follower of Christ’, in use as a given name from the Middle Ages onwards, especially as a girl's name".

[Geoffers]

I am just thinking Christian is an unusual name for a woman

Names and/or their use that seem unusual now, may be different historically. Christian is one of those names which was not unusual for a woman. Also, just there are variant spellings of surnames, so you may also find variant spellings of forenames - In the 17th century I find baptisms in Norfolk which refer to the same mother as Christian in one entry and Christiana in another.

By the 19th century it may be that Christina was the more 'fashionable' spelling of the name at that time. So I wouldn't necessarily think of the name as being wrongly transcribed.

[jac65]

Hi

Christian seems to be more common in Scotland particularly up to the mid 19th century. The 1841 Scottish census has 22324 females with the first name Christian whilst the 1851 Scottsh census has 17042 females with first name Christian but by the 1901 Scottish census it was down to 2392 females. England had 1978 females in 1851 and 1678 females in 1901

Andy

[valg]

Thanks members..

[valg]

Question I cant seem to find a birth for Christian Shatwell, I am assuming she would have been also been born around Prestbury around 1739.
Does any kind member have records for Prestbury?
Thank You

[Kerrywood]

Have you looked at Record Search Pilot, where Cheshire parish registers are now supposedly 95% indexed?