Tyack and Teague

[westernwombat]

A general question:
I have encountered families where an older generation was Tyack, and it "changed" to TEAGUE in later families (occasionally reverting).
I think it was for families born / connected with Cornwall.
Is this common, perhaps a pronunciation similarity?

[Lesley Robertson]

It can be very common. Much of the time (especially before the 20th century) the people doing the registering (clerks, Ministers, enumerators, etc) wrote down what they heard. How accurate that was depended on a number of factors - literacy, strength of accent, even class differences ( how many 19th century ag labs would dare to correct their Parish Minister, for example)?
I don’t think people worried that much - in my own family I have a baptism entry where the name is mentioned 3 times (child, father and grandfather), each time differently Baldy, Baldie, Baldwe).

[westernwombat]

Thanks. I can see the derivation of teg - Teague, but the pronunciation of Tyack as an equivalent seemed a long stretch.

[brentor boy]

Whilst it is possible that Tyack may be a corruption of Teague it is equally possible that it could be an example of the Cornish custom of providing an alias. "Tyack alias Teague" The alias was not intended to obscure a person's identity but to clarify it, perhaps by adding the mother's maiden name, to differentiate an individual from someone of a similar name in the nearby locality. It could have been adopted several generations earlier but the duality carried through succeeding generations, until, perhaps, an individual has to make choice to satisfy more modern official requirements.
I have a female ancestor who married a William Tyack, but who was named as William Tyack, alias Teague, when he appeared in court.

[westernwombat]

Fascinating - perhaps that is what I am seeing. I came across it via a trace-back of marriages only remotely connected to my family. Many interesting customs discovered.