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Lloyd:
How about Beverleigh?
Didja know Beverly comes from "beofor" Old English for beaver? As best I remember, the -ly, -ley, -leigh ending indicates "island". And the -leigh version is a Frenchified, affected version of the spelling (as in Rawley aka Raleigh).
You must remember that regularized spelling in English is quite new. (Most other languages don't have this problem, since they spell their words as they sound with an alphabet that fits and they don't have a language that is a creole two times over that borrows from every other language under the sun. No to mention they regularized the spelling before they regularized - more or less - the pronounciation.) Some famous American (Andy Jackson?) said he thought anyone who couldn't spell a word several different ways lacked imagination.
So with this attitude towards plain words, guess how they felt about names? Many times, spelling variations just depended on what mood a person was in. My father's generation of the Buzbee family still hadn't settled on our spelling - hardly any votes for Busby. All the surnames in my family tree I've researched come in at least two versions, and that includes Thompson.
I don't think variations really became a concern until alphabetization caught on.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that there is not any real significance to spelling variations and you can't blame government officials for all - or even most - of 'em.
Jackie Buzbee Davis
(Buzbee-Howell-Thompson-Beverly)
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