’Ow Do You Spell That?

Dropped ‘H’s were very common, especially in London, but people also added an ‘H’ to words that didn’t need it to sound posh. Try adding ‘H’ to a surname that starts with a vowel, or remove one (eg ‘Adley’ for ‘Hadley’, and vice versa). Also, if your family moved to a different area, then try saying the name in their dialect. A Cornish miner who moved to Wales could easily confuse an enumerator with his unusual surname and strange pronunciation.