Persistent Pidlers

Angela Ellis-Jones’ letter in the November issue regarding people who choose not to change embarrassing names reminds me of a sixth cousin’s fierce determination to hold on to what was an embarrassing name.

My mother’s maiden name was Pedlar, a notable West Country family with apparent origins in Cornwall, with later movements northwards that brought the family to North Devon. The Pedlar/Pedler spelling variants occur randomly throughout the family tree, but in North Devon a third variant appeared: Pidler. This was, I suspect, because of the heavy accent found in the region, and was common throughout the area. My great great grandparents were

married with this spelling, my great grandfather born as Pedler and married as Pedlar. However, my distant cousin, being a native of North Devon, fiercely clung to the Pidler spelling, as did his siblings. One branch of the family, however, chose Ridler to hide their embarrassment!

Stephen Berry, Newport, South Wales

EDITOR REPLIES:

I see that the name Pidler hasn’t made it into the Concise Oxford Dictionary of

Family Names in Britain, which means there were fewer than 30 bearers of the name in 2011.