One branch has 3 generations (2x great grandfather, great grandfather, and grandfather) all have the same first and last name. Two have the same middle name as well and married women with the same first name. Thankfully I have birth years for all three and keep a cheat sheet nearby while working on them. There are other families on all sides that will reuse the same names generation after generation across all families. I can't tell you how many times I have had to go back to the drawing board while working on my husband's side of the family because I confused nephew or son with uncle, father, or grandfather.
Another 2x great grandfather regularly switched back and forth between his first and middle names in documents. I think he also has at least one son that shares either his first or middle name; so I had to create a cheat sheet for his family as well.
My husband's family, Middleswarth, has had two different spellings. It started out spelled with an "a" then there was apparently a huge fight between two brothers and one changed the spelling to Middlesworth. His descendants have since started going back to the first spelling, but not all. In fact, in one very recent family, two siblings spelling it with the "o" and two spell it with the "a". How confusing is that?! Then, of course, every time I give my name I immediately start to spell it because they inevitably type it with the "o" and won't find me.
My most memorable name related headache was straightening out the three wives of my 4x great grandfather, Captain Perry Spellman. One was named Mary, one named Marie and the last was Elizabeth. All three were from Illinois. Mary was known to go by Marie and Elizabeth had gone by her middle name Marie on occasion. I kept coming across inconsistent ages for Marie and could not figure out what was going on. Was she lying about her age to seem younger? It took seeing Perry's Civil War Pension records to realize that there were three wives. My heart went out to him. He had fought in a horrific war and buried two fairly young wives.
Then there are the issues with using nicknames or family names in place of given names. I heard of an aunt that as called Dump (not her given name) by some of the family but I haven't run across it yet.
I am guilty of this one. For official purposes, I have always used Jennifer and Jenny with friends and family. Then, around 1985, I started spelling my nickname Jenni because my best friend went by Jenny as well. In college, I started going by just Jen because Jenni was juvenile sounding. Family and friends I have known for most of my life will forever use Jenni and I am OK with that but friends made in the last 20 years have been strongly encouraged to use either Jen or Jennifer. (It's a pretty big deal if I let you call me Jenni and I have known you less than 20 years.) I apologize to any future genealogists in my family. I swear I didn't set out to drive you crazy; I was just trying to be unique.
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