My grandmother was a Humphries but some in her family spelled it Umphiries...any insight about this ?

Question

I am trying to understand the transition from a family name of Umphries to Humphries. The old family Bible list has the name Umphries for. Number of people then it switched to Humphries for some in the family. What is the reason and how do I research the Umphries genealogy since I do not get any hits on Umphries? Regards

Comments

Name spellings have a general tendency to standardize.

When communications were poor, many people didn't know any other family with the same name and never saw it written.  Later, they saw their name in print more often and went with the flow.

They weren't under any illusion that the spelling they'd been using was some kind of original correct spelling.  That concept hadn't been invented yet.

Answer 1

The "Umphrey" surname comes from the Old French personal name Humfrey, a cognate of the Old German names Hunfrid and Humfrid.....

Read about it here:
https://www.houseofnames.com/umphrey-family-crest

Comments

Yes, though there is one of those books, which tries to claim that their immigrant was descended from the d'Umfravilles.