Hello Margen - I'm glad you've made it back to us! Unfortunately I am rather overloaded with work and other problems at the moment so cannot answer your post as fully as I'd like to. I will come back soon, I hope!
For the time being all I can offer is what I hope will explain some of the spelling variations you've encountered in transcripts of Latin parish register entries. In Latin some words change their endings depending on context. A typical entry from a parish register might be:
Edwardus filius Edwardi Smith baptizatus est 17 die junii
I would translate this as 'Edward son of Edward Smith was baptised the 17th day of June'. Note that I didn't say Edwardus son of Edwardi - the Edward
i means '
of Edward' rather than being a different name. Similarly the ending of 'junii' tells me that it means 'of June' (the Latin version doesn't need to include a separate word for 'of' - the meaning is built into the word ending).
Some names had more than one Latin version, so William may be recorded as
Gulielmus or
Willelmus among others. Then besides changes in ending (according to context) the name can also be abbreviated. The original register may have subtle marks to indicate that letters have been left out, but these are often 'lost in transcription'. So the original might have said Willus with a superscript 'us' and a dot or line underneath.
Many Latin versions of names are very similar to their English counterparts but some are less obvious. For example,
Carolus is Charles
Jacobus is usually James (though might be Jacob)
Johannes is John (the version meaning 'of John' is
Johannis; commonly abbreviated to
Johes and
Johis respectively)
Some Latin names can have more than one possible translation:
Anna can be Ann(e), Anna, Hannah, etc.
Maria can be Mary or Maria
Johanna can be Jane, Joan, Joanna, etc.
For a much more comprehensive list see this page:
http://www.
freereg.org.uk/howto/latinnames.htm
Right, had better get back to work now . . .