English. Sally, which originated as a pet name for Sarah, has also been used as a given name in its own right since early in the 20th century according to various sources. However it was so frequent in the 1841 Census of Aberdeenshire that we feel it must have been in use as a given name for some considerable time before that date.
In that Census Sally was also spelt as Salley, Sallie and Saly. These were very infrequent and should all be found with a Soundex search.
Sally is often used as the first element in compound names, e.g. "Sally-Ann" and "Sally-Jane".
A few cases are found in the 1881 Census of Scotland, apparently originating in Ireland where the Gaelic Sorcha is variously Anglicized as Sarah or Sally. |
