Can anyone help me with deciphering a name?

[SabrinaThwaite]

I'm trying to decipher the surname of James and wife Hannah.

Maybe Stirt or Skist or similar? Street?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Hirst?

Maybe Sturt?

James Hunt maybe?

I think the first letter is definitely H, although I see how it also looks like St or Sk

There was a James Hurst that died in 1856 (the above is the 1841 census) so that could be a possibility?

Hart?

But if it was St or Sk it wouldn’t have the long horizontal line over the rest of the word. That’s why I think it’s H.

The H for Hannah and H for Henry below James's name don't have a long line either nthough?

I thought Hurst at first but maybe Hunt as there's not clearly two letters r and s before the final t. Unless it's spelled Hirst.

Spellings of names could vary a lot according to who was clerking. I've seen the surname Knowles written also as Nualls for the same person.

I think it's Street

Yes, lots of phonetic spellings of names back then.

Is that because they've used one strike across for the H and the final t though?

That’s because they don’t end in t.

They’ve used one long line to cross the H at the start and the t at the end.

It usually helps to match the initial to the first letter in other names that you can make out, but whoever wrote it formed the H in Hannah and the H in Henry differently, so not particularly helpful in this instance.

There was a James Sturt and a Hannah Sturt that died in an adjacent registration district, James in the 1840s and Hannah in the 1850s. Might be grasping at straws a bit there though.

My inclination is an S at the beginning.
Yup bit more studying and comparison with Brown further down and I reckon you might be onto something with Street, would explain the length of the cross stroke as well

Brown comparison for how they form their 'r'.

Historian friend also thinks Street. There are deaths for a James Street and a Hannah Street in a neighbouring registration district also.

I think the long line is the cross bar of the final 't'. There's a really long one on 'Peter' above, too, and no examples elsewhere in other circs.

I think street. The enumerator has used one long line to cross both letter Ts in the word. You have to remember that at the time of the earlier censuses many would have been illiterate and they are not completing the form themselves - that only started in 1911. So you are relying on an enumerator to write what they hear. Street, Stuart, Sturt.

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/handwriting-deciphering-recognition/?PHPSESSID=8c49dlp03neave98qsd5sau5f7

this is a great site and has a whole section for deciphering .

I'd say Sturt or Stuart. The 'S' to me looks similar to the Smith further down the page.

Thanks everyone for your help.

It looks like Shirt to me. I know someone with the surname Shirt - Midlands area.