] A question that always bothered me was the name of Elinor in S&S. Was this a then fashionable way of spelling Eleanor or a totally different name? I was even more confused when I read Northanger Abbey to find Eleanor Tilney? Any thoughts

The spellings of names, and indeed most words, were highly flexible until the C18th. Dr. Johnson's dictionary "stabilised" and popularised many of the spellings we use today.

Surnames were spelled as they sounded so the Flemish name De Brugges (JA's ancestors) eventually became Brydges (and could also have become De Bourgh and De Burgh). I think even JA herself occasionally mixes the spelling of Bridges (her brother Edward's in-laws) with Brydges (her mother's relatives). Other surnames in JA's family that are often spelled several different ways are Charelton/Charlton/Charleton and Bernard/Bernard, Tylney/Tilney/Tyllney/Tillney and Bennet/Bennett/Benett.

First names are equally fluid with some countries tending to spell them in a particular way. for example, Catherine and Katherine, both of which JA uses in P&P (Catherine de Bourgh & Katherine B. - the contraction "Kitty" is rarely used for Catherine). Catherine is predominantly a French spelling whilst Katherine is the more English spelling. The national division of some names is much clearer e.g. Mary and Maria, but many international queens and princesses went by both spellings depending on the country they were in or whether they were using their name in a formal Latin document.

Elinor is a fairly unusual spelling of Eleanor but has been used alongside Eleanor and Eleanore (a particularly French spelling) since the early 1500s.