I'm doing research on Miss Lulu Hurst, a stage performer from the late 19th century, but when I started digging through newspaper archives I noticed she is many times referred to as "Lula" instead of Lulu. This happens in more than one place, so I'm wondering if there is a reason for her name to be changed or if it's a mistake that kept happening over and over again. It goes as far as in the same newspaper her name is written 2 different ways. I have scans of the newspapers but the sub doesn't let me post them. Regardless, the question stands:
Why was a U changed to an A? Were these interchangeable at the time?
I have an MS/LIS and although am currently a librarian, I have a background in archives. In my experience, it was not uncommon for there to be typos in the name or spelling variants in newspapers, particularly during this timeframe. Although there were advances in printing technology, they didn’t have word processors to catch these mistakes.
However, I did a quick Google search of Lulu Hurst and it appears her given name was Lula so that could also explain it.