I am as pedantic as the next man as a rule, but , do you really think Huddie gave a flying f*ck as to whether he was known as Lead Belly or Leadbelly ?

It was a nickname, fer chrissakes, it's not like he went to court to establish a new name, or anything.

Chances are he acquired the nickname in prison, and the rest of the prisoners probably didn't submit a petition to the State Legislature to establish a change of name.

Now , speculation as to whether his first name was pronounced HEWDY or HUDDIE, that is interesting, ...