Mis-spellings and abbreviations on the transcripts are always a possibility - some examples from my family have been Goates for Coates, Wm for William, Jno for John and Jonathan. I've run some of these to earth by searching for the surname and just the initial of the forename - and when really desperate, leaving the forename totally blank.
Also people aren't always where you expect them to be - I've found some of my missing persons by simply searching for the name, and searching all counties. This has turned up people in the navy, in boarding schools, in prisons and workhouses.
The lad in the boarding school was interesting - his father was a London fireman, living with his family in the fire station, certainly not affluent. But his son had got a scholarship to a school in Surrey which gave craftsman training to poor boys.