In the Adventures of Tom Sawyer novel (chapter XXVI) we can read the following:
“You don’t know me. Least you don’t know all about that thing. ’Tain’t robbery altogether—it’s revenge!” and a wicked light flamed in his eyes. “I’ll need your help in it. When it’s finished—then Texas. Go home to your Nance and your kids, and stand by till you hear from me.”
In the Spanish translation the "go home to your Nance" part is translated as something closer to "go home with your wife", and we are trying to understand why. One of the reasons I thought about is that that maybe 'Nancy' was not the real name of the character's wife, but rather a generic way to refer to someone's wife, because the speaker says "you don't know me", why would he know the other character's wife's name? Besides the name "Nance" or "Nancy" is never referred again in the book. But in the dictionary I can only find that the word is used nowadays as a way to refer to "an effeminate or homosexual man".
I cannot find any similar texts, so "Nance" does not seem to convey the meaning I thought and the text is probably to be taken literally. Nonetheless, the work was written in the 19th century, so I wonder: Was 'Nance' used as a generic way to refer to someone's wife in America in the 19th century when you did not know the name of that person's wife? If not, can at least be interpreted so in the context of this work?