This Week's Topic
Nicknames
I know this seems like a non-bookish topic, but it was spawned while I was reading, so it counts in my book. Have you ever encountered a nickname and wondered where it came from?
I think there have always been names that made me go hmmmm, but this particular chain of thought began with a character names Liam. Liam is a name I have heard before, and I accepted this character as Liam, until he said something to the effect of how he was named after his father, and how his father was a Bill-William.
I can see Liam in the name, WilLIAM, but I have NEVER encountered a Liam-William in my life. Though, this is the third I have read about. Perhaps it's a generational thing? But, the name William has so many nicknames.
William
- Will is an obvious short-form which can easily become Willy, but where did Bill come from? I did a little googling, and there were two explanations. One, being a rhyming thing. The name game anyone? With Bill rhyming with Will, and then there was the possible German explanation. Where Ws are pronounced as Vs which could easily slip to B. Hmmm, I am not as sold on that, but people are sure willy nilly with names.
Richard
- Rich and Richie are obvious, but what about Rick, Ricky, and Dick? Dick seems so random. I see the rhyming thing getting blames again. Rich became Rick, and Rick evolved into Dick.
Henry
- Hank is a popular nickname for those named Henry, and this one had the best explanation so far.
The name dates back to medieval England. (Curiously, at that time, Hank was a diminutive for.) So how do we get Hank from Henry Hendrik is the Dutch form Henry Henk, ergo, Hank from Henk
John
- First of all, why does John need a nick name? It's four letters long! And then, the nickname is also FOUR LETTERS LONG. I read multiple explanation that go way back to Medieval times where -kin and -ke were added to turn a name into a pet name or diminutive form of the name coupled with the evolution of the name John to Jan led to Jack. I suppose the four letters to four letters is OK if we are applying this in a pet name or name for a little kid. I can buy that.
Margaret
- I have an aunt Peggy, and I remember being baffled when I learned her real name was Margaret. This one seems to have a chain of events similar to many of the other nickname. Margaret became Maggie which became Meg, and then the rhyming name-game took over from there.
- I must note, I learned that another common nickname for Margaret is Daisy. Did anyone else know this??? Apparently, this comes from the french Marguerite which is a type of Daisy. That is pretty clever there.
Elizabeth
- The nicknames here are not baffling, but still, who thought of them? Beth, Liz, Lizzy - all easy to see. Even Eliza, I suppose, but Betsy? Betty? Everything I found points bag to the Middle Ages when Bet and Bess were popular as was adding suffixes to create the diminutive.
Now it's your turn!
Are there any nick names you wonder about?
Let us know in the comments!
Let us know in the comments!
"The name Henry dates back to medieval England. (Curiously, at that time, Hank was a diminutive for John.)"
ReplyDeleteThis is really curious! Same for the John-Jack thing.
I think in time Liam has become a name in its own right as opposed to a shortened form of William. But shortened or not, it's especially common in Ireland and (a bit less so) in the UK, so I guess you wouldn't encounter many Liams in the US. Maybe authors like to use it because it sounds more exotic?
One thing that has always struck me as funny is that some nicknames/shortened names may end both in -y and -ie (like Freddy/Freddie - I get a little mad when people writes "Freddy Mercury" LOL). I suppose the sound is the same, so...why? Also, the name of a character in C.S.I. Miami was "Alexx", written with two -x, which I've always wondered, WHY?
It seems like a lot of nick names were born out of the diminutive. This makes me think of a high school friend I had named Frank, and his mother saying that his name was Francis because, "You don't name a baby Frank." Maybe they felt some names were too grown up for kids back then as well. I had no idea that Liam was derived from William. I DID think it was its own name. We have Liams, just wasn't aware of the connection. My mother called me Sami - one m, one i. There's one to drive you batty.
DeleteInteresting! This was not the direction I thought the "nicknames" discussion would go 🤣 I thought it would be more along the lines of cringey nicknames because I feel like I've seen that discourse pop up (again) recently on bookstagram. This is still an interesting angle though! I always wondered about how Richard became Dick and I've never heard of Liam being a nickname for William! Actually, I can say the same for a lot of these. 🤠I love how these nicknames have such history, lol.
ReplyDeleteNow, that is a good topic - cringy nickname, or rather, pet names.
DeleteYes! Certainly for Dick obviously! Maybe a famour Richard was a dick????
ReplyDeleteHA! I hate to see people living up to their name in a negative way. LOL
DeleteJamie (jannghi.blogspot.com):
ReplyDeleteWhat about Bob? LOL! How did that become a nickname for Robert?
Bob probably falls into the common rhyming thing - Robert, shortened to Rob, rhymes with Bob.
DeleteLOL, it's so funny when nicknames seem nothing like the original name. I just accept them at this point, but I've never heard the Liam one. I mean, Liam is a real name, would never think it was a nickname! Henry used to call himself "Harry" when he was younger, probably because he couldn't say his actual name, so we will call him that occasionally but have never called him Hank!
ReplyDeleteI accept them, but I was also curious and happy to see I was not alone in my search for answers. My nicknames were Sam or Sami - both shorter than my actual name, so I embraced this meaning of a nickname. It seems many are diminutive forms, like pet names for little kids. Jack for John, Harry for Henry. It's weird to think of a little kid named Hank.
DeleteOh, I like this topic. I was taught that people didn't always have last names, but first names like Margaret and John were extremely popular. The weird nicknames happened because people needed ways to know which Margaret they were talking about.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great explanation. I like that. My sister's name is Lisa and she had FOUR friends named Lisa, but we just utilized versions of their last names so we knew who we were talking about.
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