And of course we aim to please, so….. There is a certain logic to it all, as well as some whimsy. The simplest road to a pet form is, obviously, by shortening it to its first one or two syllables, as in Di for Diana , Ben for Benjamin , Archie for Archibald and Eliza for Elizabeth. Occasionally, a middle syllable will do the job, leading to Liz for Elizabeth and Xan for Alexander. Or a sprinkling of the letters in the name could lead, say, from Dorothy to Dot.
Rhyming and letter swapping also played a key role in the morphing of names to nicknames during the Middle Ages, a time when there was a limited supply of Christian names and the need to distinguish one Edward from another. Robert was logically shortened to Rob , but that led to Bob , as well as the obsolete Hob , Dob and Nob. William generated not only Will but Bill —hard consonants being easier to pronounce than soft ones— and then there are Meg and Peg for Margaret and Molly , Polly and Dolly for Mary.
There are multiple factors behind some of the common diminutives. The childish pronunciations by young siblings accounts for some formations. How about some of the less obvious transitions? According to one theory, it goes back to the early Dutch form Hendrick , nn Henk, which is a short hop to Hank. And how did Jack connect to John? The name Henry dates back to medieval England. Curiously, at that time, Hank was a diminutive for John. So how do we get Hank from Henry?
Well, one theory says that Hendrick is the Dutch form of the English name Henry. Henk is the diminutive form of Hendrick, ergo, Hank from Henk. Hanks were hugely popular here in the States for many decades, though by the early 90s it no longer appeared in the top 1, names for baby boys. But Hank is making a comeback! In , it cracked the top 1,, settling at By it was up to The name Jack dates back to about 1, and was originally used as a generic name for peasants.
Over time, Jack worked his way into words such as lumberjack and steeplejack. Even jackass, the commonly used term for a donkey, retains its generic essence in the word Jack. Of course, John was once used as a generic name for English commoners and peasants, John Doe which could be why Jack came became his nickname. But the more likely explanation is that Normans added -kin when they wanted to make a diminutive.
And Jen was their way of saying John. So little John became Jenkin and time turned that into Jakin, which ultimately became Jack. What's this have to do with Charles? Not much, but it's interesting. However, Charles in Middle English was Chukken and that's probably where the nickname was born. The name Margaret has a variety of different nicknames. Some are obvious, as in Meg, Mog and Maggie, while others are downright strange, like Daisy. The name Ted is yet another result of the Old English tradition of letter swapping.
Since there were a limited number of first names in the Middle Ages, letter swapping allowed people to differentiate between people with the same name. It was common to replace the first letter of a name that began with a vowel, as in Edward, with an easier to pronounce consonant, such as T. Of course, Ted was already a popular nickname for Theodore, which makes it one of the only nicknames derived from two different first names.
Can you name the others? Since Medieval times, Harry has been a consistently popular nickname for boys named Henry in England. Henry was also very popular among British monarchs, most of whom preferred to be called Harry by their subjects.
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