New Post
Search
Help[Facts] How did we get "Chuck" from "Charles"?
The nickname "Chuck" (male, French-Germanic) is derived from "Charles". I was just wondering: How?
2
Replies
I personally don't think Chuck as a pet form of Charles is from the Shakespearean term of endearment.
Here is a link to the newspaper column I wrote on this a while ago for my nephew's birthday. As you can see the first famous Chuck was the original Chuck Connors (1852-1913). Although he was actually born "George", when he died his obituaries called him "Charles", showing that Chuck was then accepted as a pet form of that name. In Connors' case the nickname either comes from chuck steak (which is what he himself claimed) or is, (more likely, I think) a use of the Chinese name Chuck for a man who was called "The Mayor of Chinatown."
http://www.omaha.com/living/cleveland-evans-popularity-of-charles-grows-from-charlemagne/article_c138c7ea-16f8-5a65-ba64-5584ebb3a42b.html#cleveland-evans-popularity-of-charles-grows-from-Charlemagne
Whatever its origin, I agree that Chuck was taken up as a pet form of Charles because there wasn't a short one syllable nickname for it like Jack for John and Frank for Francis, and Americans around 1900 thought Charles needed something like that. :)
Here is a link to the newspaper column I wrote on this a while ago for my nephew's birthday. As you can see the first famous Chuck was the original Chuck Connors (1852-1913). Although he was actually born "George", when he died his obituaries called him "Charles", showing that Chuck was then accepted as a pet form of that name. In Connors' case the nickname either comes from chuck steak (which is what he himself claimed) or is, (more likely, I think) a use of the Chinese name Chuck for a man who was called "The Mayor of Chinatown."
http://www.omaha.com/living/cleveland-evans-popularity-of-charles-grows-from-charlemagne/article_c138c7ea-16f8-5a65-ba64-5584ebb3a42b.html#cleveland-evans-popularity-of-charles-grows-from-Charlemagne
Whatever its origin, I agree that Chuck was taken up as a pet form of Charles because there wasn't a short one syllable nickname for it like Jack for John and Frank for Francis, and Americans around 1900 thought Charles needed something like that. :)
This message was edited 11/24/2015, 11:09 AM
2
I met an American (lawyer from California) once who was Charles IV and known as Chip. His dad was Chuck and his grandfather had been Charlie; presumably Charles the First was just that.
He was unmarried then, and would be in his sixties now. I've often wondered if he ever had a son, and if so, what he'd have named him.
He was unmarried then, and would be in his sixties now. I've often wondered if he ever had a son, and if so, what he'd have named him.
1
I'll quote from two sources:
[Re. CHARLES] There was no short form until the Americans began to use Chuck, and that form scarcely became popular until the end of the nineteenth century. ... Just where Chuck came from is uncertain. There was an Elizabethan pet-name which had no special connection with a particular name. When Lady Macbeth thus addresses her husband as "chuck," we cannot conclude that his given name was Charles.
--George R. Stewart, American Given Names
And, along the same lines:
CHUCK: English (almost exclusively U.S.) nickname occasionally used as a given name in its own right. It derives from the English term of endearment, itself probably from the Middle English "chukken" to cluck (of imitative origin). It is now often used as a pet form of CHARLES.
--Patrick Hanks & Flavia Hodges, A Dictionary of First Names
So, Chuck apparently does not derive directly from Charles. I suspect that the main reasons it has become attached to Charles is that Charles is the only common, traditional male name in English which begins with the same CH- sound, and the form of Chuck imitates the similar nicknames Jack for John, and Hank for Henry. Both of these clearly do derive from the original name.
[Re. CHARLES] There was no short form until the Americans began to use Chuck, and that form scarcely became popular until the end of the nineteenth century. ... Just where Chuck came from is uncertain. There was an Elizabethan pet-name which had no special connection with a particular name. When Lady Macbeth thus addresses her husband as "chuck," we cannot conclude that his given name was Charles.
--George R. Stewart, American Given Names
And, along the same lines:
CHUCK: English (almost exclusively U.S.) nickname occasionally used as a given name in its own right. It derives from the English term of endearment, itself probably from the Middle English "chukken" to cluck (of imitative origin). It is now often used as a pet form of CHARLES.
--Patrick Hanks & Flavia Hodges, A Dictionary of First Names
So, Chuck apparently does not derive directly from Charles. I suspect that the main reasons it has become attached to Charles is that Charles is the only common, traditional male name in English which begins with the same CH- sound, and the form of Chuck imitates the similar nicknames Jack for John, and Hank for Henry. Both of these clearly do derive from the original name.
This message was edited 11/23/2015, 6:46 AM
1
Maybe it comes from the NBA, where a famous player by the name of Charles Barkley got the nickname Chuck. According to Charles Barkley, the name was bestowed upon him by a former coach of his, who "butchered his name" and turned Charles into Chuck.
1
That isn't possible, as the nickname Chuck predates Chuck Barkley's birth by a long shot. That coach he refers to had likely already heard Chuck used as a nickname.
1