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Re: Nell
Nell is a decent enough name to stand on its own. I'd expect a person to be named Petronella if I'd meet someone who said it was their nickname. I don't like it for the ones you suggested bc I don't think it makes sense to stuff an N in front of a Hel-/El- name to make Nell. (same way I don't really understand why I don't really get 'Ned' for Edward or 'Peggy' for Margaret) But then again, they do at least have an -n- in them later on... I think Ellen is too short to have Nell as a nickname. Of your choices I'd prefer it for Eleanor.Annabel would work too or Marinella, Noella, Ornella, Penelope. Cornelia would work as well. Penelope "Nell" would be nice actually. I don't like "Penny" all that much.
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Annabel - I love short-names (nick-names?) that differ from the formal source.
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Looking at the spellings of the words, it almost looks like Nell is Ellen written backwards, minus the e!
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The N- nicknames came from people using the affectionate term "Mine"-- like "Mine Ed" would become "my Ned".Peggy from Margaret-- I always explain this to my non-namenerds friends as "back when there were only like 7 names to pick from, people had to come up with more nicknames, so they used names that rhymed." Also how we got Dick from Richard, Bob from Robert. Now, why "Peggy" is one that stuck... no idea.
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I do love Nell. What a nice soft-sounding, single-syllable name to polish an older name like Helen or Eleanor.
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