New Post
Search
Help
ArchivesMolly and Mary??
I was looking up the name Molly a minute ago and saw the meaning is "pet form of Mary". How do you get the name Molly out of Mary? I can see getting 'Miley' out of 'Molly' but not 'Molly' out of 'Mary'. So how did that come about? Any body know? I was just wondering.
*~!. A.b.B.y.E.l.O.g.A.n.!~*
*~!. A.b.B.y.E.l.O.g.A.n.!~*
1
Replies
1
Sorry. This was meant to be a response to the original question.
In medieval times there wern't that many first names and few if any surnames. A village could have dozens of Marys, Margarets, Johns, and Roberts. Nns became the only way to tell people apart so they got pretty loose with the derivations.
Robert --> Rob --> Hob --> Dob
Margaret --> Meg --> Peg --> Peggy
Mary --> Molly --> Polly
Edward --> Ed --> Ted --> Ned
John --> Jack or Jenkin ("-kin" means little)
Walter --> Wat
Anne --> Nan --> Nancy
This doesn't explain exactly how Mary turns into Molly. Just put it down to creativity and illiteracy. :-)
In medieval times there wern't that many first names and few if any surnames. A village could have dozens of Marys, Margarets, Johns, and Roberts. Nns became the only way to tell people apart so they got pretty loose with the derivations.
Robert --> Rob --> Hob --> Dob
Margaret --> Meg --> Peg --> Peggy
Mary --> Molly --> Polly
Edward --> Ed --> Ted --> Ned
John --> Jack or Jenkin ("-kin" means little)
Walter --> Wat
Anne --> Nan --> Nancy
This doesn't explain exactly how Mary turns into Molly. Just put it down to creativity and illiteracy. :-)
This message was edited 3/24/2008, 1:49 PM
1