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ArchivesPeg out of Marguerite
The most commonly asked question of my life has been-- "how do you get your nickname Peg out of Marguerite?" I have never known how to answer as I have always been called Peg even though my full name is Marguerite. I was named after my great grandmother. I would love to know the origin of the common nickname Peg or Peggy from the name Marguerite or Margaret.
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My theory has always been that now it's simply a tradition, but that in the beginning it was quite easy to derive Meg from Marguerite (and Margaret). They are both large names for a small baby, and it would be natural to shorten them. Now, enter the person responsible for the change from Meg to Peg: the slightly older sibling with a cold!
I'm serious. This is the kind of thing that happens, and that all the respectable old gentlemen who wrote the first etymologies wouldn't know about because bringing up tiny children wasn't their domestic duty. Enter, as I say, a toddler with a blocked nose. It does its best to greet the baby - Hello, Meg - but it comes out more like Heddo, Peg . And this could easily catch on in the family; it is funny, and cute, and especially if the baby happens to smile or gurgle when she hears it, she'll very likely be stuck with it.
Same as Polly from Molly, and probably Bob from Rob and Dick from Rick, though those would require a stuffy nose of heroic proportions ...
I'm serious. This is the kind of thing that happens, and that all the respectable old gentlemen who wrote the first etymologies wouldn't know about because bringing up tiny children wasn't their domestic duty. Enter, as I say, a toddler with a blocked nose. It does its best to greet the baby - Hello, Meg - but it comes out more like Heddo, Peg . And this could easily catch on in the family; it is funny, and cute, and especially if the baby happens to smile or gurgle when she hears it, she'll very likely be stuck with it.
Same as Polly from Molly, and probably Bob from Rob and Dick from Rick, though those would require a stuffy nose of heroic proportions ...
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salut ami comment ete vous je suis reconaitre de voire ta pohoto
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margaret -latin-"a pearl" yours is the french form of this name,
prehaps PEG came from, an english form Peggotty an old english form,(being in a Dickens book), Marguerite, Margherita is said to be the chattering sound of a magpie...magpie is an english form of margaret....
Daisy a form only, because "Marguerite" is french for daisy,
Reta is the finnish form,
Meghan and Mairgreg the irish,
Gretli the swiss,
Gogo is another french form,
'the great Margherita' was what Dante called the moon......
...hope this helps....
prehaps PEG came from, an english form Peggotty an old english form,(being in a Dickens book), Marguerite, Margherita is said to be the chattering sound of a magpie...magpie is an english form of margaret....
Daisy a form only, because "Marguerite" is french for daisy,
Reta is the finnish form,
Meghan and Mairgreg the irish,
Gretli the swiss,
Gogo is another french form,
'the great Margherita' was what Dante called the moon......
...hope this helps....
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I'm afraid, this doesn't really answer the question. Plus: I'm afraid, nobody really can at the moment. The change from M to P has not been sufficiently explained (cf. Molly/Polly). Hanks & Hodges '92 write: "It has bees ascribed to Celtic influence, but this particular alternationdoes not cerrespond to any of the usual mutanional patterns in Celtic languages." Maybe it was a child who brought it up, maybe some other imaginative person, but this is just guessing.
Andy ;—)
Andy ;—)
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