Message: "Re: Nicknames for Heather"

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Re: Nicknames for Heather

by gigibee

3/15/2014, 8:06 AM

Not arguing, really, but I think that particularly for male names, lots of two-syllable names have nicknames.

Robert = Bob
Clinton = Clint
William = Bill, Will, etc.
Thomas = Tom
Jacob = Jake
Michael = Mike
Albert, Alvin, Alan, etc. = Al
Andrew = Andy or Drew
Matthew = Matt

Even my son Travis often is called Trav. Well, I could go on and on. Although, as I think someone noted recently, young boys now seem to use their full names. In the past, this wasn't as true as today. Think of how many middle-aged and older men that are called Bob, Bill, Tom, Mike, blah blah blah.

Maybe it isn't as true for female names, though....

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- queenv (guest) +2

3/15/2014, 9:13 AM

Yes, you're right about the male names. I think that I must have been thinking of female names only. Since I'm the mother of a William who is always called Will, I definitely should have stopped and realized that!

- New_Chloe +1

3/15/2014, 9:28 AM

I think if the names are classically popular, even if they are very short they will often have lots of diminutive options, because historically people needed to be able to tell which William was which! Like look at John, a simple name if ever there was one, but look at the slew of nicknames that were derived from it.

So examples like Robert, William, Henry etc don't really follow much logic in terms of how short they are. But more modern names, like, I don't know... Justin, Brandon, Gary... Those definitely follow your line of thinking. As far as I've observed, anyway!

- queenv (guest)

3/15/2014, 9:30 AM

Good point

I wish I'd thought of it.

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