Titty as a name?

[RiftGibbon]

Discovered a copy of Swallows and Amazons and one of the girls is called Titty.
The others have more standard names for the time.
I assume it is a diminutive of something, but what, and why?
Surely by the 1930s there was some correlation between the words tits and breasts?

As a very budding teen (now 36F and in my 40s) my sister used to call me that. On occasion, still does 😀. I forgive her.

Titty in Swallows and Amazons is short for Letitia. It has been changed to Kitty in later editions!

Which doesn't make sense, does it. Kitty is not short for Letitia. They should have changed it to Letty. I'm irrationally annoyed by that name change, even though I hadn't realised Titty's full name was Letitia.

Didn't Greek to have a big problem reporting the royal wedding because Pippa (Middleton) is a rude word in Greek.

Sure but they learn English (most schools are bilingual). And let's be honest, the first words you learn in a foreign language (and the ones you remember) when you're a kid are the dodgy ones.

DD used to go around shouting 'stick, stick!' - unfortunately she pronounced it with a 'd' sound at the start 😂

BodenCardiganNot
There was Aunt Fanny in the Famous Five.

A teacher I know read it to her class years ago but renamed Aunt Fanny as Aunt Susan. All was well for a few story sessions. Then a little girl put her hand up a said. ‘I’ve got that book at home and my mummy has been reading it to me but in our book she’s got a different name. She’s called Aunt Fanny’.

We certainly laughed in the staff room but I wondered how many mums at home were having a laugh too.

Letty would have been better.

My eldest wanted her little sister to be called Knobby! Titty and Knobby could be great friends! :P

It isn't short for Letitia. Or anything else.

It was a nickname for Mavis, who loved the story Titty and Tatty Mouse when she was little.

The Swallows (except John, who was in RL a girl called Taqui) were based on a family of real children. So it isn't a "what was Arthur Ransome thinking?" question. It's a "this is what it was in real life in the 30s".

Swallows and Armenians: Arthur Ransome’s forgotten inspirations revealed | Arthur Ransome | The Guardian

I knew someone with this as a nickname. She was from Africa and it as a short version of her name. Can't remember what the name act was though.

I'd love a pet cat called Titty!

I remember a conversation in the changing rooms at Swimming, when out the blue a boy asked "why do some people call their boys Dick?" I said they called them Richard, but there were so many rude words around that if you stopped using names like them you wouldn't have any left for anybody. Or something.

Nick means fuck in French not dick in Algerian.

Arabic for dick is zgeg. Balls are glaoui which does sound faintly like Chloe though.

I had an English teacher that crossed out every 'Titty' I wrote in my essay (it wasn't a class text; I'd just read my own very old copy) and changed it to 'Kitty'! I was thoroughly confused and wondered if she thought I was some weird boob-obsessed child.

Nates means buttocks.

Many words for breasts are recent. I'm sure I never heard norks until this century for example.

Beaver nowadays refers to the protected animal that builds dams, had a different use when I was young.

Words change their meaning, and names fall out of fashion.

Genuinely thought this was a baby naming thread and am now seriously disappointed.

Norkella and Nate would be lovely for twins.

I had an English teacher that crossed out every 'Titty' I wrote in my essay (it wasn't a class text; I'd just read my own very old copy) and changed it to 'Kitty'! I was thoroughly confused and wondered if she thought I was some weird boob-obsessed child.

What an idiot. Was she ok with Roger?

I'm glad the books hadn't been bowdlerised when I augmented the four I'd had since childhood with the rest of the series for my dd in the mid 2000s.

Just about to ask the same

Didn't know it had been changed!

I remember the Five Findouters and dog included a boy called Fatty. Wonder if he's reverted to his real name of Frederick now.

I taught English in Italy and throughout the book we were using there was a character called Mona. Every time this character was mentioned the students, who were late teen girls, would get really embarrassed. Finally I asked them why and they told me that Mona means vagina in Italian.

After that we referred to that character as Maria instead.

According to Google, it was short for Letitia. I don't believe the word "titties" was in common use in 1920s/30s England. Slang terms evolve quickly - we've seen that happen to names like Karen in our own lifetimes.