Odd nicknames that seem stranger than the original names

[MyUnderpants]

Some nicknames are just odd. Personally I can't stand Saz as a short form of Sara(h) which is short enough not to need it. But it's logical I guess. Any strange examples?

My DM was christened Agnes and has gone by Nancy her whole life.

I know loads of Victorias who go by Tori or Toria instead of Vicky. It’s not unusual at all.
I work with 4 Victorias. All late 30s - early 40s. Two are firmly Victorias. One Vicki. One Tori.
There were 3 in my year at school - one Vicky, two Victorias.

In mid-century Australia it wasn’t uncommon for men to be given old-fashioned girls’ names by their friends.

To name a few prominent men from the ‘70s and onward:

Molly Meldrum (Ian)
Polly Farmer (Graham)
Shirley Strachan (Graeme)

Graham Farmer had a freeway named after him which is generally known as the Polly Farmer Freeway.

In Scotland years ago when I was a child, Jane was 'shortened' to Jean and women named Janet were usually called Jessie.

Goodness knows why.

Like William and Harry’s nanny Tiggy, or there was a journalist/writer called Santa and another called Plum. None of them were christened those names! Stupid nicknames seem to be a posh woman thing.

Do you mean Santa Sebag-Montefiore? According to Wikipedia that actually is her name! Her mum would have got torn to shreds on the Baby Name threads on here 😂

In an amusing reverse of that, my dad worked with a younger man nicknamed Chalky and assumed his surname must be White. In fact it was Kreide.

I think her mother’s Argentinian? So she was named Saint.

Plum Sykes was christened Victoria, so it does make sense in that way.

There’s no excuse for Tiggy though (or Binky).

Jack/Jock as a nn for John - what's the point?

Senga as nn for Agnes - again, why bother apart from Agnes being a hideous name.

And, my personal favourite, boys being forced into having their Dad's first name, generally a long paternal family tradition that can never be broken yet the child is only ever known by their middle name. Just give the kid their own name fgs. If I see the name James appear on my family tree again I'm going to scream. One generation has 6 cousins all called James 😂.

'Margerite' is French for daisy, so that's where that one comes from.

Never heard of and can't place the Nancy/Anne link. Strangely I've known a lot more American women than British with the given name of Nancy.

Dick and Chuck are both awful and only tacitly connected to their longer form. Likewise Jack for John, Molly for Mary, Sally for Sarah, Mick for Michael. Doubtless someone will know the reasons behind these!

I had trouble visiting an elderly neighbour in hospital recently. Her name is Pearl but her official name is Margaret. So it took me ages to track her down.

My uncle went by Ian but his name was John.

I used to work with a guy called Weemish. I don't know how how you would spell that. He joined a shinty team back in the day. He was the second Hamish in the team, and the tallest by a long way. So they called him Wee Hamish. Then eventually just called him Weemish. That's an excellent nickname.

Another one i recall was a friend's mum who was called Lydia by everyone. It wasn't her name though. Before she married, her last name was Kettles

It is her real name yes.

The Ann > Nancy, Helen > Nell ones are easily explicable.

In early modern English, the possessive for words starting with a vowel was ‘mine’ rather than ‘my’ - just like we say AN apple but A pear.

So ‘mine Ann’ becomes ‘my Nan(cy)’, and ‘mine Helen’ becomes ‘my Nell’. Also Ned for Edward: ‘mine Ed’.

The snake we call an adder used to be a nadre.

Of course! I hadn't even considered that. I only ever see that used in the context of 'mine host' nowadays, although there could be any number of reasons for that.

I find these threads fascinating.

Dh’s whole family goes by nicknames that seem to have no relation to their actual names. 😂

His uncle goes by Patrick, but his real name is Benjamin. His mum is Jenny, but her real name is Priscilla. I only recently learned after 20 years of knowing her that another Auntie Liz is actually by birth called Peggy. His grandad was Fredrick, but went by Harry.

It’s like they’re all in witness protection. 🤣

We have a friend called Cheese. He used to stack the chillers in tescos about 20 years ago 😂

In my family we had/have
Ellen - Nellie
Winnifred - Biddy
Josephine - Jo (hates Josie)
Jean - Beany
Charlotte - Charlie
Margaret - Margie
John - Jonesie
Jake - Colgate (because he has perfect teeth,)

Not all that original, but my 6'4" tall nephew is called Shorty. When I was a child, my stepfather's best friend was a very large man who was called Tiny.

I think she is the sister of Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (rip).

I like Weemish 😁

The other two are easily explained. Margaret is from a Greek word literally meaning pearl.

Iain (anglicised Ian) is a Scottish Gaelic name cognate with John. I’m Irish and it was very common in the past to have an English name on the birth certificate, but to use the Irish language form of the name day to day. There are a lot of older Seáns and Eoins in Ireland who have John on their birth cert. It might have been similar with Scottish Gaelic names?

I love Welsh nicknames - Jones the Milk etc. We have a few in our village - my husband was Pete the telly as he fixed tvs.

I met a Victoria who went by Toyah.

My dad used to run a chip shop and got known as Pete the chip

My brother also has the nickname Benny, real name Peter. No one except mum calls him anything other than Benny