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Nell or Nina...

8 replies

hohohoshedittant · 12/12/2011 23:02

as a nickname for Elizabeth? Can it be done? Has it ever been done? Does anyone know of some link way back that could justify it?

Just out of curiosity...

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rootietootie · 12/12/2011 23:06

I love this film - Nell

effingwotsits · 12/12/2011 23:09

Why not just nell? I have a just nell. Smile

AnotherMincepie · 12/12/2011 23:45

I don't think of them as related to Elizabeth at all.

AnotherMincepie · 12/12/2011 23:45

(mainly because there is no N in Elizabeth)

oikopolis · 12/12/2011 23:53

Nell is a traditional nickname for Helen. It's from the expression "mine Helen" -> "mine Hel" -> "my Nell" -> Nell. Same reason Ned is a nn of Edward: "mine Edward" eventually became "Ned". That being said, "mine Elizabeth" could come out as "my Nell" too by that logic... not traditional, but not illogical!

Nina is a generic nn for names ending in "ina", e.g. Catherina.

Elizabeth has an enormous number of traditional nns: Elisa, Tetty, Lizzy, Lizzie, Lizette, Lizbeth, Liza, Liz, Lise, Lisa, Lillian, Lilibeth, Lilibet, Lilian, Liddy, Libby, Elyse, Elsie, Elsa, Elly, Ellie, Ella, Eliza, Buffy, Betty, Bettie, Bette, Betsy, Beth, Bessie, Bess, Elle (these were straight from behindthename.com and they're quite exhaustive)

...If you don't like any of those, then Nell might be better to go with.

MildlyNarkyPuffin · 13/12/2011 00:08

Nell is short for Eleanor as well.

I've not heard either of them used as shortened forms of Elizabeth.

hohohoshedittant · 13/12/2011 00:24

(mainly because there is no N in Elizabeth)

I did think of that, but no T or N in Edward and Ted and Ned are both fine. No P in Margaret, but Peggy can be a short form. No B in William, but Billy is widely used.

The Margaret/Daisy thread was what made me wonder. No sound similarity there either, but the shared meaning makes it kind of ok.

oikopolis that is the kind of logic I'm looking for! Fantastic.

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TeacupTempest · 13/12/2011 10:45

I wouldn't have associated either with Elizabeth to be honest so you might get sick of explaining it to everyone.

They are all nice thought :)

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