Do you ever wonder where some name shortenings came from?

[Nnickname]

Probably is obvious or well known and I’ll expose myself as an idiot, but take Bill for William. Why? It’s not Billiam. Same as Nellie for Ellen and the much loved on here Kit for Christopher.

Yes, that’s where the name Sally comes from.

I think I read on here is that when families used to call the 1st born daughter after the mother, they needed a shortening so they could tell everyone apart. This is why you get Margaret to Maggie, Mags, Peggy, Daisy and so on. Lots of these names started becoming popular in their own right like Betsy or Katie and Eliza.

It traditionally was short for Sarah

I know a woman whose first son was Billy, second son Liam... I didn't want to be the one to tell her they are both William

My late DM’s family there was a Peggy/Margaret and a Jack who’s name was John.

William can't exactly become Willy

Pearl from the name Margaret always throws me.

I once worked with a girl who didn't believe that Kate/Katie was a diminutive of Catherine.

I had no idea that Sally had started out as a nickname for Sarah until I your post just then and googled it. I would personally say that Sally, Harry and Polly are very much names in their own right, especially as they’re pet/nicknames rather than shortenings.

How about names like Kate, Alex, Ben, Chris- shortenings that are a bit less ‘cute’. Are they out too?

So I can't find it on Google, but I can sort of recall the Nell, Ned thing...

In the olden days, working class families would call their children "our own" and in colloquial speech this shorted down.

So - Our own Ellen - Our Nell
Our own Edward - Our Ned

I might not have got this exactly right, but it's along those lines.

Willy was very common until recently.

Willy Wonka?