Diminutives & Nicknames

[+ WilliamM]

A couple of years after Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Milk were killed, the National Association of Broadcasters conference was held

at the *George Moscone Center* in San Francisco. My father managed a television station in a medium market, got tickets for the Awards ceremony, and I attended as his guest.

 

Bob Hope was the master of ceremonies; he told *Fag Jokes*.

 

It seriously crossed my mind to call him out on it and make a public scene ...

 

I am not surprised. Even though not everyone agreed with Martha Raye, an understatement, she seems more sincere than Jessel and Hope.

[+ purplekow]

In an effort to be unique, parents have created these lifelong annoyances by deviating from the standard. No judgement from me on the idea of something special, but it is going to take more than an odd form of his name to make a child special. So the a Betty who are Bettie or a Fred who is Phred is destined to spent a lot of time saying the is Phred with a PH not an F. In an early age, when items such as personalized cups or bicycle license plates became popular, pity poor Phred, unable to adorn his bicycle as no such plate was available. Now, of course, you can individualize any type of item with any spelling of a name you wish, so little Adolph or Adolf may have it his way.

[+ quoththeraven]

I would of thought that Betty would have been the shorten form of Beatrice or Bettylou. I would have thought Beth or Lizz would be the shorten form of Elizabeth.

Nope, it's most commonly a nickname for Elizabeth. "Beth" is common as a name on its own. It can also be a shortened version of Bethany or Bethia. And Bettylou is just Betty Lou smushed together (and almost certainly southern in origin).

 

Concomitantly, explain how we get to Peg and Peggy from Margaret.

[+ poolboy48220]

Nope, it's most commonly a nickname for Elizabeth. "Beth" is common as a name on its own. It can also be a shortened version of Bethany or Bethia. And Bettylou is just Betty Lou smushed together (and almost certainly southern in origin).

 

Concomitantly, explain how we get to Peg and Peggy from Margaret.

or from Marguerite, a common name in my maternal family.

[Chad Constantine]

Nope, it's most commonly a nickname for Elizabeth. "Beth" is common as a name on its own. It can also be a shortened version of Bethany or Bethia. And Bettylou is just Betty Lou smushed together (and almost certainly southern in origin).

 

Concomitantly, explain how we get to Peg and Peggy from Margaret.

Mindblown!!!! Peg is Margaret???

[+ quoththeraven]

or from Marguerite, a common name in my maternal family.

But a less common name in the US overall than Margaret.

[+ quoththeraven]

Mindblown!!!! Peg is Margaret???

I gather this is news to you?

 

Yes, Anglophone names are weird. Margaret comes from Marguerite (the Normans who conquered England were originally Norse but lived in France and probably brought the name with them), but its ultimate origin is Greek. Elizabeth is originally Hebrew.

 

As for Betty as a diminutive of Elizabeth, see this.

[+ quoththeraven]

A couple of years after Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Milk were killed, the National Association of Broadcasters conference was held

at the *George Moscone Center* in San Francisco. My father managed a television station in a medium market, got tickets for the Awards ceremony, and I attended as his guest.

 

Bob Hope was the master of ceremonies; he told *Fag Jokes*.

 

It seriously crossed my mind to call him out on it and make a public scene ...

Ugh.

[bostonman]

Mindblown!!!! Peg is Margaret???

 

And Meg, also, as a nickname for Margaret.

 

And then, Meg can also stand for Meghan/Megan/etc.

[+ Charlie]

and what is it about people who assume you have to have a middle name? My Czech friend doesn't have one and half the time when I make airline reservations for him they insist on a middle name and I have to explain not everyone has one. A couple times I've had to speak to a supervisor. Some people are name poor. And I realize there are many who are "name rich" and not sure how they handle it.

My grandfather had no middle name. Neither did Harry Truman: the 'S.' was inserted by someone else later.

[+ Charlie]

My maternal grandfather was always called Harry, and even his children assumed that it was a diminutive for Harold; his son and grandson were named Harold. It wasn't until I found his birth record that I learned his baptismal name was Henry.

 

My father's family always called him by his middle name, which was his grandmother's maiden name. It was an uncommon German name that confused his American friends, who thought it was a similar-sounding English name, and they even used a first-syllable shortening of that. He finally legally changed his middle name to the one that everyone outside his family thought was his name. (No one ever called him by his first name.)

 

A good friend of mine moved to the US as a child, and was enrolled in a new school, where there were already three other girls with the same popular first name in her small class. Her last name was Martin, so the teacher simply said, "We will call you Marty." And that's what she used as her first name for the rest of her long life. Even her husband called her that. Of course, it occasionally caused confusion, because strangers assumed that "Marty" was a male whose first name was Martin.

[Chad Constantine]

And Meg, also, as a nickname for Margaret.

 

And then, Meg can also stand for Meghan/Megan/etc.

 

Just mind-blowing. It is like finding out the nickname for Apple is Crustacean.

[mike carey]

My former sister-in-law's legal name is Betty. She was forever having to correct teachers who assumed that was short for Elizabeth.

A river-front public development in Perth is called Elizabeth Quay. It is often referred to as Betty's Jetty.

[amused1]

My father and his siblings all went by nicknames: Sis, DeeDee, Mick, Rolly, JJ, Tuck, Lolly. None of their nicknames were related to their given names. Go figure.

[+ quoththeraven]

A river-front public development in Perth is called Elizabeth Quay. It is often referred to as Betty's Jetty.

It wasn't until fairly recently that I discovered "quay" is pronounced "key."

[mike carey]

It wasn't until fairly recently that I discovered "quay" is pronounced "key."

I have an unfair advantage on that, the main ferry wharves in Sydney are at Circular Quay. Which isn't circular or even an arc of one.

[Islesguy]

When my uncle was a child, he gave everyone in his family nicknames. He nicknamed my grandmother "hook-nose crow buzzard." It got shortened over time to where when she started getting grandchildren, it became Buzzi. Since she never wanted to be called bubbe (Yiddish for grandmother), Buzzi worked for her because it was close enough without being bubbe.