Or “Ion”
Enis?
On an episode of Roseanne it was revealed that Jackie’s first name was originally “Marjorie” but three year old Roseanne prounced it “My Jackie” and it stuck. Then her mother says “Or was it Mary Jane,” leading Jackie to say “You don’t remember my real first name?”
Mad, in all my years I never connected the name Liam to William. Like other diminutives it is sometimes given as a stand alone first name.
Nit, ill, and Ed?
Would we recognize, much less worship, these:
Vis
Lina
Ris
Zel
Nardo
Dith
Tin
Lon
No celebrity cites, but “Seph” is picking up as a truncated version of Joseph.
Blogger zefrank (zay-frank) was born Hosea Frank.
Italian nicknames are often back-end diminutives: Giuseppe->Giuseppino->Pino, Antonio->Antonino->Nino.
I knew a Meredith once who was considering styling herself Dith. She decided it sounded too much like death. She eventually became Mitzi.
Mary Louise Streep should have been mentioned before now. She became Meryl
Oh, and actress ZaSu Pitts was born Eliza Susan Pitts.
Oh, yeah, me neither. I was just fooling around on Wikipedia, reading the entry on the recently deceased actress Natasha Richardson when I clicked onto the entry for Liam Neeson, her husband.
This was actually referenced on an episode of The Drew Carey Show, with Mimi responding something like “Drew Allison Carey? All three of your names are girl’s names!”
favorite
Wow, I always thought that was just random name made up for Bored of the Rings
Sepp Blatter, who is fairly famous (and notorious) as the head of FIFA, world football’s controlling body, is fully named Joseph S. Blatter. He’s also not exactly young.
Anni-Frid Lyngstad is better known as Frida, the redhead from ABBA
In the “No Wonder They Shortened It” category:
Al Pacino is really Alfredo Pacino.
Will Smith is Willard Smith.
Luke Perry is Coy Luther Perry III.
Tim Allen is really Timothy Allen Dick.
Even Og Himself was, at first, Philo Gildersmith! That’s what makes him so mean!
But from what I hear, Tim Allen *really is * a dick. 