Or a baby’s mispronunciation. I know quite a few people with unusual nicks which are how they or a younger sibling or cousin mispronounced it - since grownups found the mispronunciations (and, in some cases, the child’s anger upon being called by it) unbearably cute, they stuck.
No cites, but I’ve read that this was the Royal Navy pronunciation (I think this was from an encyclopedia published in the 60s)
From a book published soon after the Falklands War , *Don’t Cry For Me Sergeant Major *, there is a part where a young officer of the Blues and Royals, a posh cavalry regiment, is quoted as saying “sines abite right” for “sounds about right .”
This was meant to be a transliteration of upper class speech, rather than northern Irish speech, as far as I can gather .
Topher isn’t a bizarre shortening of Christopher. I’ve a cousin by that name, a bit older than I assume Mr. Grace to be, and he’s been known as Topher to the family since about '85. No special reason: his sister started it, and there’s a surfeit of Christophers (as well as Samuels and Kyles) in our ranks.
The only Rafe I’ve heard of is Hollister, right there in Mayberry.