# Nicknames with no relation to the longer name. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 25, 2019, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623 "2019-07-25T16:56:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2019, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/61 "2019-07-27T19:30:15Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > My mom had a friend named Betty; one teacher kept insisting she was Elizabeth. Betty’s mom had to go to the school to set her straight. The teacher apparently still couldn’t understand how such a thing was even possible, but apparently the principal got the idea. I had a classmate at my Catholic grade school named Trudy. She had the same problem with the nuns, who kept insisting that her real name had to be Gertrude because there is no Saint Trudy, and of course all Catholic children were named after saints. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/62 "2019-07-27T19:39:37Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > I had a classmate at my Catholic grade school named Trudy. She had the same problem with the nuns, who kept insisting that her real name had to be Gertrude because there is no Saint Trudy, and of course all Catholic children were named after saints. My grandmother’s name as used by her husband and family and everybody was Trudy, and when she was buried in a Catholic grave in Spain, even we were scurrying around trying to get documents that she was a Gertrude. Nope, Trudy (“Trude” actually, in German). (She was Jewish , a Holocaust survivor, FTR…long story.) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/63 "2019-07-27T19:55:32Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally Posted by panache45_ > I should point out that “Jack” is not always a nickname. > [@Cugel](#): > > Very common given name in Australia. Yeah. I understand they even named a Kangaroo that. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2019, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/64 "2019-07-27T20:48:26Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Shorten to the “sús” part, then sound-drift to “Chu”, then diminutive to Chuíto (in PR we stopped there) or Chuín, then shorten that to “Chui”, move the stress back to the u, write it with a “y” at the end because in Spanish ortography that how you most often end a word with an unstressed “i” sound. So _that_ Wookiee (props to me for checking spelling to head off at the pass other Dopers) was a Jesús? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/65 "2019-07-28T08:23:38Z")
Yeah but he probably didn’t know it 🙂 The pronunciations of the names in the Spanish versions change between Chapter IV and the rest, at least in the Spanish-from-Spain dubbings: depending on which dubbing you get, the nick sounds more like Chuy or more like Chowie (_chúgüi_ in Spanish transliteration). Googling “chuy wookie” brings up a combo of “missing: chuy” and pages where the name is in fact spelled [Chuy](https://www.pinterest.com/ocamilocure8/chuy/) (I’ve never seen wookiee with the double e in Spanish). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/66 "2019-07-28T08:41:43Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > How about Ignatius -\> Nacho, but also Iggy Nacho is from Ignacio; just lose the Ig and say it fast. Also Inacio. The Basque form given for Ignatius is Eneko, and Íñigo is usually considered a nick for Ignacio: it originally was a different name. Eneco/Enecus/Íñigo López de Loyola (EUS/LAT/ES) officially chose to rename himself to Ignatius “as an homage to St Ignatius Antioch”. We suspect there may have been a factor of “all these foreigners think my name is weird ☹ and half of them think I’m misspelling or mispronouncing it ☹ :(”. He had been baptized after St Eneco/Enecus/Íñigo de Oña. (Changing the /k/-sounding "c"s to "k"s was part of the recentish spelling reforms in Basque). ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/67 "2019-07-28T10:47:48Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > Thought I mentioned his name is “Danny” - he might have had less trouble if it was “Dan”. I missed that point, but I did find the answer for turning Vincenzo into James. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/68 "2019-07-28T12:20:04Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Daniel, BTW, is simply the name of the tribe with the word El, one of the “names” of God. Cf. Rafael, Israel, Immanuel, etc. Daniel is Semitic. Among Hebrews it’s taken to mean “God is my judge”. Among some other ancient people in the area is taken as a deity under the supreme god El and meant “El’s judge.” So their Daniel was worshiped, given offerings, etc. But the Hebrews downgraded such deities. Often into folk heroes or angels. The tribe of Dan was a separate thing and named/existed _long_ after the name Daniel was used in the region. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/69 "2019-07-28T12:27:10Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/70 "2019-07-28T12:29:35Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I missed that point, but I did find the answer for turning Vincenzo into James. You didn’t miss it - I thought I included it but didn’t. But I’m happy you found the answer for Vincenzo-Jimmy. It’s been driving me crazy my whole life ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/71 "2019-07-28T13:26:44Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > My grandfather from Sicily was baptized Vincenzo. When he immigrated to America he changed his name to James. (My grandmother called him Jimmy). It was explained to me that James was the English equivalent for Vincenzo, but no one ever explained _why_. > > When I grew up I met another woman whose father had immigrated from Sicily and changed his name from Vincenzo to James. We agreed that it was a thing, but again, neither of us had any idea why. > > Finally out of lifelong frustration I took to Google, determined not to quit until I’d found the answer. I found it. > > A shortened form of Vincenzo was Cenzo, which had a variant “Censo.” Censo, in Italian pronunciation, was thought to sound similar enough to “James” to be replaced by it. Now I want to tell the world. I have a friend who has an Uncle Jack who is actually Giacomo, even though Giacomo=Jacob/James and Giovanni=John/Jack. Uncle Jack was the son of immigrants from Italy and he hated having an ethnic name, so he picked “Jack” because it sounded like the first part of “Giacomo.” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/72 "2019-07-28T13:36:48Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I have a friend who has an Uncle Jack who is actually Giacomo, even though Giacomo=Jacob/James and Giovanni=John/Jack. Uncle Jack was the son of immigrants from Italy and he hated having an ethnic name, so he picked “Jack” because it sounded like the first part of “Giacomo.” I had an Italian friend in high school named Pasquale who went by “Paddy,” probably partly due to the influence of the Irish in the neighborhood. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2019, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/73 "2019-07-28T15:56:23Z")
Here’s another for the Spanish speaking contingent. The German Grand Prix has just finished. Sergio “Checko” Perez was racing - made me wonder. Googling \ gets enough hits which are not Perez to make me think that actually Checko may well be some form of diminutive of Sergio, rather than just being Perez’ nickname. Is this correct? In which case, how do we get from one to the other. j ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/74 "2019-07-29T04:18:38Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > Margaret can also be shortened to “Daisy”, which comes from translating the French version of the name (Marguerite) into English. Fascinating; that one I had never heard about. But my great grandmother’s given name was Margaret, and she spent the first couple of decades answering to [“Pearl.”](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaritiferidae) ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/75 "2019-07-29T14:18:25Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Dick as a nickname for Richard is because people would use Rick as a nickname for Richards and at some point English really went hard for rhyming and people started using Dick since it rhymed with Rick and it stuck. > [@Colibri](#): > > I’m not sure if they actually have the same origin as Rick/Dick but other “rhyming” nicknames include Ted for Edward, Bill for William, and Peggy for Margaret (Meggy). And the ever-popular Bob for Rob (Robert). This rhyming origin was discussed by linguist John McWhorter on his language podcast _Lexicon Valley_. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/76 "2019-07-29T14:50:35Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Fascinating; that one I had never heard about. But my great grandmother’s given name was Margaret, and she spent the first couple of decades answering to [“Pearl.”](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaritiferidae) Don’t know if you read _Love and Rockets_ or not, but it’s stories about Latin Americans who used to be punk rockers and are now going through middle age. One of the characters is named Margaret. She goes by “Maggie” and “Perla.” She explained to one of her friends that when she started working as a mechanic, the other mechs called her “Maggie” and it stuck with her friends. Her family and cousins called her “Perla” because they called her that as a young girl. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/77 "2019-07-30T16:11:56Z")
How about the nicknames for Theresa/Teresa - Terri (numerous spellings) and Tess. I see that some of the same letters are there but still doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/78 "2019-07-30T17:20:18Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > How about the nicknames for Theresa/Teresa - Terri (numerous spellings) and Tess. I see that some of the same letters are there but still doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Are you familiar with the concept of contractions in language? A lot of this stuff is closely related to the same process that produces baby talk. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/79 "2019-07-30T17:52:10Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Here’s another for the Spanish speaking contingent. > > The German Grand Prix has just finished. Sergio “Checko” Perez was racing - made me wonder. > > Googling \ gets enough hits which are not Perez to make me think that actually Checko may well be some form of diminutive of Sergio, rather than just being Perez’ nickname. > > Is this correct? In which case, how do we get from one to the other. > > j I’m more used to hearing Checho; either one is just baby talk. And it’s interesting that you’re getting Checko: he spells it Checo. The “ck” goup is not used in Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623/80 "2019-07-30T19:47:49Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I’m more used to hearing Checho; either one is just baby talk. And it’s interesting that you’re getting Checko: he spells it Checo. The “ck” goup is not used in Spanish. So he does. My mistake - I don’t know where I got that from. But it is specifically a diminutive of Sergio? Or a general nickname from childhood? j [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nicknames-with-no-relation-to-the-longer-name/837623.md?page=5)