Noticed in another thread that a poster talked about going to “Jos. A. Banks” mens’ store, which reminded me of something I’ve often wondered about.
Why were some men’s names abbreviated in the “olden” days? (Examples: “Jos.” for Joseph, “Wm.” for William, and “Chas.” for Charles.) It doesn’t seem to be something that’s done much anymore, and I’ve never seen a woman’s name abbreviated so it doesn’t seem to be for space purposes.
Anybody know why?
I remember in the phone book my dad’s name was (is?) abbreviated as Robt. We loved that our dad was Robot!
Here’s a list of abbreviations on the Wiktionary.
Abbreviation of a Latin praenomen or given name is very common in classical inscriptions (either a single initial or first syllable, such as “Iul” for Iulius or “App” for Appius).
I would bet, though I can’t show, that abbreviation of English given names in writing was influenced by this practice. And certainly, using more than one letter for the abbreviated form was normal: many English common nouns were likewise abbreviated to a few letters rather than just a single initial (e.g., “oz.” instead of “o.” for “ounce” and “co.” instead of “c.” for "company).
In a culture with less diversity both in given names and surnames, it makes sense for abbreviations to be long enough to be unambiguous, so you can tell your Williams from your Walters and your Josephs or Johns from your Jameses.
And yes, feminine names were often abbreviated in similar ways in early documents, as this list indicates (as does ZipperJJ’s list): e.g., “Agn.” for Agnes or “Cath.” for Catherine.
Not more than 150 years ago, everything had to be written out in longhand. So common names that were more than a few letters long were frequently abbreviated just to save time (and I guess ink).
Some of those abbreviations are brilliant. I mean, who’s got the time to write out “Richard” in full? Obviously you’re going to go with “Richdus”. Same thing for “James”–“Jabus” is just such a time-saver. 
+1
I think ‘Xtopherus’ is my new favourite name.
Maybe I will have to have kids, just to use it.
Buy a turtle - much cheaper.
Xpr is the opposite end of the spectrum from Jabus and Richdus–shortened to near incomprehensibility.
In my early career (30 years ago, not 150 ;)), I often had to fill out forms in longhand, and I sometimes had to use abbreviated names to fit into an inadequate blank space on a form.
“Yes,” said the Dowager placidly. “I was going to suggest to you, Peter, that this Mr. Goyles—such a terrible name, Mary dear, I can’t say I ever cared for it, even if there had been nothing else against him—especially as he would sign himself Geo. Goyles—G. e. o. you know, Mr. Parker, for George, and I never could help reading it as Gargoyles—I very nearly wrote to you, my dear, mentioning Mr. Goyles and, asking if you could see him in town, because there was something, when I came to think of it, about that ipecacuanha business that made me feel he might have something to do with it.”
– Dorothy L. Sayers. “Clouds of Witness.”
Yes, & for just this rsn it was also cmn to abbrv lots of wrds, even in very frml docs.
A few years ago, an original official hand-inscribed copy(*) of the Magna Carta was on display in a San Francisco museum for a few weeks. It was full of abbrvs. It was also full of Latin, in a hand-lettered script that I could hardly even make out most of the individual letters, let alone understand any of the Latin. But a nearby informative placard (in English) explained all this.
(*) But, “original … copy” is an oxymoron! I hear you exclaim. Actually, not. Multiple hand-written copies were inscribed, to be sent out to the various provinces, and all of them are considered originals.
Except that those are not abbreviations of ‘Richard’ and ‘James’, but of 'Richardus 'and ‘Jacobus’.