d-i-c-k short for richard?

[fo3nix]

anyone know why d-i-c-k is an alternative nickname for people called richard?

I always just assumed it was because it rhymed with Rick, but maybe there's more to it than that?

[Ethel]

I don't really know but it could be because boys were often given their father's name.

To avoid confusion, Dad could have been called Rick or Richard and the son Dick.

Just a suggestion.

Here's another one - why are so many Margaret's called Peggy? All Peggy's are really Margaret.

[Agent_Smith]

is that true..... about the peggy?

[sense4all]

My Auntie Peggy was a Margaret, I remember getting a mega lecture when I asked why my sis was called Maggie, and was told she was named after your Auntie Peggy. It was as clear as mud at the time! lol.

[Tefler]

Names, like other words, are sometimes subject to change over time. In one case, the Latin 'Ricardus' became the Anglo-Norman 'Ricard'. That, in turn, was shortened to 'Ric(k)' and then was playfully altered to the rhyming form �Dick'. The Latin �Guglielmus', the French 'Guillaume' and the Germanic �Wilhelm' gradually became 'Bill' in much the same manner...being shortened initially to �Will'. We find the same process with the female name �Margaret'. It was abbreviated to �Maggie' then �Meggie' before becoming �Peggy' All these names involve an initial abbreviation followed by some playful alteration of the first letter. Dolores - Lola, Agnes - Nancy and Robert - Bob are similar.

[Quizmonster]

That naughty lady, Tefler - my partner - forgot to sign out from AnswerBank again last night and I, of course, did not notice. Accordingly, in case of any disagreement, the above answer is mine, not hers.

[dancecaller]

Well I knew about Peggy, but Agnes?? How so?

[noxlumos]

Yeah Nancy can be short for Agnes or Anne, I always assumed it stemmed from Anne to Nan to Nancy.

[Quizmonster]

See if you can trace a path through Aggie, Annis, Annot, Nance, Nessa, Nessie to Nancy, Dancealot! All are listed as diminutives of Agnes in Chambers Dictionary's name-list. Seems pretty clear that the 'n', 's' and 'y' sound-elements are relatively frequent and so easily capable of producing 'Nancy'.

[beetucks]

Another name for Agnes used in Scotland is Senga -Agnes backwards I wonder if this is the same reason Helens get Nellie

[Quizmonster]

Nellie can be a diminutive of Ellen, Helen or Eleanor. Again, the 'n', 'l' and 'e' sound-elements are all there.

[jno]

how do you suppose this actually happened Quizmonster? Was there a period of history when the English went in for rhyming-slang names - Ricky-Dicky, Willy-Billy, Meggy-Peggy and so on? No doubt it occurred but it seems hard to imagine.

[Quizmonster]

I suspect people have always played around with their own and friends' names, J. I wouldn't be in the least surprised to hear that Julius Caesar's pals called him Juli or Juju or whatever! Alexander Pope may well have been Lex to his buddies.
I myself have a habit - probably shared by millions - of modifying women's names. If these end in an 'ee' sound, such as Mary, Mandy etc, I always remove the end-sound and call them Mare, Mand and so on. In reverse, if there is no 'ee' ending, I often add one if it seems to fit. A girl everyone else calls Sam will invariably be Sammy for me and likewise Lynne > Lynnie, Hazel > Hazy and so on.
I don't believe there was a specific period when this sort of thing happened and nor do I imagine it is purely an English-speaking phenomenon.

[jno]

I know what you mean QM, but Mares and Mands have remained idiosyncratic usages - yours and no doubt others' too. Yet somehow the use of Dick and Peggy became so common and so geographically widespread that they entered the language as separate names. Furthermore, these are not simply a matter of adding or subtracting suffixes but of altering the first letters. How come it was never Willy-Nilly (which after all is a common usage) or Ricky-Micky? I still find it hard to envisage how and when this happened.

[heathfield]

Alteration of letters by people separated by time and distance is nothing new. In the Scottish, Irish, and Manx gaelic languages words beginning with the letter 'C', ( Q-gaelic), are to be found beginning with the letter 'P' in Welsh, Breton, and Cornish gaelic, (P-gaelic). At some time in pre-history, there must have been a single pronounciation of the words - it's odd that such a divergence should have occurred, but it did.

[fo3nix]

Thanks guys. All very interesting!

[ann_h]

There's also no earthly reason for "z"'s from "r"'s

gaz, shaz, loz etc

People just like to mess about, it seems. Anyone know if this is common in other languages?