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What's in a name?

My aunt was Margaret. She was called Peg.

Margaret > Meggy > Meg > Peg (the last transition being a version of rhyming slang, more common in the UK and some of its colonies).
 

luvmysuper

My elbows leak
Staff member
My aunt was Margaret. She was called Peg.

Margaret > Meggy > Meg > Peg (the last transition being a version of rhyming slang, more common in the UK and some of its colonies).
I understand that there's a transition that occurred. I think my puzzlement comes from the seemingly unconnected transitions.
Margaret > Maggie > Mag > Gag or Michael > Mickey > Mick > Ick makes just as much sense!
 

JCarr

More Deep Thoughts than Jack Handy
I'm one of those John's whose real name never gets used...but everyone calls me Jack. My Mom had an Uncle Jack who she was fond of and I think that's where it came from. When I was a kid, they used to call me Jackie...and it would drive me up the wall. Now it wouldn't bother me at all. So...it is possible to mellow with age.
 

luvmysuper

My elbows leak
Staff member
The name Jack is a derivative of John, which originated in medieval England. The name went from John to Johnkin to Jankin to Jackin to, you guessed it, Jack.
I could see calling my kid Jack if I was in the position of having drunkenly named him Johnkin.
But it makes absolutely no sense in calling someone named John "Jack".
You could just name him Jack. Doing it today because in history at some point someone thought Jackin was a good substitute for John doesn't compute.
 
I knew an old man named Vincent. I once met his brother also named Vincent. Their other two brothers were also named Vincent. Their father, Vincent, apparently really liked his name. Only the oldest son (the one I knew) went by Vincent. One went by Vinny and I forget what the other two went by.

Vincent's son John at least had good enough sense to only name his oldest son after himself.
 
I spoke to a co-worker about that thread this afternoon. His name is Carlos and he told me that when he was in the states everybody used to call him Charlie...

Charlie, Carlos... i cannot get it...
 
My name is Brian. I didn't meet another Brian until the 1980s when I was in my 30s. In college I was usually called "B" or "Beeg" (a combination of my 1st and last name initials). My last 20 years before retiring, everyone in the office (bosses, staff and secretaries) called each other by their last name. Weird at first, but everyone just accepted it.

In my late 40s, after getting a PC in the early 1990s, I started doing genealogy. It was easy, fast and cheap to get birth, marriage & death certificates back then. My dad John, who died when I was 9, went by Jack. My mom Margaret went by Marge. When I got my mom's birth cert, it said Marguerite. When I asked her about it, she flipped out. She blamed her father and said she hated it and never used it. Sometimes genealogy can be a touchy subject.
 

captp

Pretty Pink Fairy Princess.
I'm not sure who said it, but I read "In America, you can spell your name S-M-I-T-H, and tell people it's pronounced "Brown".
Could have been me. My little sister always said that, and I repeat it often. It's your name, so you get to say how to say it.
 

luvmysuper

My elbows leak
Staff member
My name is Brian. I didn't meet another Brian until the 1980s when I was in my 30s. In college I was usually called "B" or "Beeg" (a combination of my 1st and last name initials). My last 20 years before retiring, everyone in the office (bosses, staff and secretaries) called each other by their last name. Weird at first, but everyone just accepted it.

In my late 40s, after getting a PC in the early 1990s, I started doing genealogy. It was easy, fast and cheap to get birth, marriage & death certificates back then. My dad John, who died when I was 9, went by Jack. My mom Margaret went by Marge. When I got my mom's birth cert, it said Marguerite. When I asked her about it, she flipped out. She blamed her father and said she hated it and never used it. Sometimes genealogy can be a touchy subject.
Same with my mother, who was "Marie", though the birth certificate said "Maria".
She was very touchy about it, and said it was an error.
 
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