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Nicknames?

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Nefret
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Favourite HF book: Welsh Princes trilogy
Preferred HF: The Middle Ages (England), New Kingdom Egypt, Medieval France
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Post by Nefret » Tue August 6th, 2013, 11:47 am

What in the blue hell? Creepy blonde people.



I'm curious... how does 'Jack' become a nickname for Jonathan?
Into battle we ride with Gods by our side
We are strong and not afraid to die
We have an urge to kill and our lust for blood has to be fulfilled
WE´LL FIGHT TILL THE END! And send our enemies straight to Hell!
- "Into Battle"
{Ensiferum}

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EC2
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Post by EC2 » Tue August 6th, 2013, 12:11 pm

We were taught in school that 'Teddy' dates to Theodore Rosevelt (sp).
I'm currently putting up a daily medieval male and female name at my Facebook page and Twitter account. I'm taking them from the Curia Regis rolls of 1211-1212 and doing them alphabetically. Today was P and I was astonished to find a lady called Prudence. I'd always thought that was a much later name.
I am saving up some names for when I write a brothel scene. These include:

Tiffany
Beaveria
Juicia
Popelina
Desiree
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

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Madeleine
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Post by Madeleine » Tue August 6th, 2013, 1:58 pm

[quote=""LadyB""]At least no-one has tried yet to morph two siblings' (or a couple's) names together, like with Jedward.

Sorry for the deviation, but all the mentions of Edward/Ned/Ted/Nedward/Tedward just had me thinking of Jedward. If you're in a country that hasn't come across these guys yet, you are fortunate indeed.[/quote]

You certainly are lucky not to have had them inflicted on you :eek: , mercifully they seem to have fizzled out, in the Uk at least :rolleyes: Personally I hate all that joining names together :eek: , Brangelina etc, ugh.

Back to Ted etc and I also remember being told that it came from Teddy Rooseveldt thanks to the teddy bear story.
Currently reading "Mania" by L J Ross

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Michy
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Post by Michy » Tue August 6th, 2013, 2:59 pm

[quote=""EC2""]We were taught in school that 'Teddy' dates to Theodore Rosevelt (sp).
I'm currently putting up a daily medieval male and female name at my Facebook page and Twitter account. I'm taking them from the Curia Regis rolls of 1211-1212 and doing them alphabetically. Today was P and I was astonished to find a lady called Prudence. I'd always thought that was a much later name.
I am saving up some names for when I write a brothel scene. These include:

Tiffany
Beaveria
Juicia
Popelina
Desiree[/quote]

I've always thought Tiffany has such a modern sound. But I remember in one of Edward Rutherfurd's books (can't remember which one) he had a female character (can't remember which century she lived in, but definitely before the 20th) named Tiffany. Her real name was "Theophania" (ugh) which meant "gift of God", I believe, and she was called Tiffany. And now you've found it in records from the 1200s.... so the name must really be quite old. Funny how it sounds so modern....

Back to Teddy ..... perhaps the Theodore Roosevelt theory is true. My dad was named Theodore and always went by Ted/Teddy, and he was born in the 1920s, well after Roosevelt's time....... Still can't figure out, though, how Ted came to be a nickname for Edward. I can't see any connection.

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DianeL
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Post by DianeL » Wed August 7th, 2013, 1:52 am

I recall being puzzled that Hank and Harry were nicknames for Henry, when I was a kid.

I actually used nicknames in The Ax and the Vase - each for one of Clovis' lovers. Evochilde he calls 'Childe at times, and later, Queen Saint Clotilde he calls Cloti. Not sure why I chose Cloti instead of 'Tilde, but in fact it never occurred to me before now. And I believe I may have come up with the latter before the former. There is ZERO basis for the diminutives nor even the use of nicknames at all, linguistically. I can't even academically justify the choice. I just think humans have always "nicked" each other out of affection. In the work, it was a way of delineating these two extremely intimate and important relationships from ... everything else in the novel.
"To be the queen, she agreed to be the widow!"

***

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Madeleine
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Post by Madeleine » Wed August 7th, 2013, 10:06 am

I've never got Jack/John either - when I was a kid, for years I thought that Jack Kennedy and JFK were two different people!

And Peggy/Margaret is another one - how do you get from Margaret to Peggy???
Currently reading "Mania" by L J Ross

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Nefret
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Post by Nefret » Wed August 7th, 2013, 10:32 am

This has answers to some of the names we were wondering about...


http://voices.yahoo.com/nicknames-john- ... 65885.html
Into battle we ride with Gods by our side
We are strong and not afraid to die
We have an urge to kill and our lust for blood has to be fulfilled
WE´LL FIGHT TILL THE END! And send our enemies straight to Hell!
- "Into Battle"
{Ensiferum}

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Misfit
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Post by Misfit » Wed August 7th, 2013, 12:57 pm

[quote=""Nefret""]This has answers to some of the names we were wondering about...


http://voices.yahoo.com/nicknames-john- ... 65885.html[/quote]

Interesting. I'm still not buying into the Teddy nickname for Edward of Warwick. ;)

If only she hadn't gone overboard with it.
At home with a good book and the cat...
...is the only place I want to be

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Madeleine
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Post by Madeleine » Wed August 7th, 2013, 1:06 pm

Interesting article, thanks for posting that. Who'd have thought that so many modern-sounding names had such a long history, although I agree with the comment about Welsh being a CELTIC language, not Germanic!

And then of course there's the other rumour that the name Wendy was invented for Peter Pan.....
Currently reading "Mania" by L J Ross

annis
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Post by annis » Wed August 7th, 2013, 7:27 pm

I did feel that the shift from Ann to Nan, Ellen to Nell, Edward to Ned etc wasn't explained quite clearly enough. In earlier times people would have said affectionately "mine Edward" rather than "my Edward" which is how the "n" sound would have slipped in.

"Ted" is as old as "Ned" as far as diminutives for Edward go, but Edward IV has always been described as "Ned" in stories I've read - whether that was extrapolated from common nicknames of the era or actually recorded somewhere I don't know. Maybe PG went for "Ted" as a nickname for Edward of Warwick to distinguish between the two?
Last edited by annis on Wed August 7th, 2013, 7:59 pm, edited 4 times in total.

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