Why William is Bill and Richard is **** ?

[Az]

how about an enigma that I cannot understand.

Alexander = Sasha ?

[The Mad Monk]

Then there are the ones that sound funny, even if they make sense.

For example, I always feel like I should excuse myself after saying 'Bert'.

[Kramerman]

Originally posted by rah
Doesn't Tony come from Antonio?

anthony, i believe

[Strates]

In mexico we call Antonio "Toño", Jose becomes "Chepe" or "Pepe", Xavier becomes "Japos", Francisco "Paco", Ernesto "nestor", Fidel "fide", and so on....

[Buck Birdseed]

Except for the Fransisco->Paco transition, those all seem quite natural to me. Of course, that's assuming both Jose and Pepe come from some ancient bastardised latin form of Joseph with a good P sound at the end, aikin to the italian Guiseppe.

Another English one: Philippa -> Pippa.

[Provost Harrison]

The one name that I always found intriguing, but for all the wrong reasons, is Bubba. Where did this name come from, and who in their right mind would call their child by it?

[rush]

Here's another one. Joaquim = Jajo.

I can appreciate Katherine = Kate, Benjamin = Ben .... etc. The spelling is close enough, and the short form make it easy to call the person.

But I still find it difficuilt to understand why William = Bill, Richard = D*ck, and some of the other examples. Can anyone help ?

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by DanS
Harold is called Hal

Henry is called Harry or Hank

Katherine is called Kate

Actually, according to that "name" thread "Hal" is short for Henry, not Harold.

[connorkimbro]

Johnathon - John or Jon
Nathaniel (or Nathanael) - goes to Nathan or Nate

[rush]

Updated my list. Any more names to contribute ?

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Ethelred


The French version of John is Jaque

Jacques is James

Jean is John

[Kramerman]

robert = rob, robbie [robby]
michael = mike, mikey

but these are all logical. The william-bill, jamse-jim, richard-****, etc are unknown to me

[Fiera]

Originally posted by Buck Birdseed
Except for the Fransisco->Paco transition, those all seem quite natural to me.

Another nickname for Francisco in Spain is Curro, the most traditional one maybe, and the origin of the transition is really obscure and funny...

[Ethelred]

Originally posted by Frogger


Jacques is James

Jean is John

Nag, nag, nag, first a Canadian gets on me for mispelling Jaques now I get ragged on again for the same post instead of the Canadians getting it all over at once.

All right Mr. Smarty Frog.

Seames is James.

Sean is John.

[Markus The Mighty]

Originally posted by Ubergeek
Actually, Jack and Jacques are unrelated names that coincidentally sound the same. Jacques is, IIRC, the French version of James; the French version of John is Jean.

Jack came from Jonkin, a Germanic diminuative of the name John. Again, IIRC.

(Edited for lousy spelling)

I always thought that Jacques is the French form for German Jakob (English maybe Jacob?)
And Jack may be the short form of Jacob.
Could be wrong, though, haven't been very intenely into that "origin of names" thing.