Nickname ideas

You all know I live and die by a good nickname. 😀 Nicknames give a person options, and I’m a big fan of options — you can be wild and crazy with your everyday nickname and staid and sophisticated on your resume, wedding invitation, diploma, etc. with your formal given name. Or vice versa! (You don’t have to take my word for it — check out Abby’s spot-on In Defense of Nicknames: Ten Reasons to Embrace Nickname-Rich Names)

I love to see unusual nicknames especially, ones that aren’t as obvious or traditional — the kind you’d likely not find in any list of traditional nicknames for each name, so obviously these aren’t the only nicknames for these names (consult a name book for those!), though some of these are old variants or nicknames that I would love to see resurrected. I also love “mash-up” nicknames, where a nickname is fashioned out of the first and middle names. I’ve seen a good few examples in real life and around the web and through the families I “meet” on the blog, and some of them might be my own crazy ideas. 😉 I’ve been meaning to start a list of them, hence this page!

Girls

Agnes: Taggy

Annunciata/Annunziata: Anita, Annie

Ariadne: Addy

Bernadette: Benny, Betsy, Bette/Betty, Etta/Etty

Caroline: Caddy, Cara, Lola

Catherine: Cass, Zoe (St. Catherine Laboure’s birth name was Zoe)

Clementine: Emmy

Elizabeth: Eily, Sabeth, Tess, Zabel, Zelie (and check out Abby’s 16 Unexpected Elizabeth Nicknames)

Felicity: Cissy, Fee, Felly, Fil, Flick/Flicka, Fliss(y), Liddy, Lily, Liss/Lissa/Lissy, Zita, Zyta

Galilee: Lily

Hazel: Halle, Zelie