I've always found the origins of diminutive names interesting. I remember reading that a few of the odd ones in English come from the fact that the indigenous population in Britain had trouble pronouncing the hard "r" sound in a lot of the names that Normans brought with them. That's how we get Dolly from Dorothy, Maggie from Margaret, Babs from Barbara, etc.

I rather enjoy the revival of 'here comes the science'

Is this the internet reflecting Reddit or Reddit reflecting the internet?

Thread from Reddit 

The unanswerable question or are writers running out of ideas and searching aggregators for ideas? You be the judge!

Tahs4Evar: Is this the internet reflecting Reddit or Reddit reflecting the internet?

Thread from Reddit 

The unanswerable question or are writers running out of ideas and searching aggregators for ideas? You be the judge!

Errrm, unless you look at the dates.....

/Slinks quickly out of the thread.

I am gonna name my first son Dickhard

/Or Aethelwulf for the lulz

Jack Kennedy from John Fitzgerald Kennedy?

Curt is short for Curtis



/ponderous man, truly ponderous

I resemble this, and my last name is the same as a cable company. So awesome... Born with my own porn name.

So, in short, Dick = hard ruler.

/TMYK

Story needs more dick/penis.

Same way you get "turd" from third.

But where the hell do you get "Peggy" from "Margaret"??? Explain that one, Mr. Science.

Sybarite: I've always found the origins of diminutive names interesting. I remember reading that a few of the odd ones in English come from the fact that the indigenous population in Britain had trouble pronouncing the hard "r" sound in a lot of the names that Normans brought with them. That's how we get Dolly from Dorothy, Maggie from Margaret, Babs from Barbara, etc.

But how did we get Peg from Margaret?

How do you get Bill from William?

Has a better explanation:

Bonus fact:
Dick also once popularly meant an assertion, announcement, or declaration, such as "I do dick Mr. Beauregard... you are my hero!" Similarly, someone's 'dying dick' meant something completely different in the Middle Ages as it would now, namely their 'dying declaration'.

Ummm, yea right. Good luck trying to squeeze that one into a conversation. 

/Is dying dick like whiskey dick?

Grapple: But where the hell do you get "Peggy" from "Margaret"??? Explain that one, Mr. Science.

Faster by thirty-odd seconds! Nice.

/What does science have to do with this, anyway?

Chuck for Charles

/No, Chuck is not my farking name.

"Why do you keep calling me Dick?"

"Sorry, Mr. Burton..."

Linguistics is your friend!

Grapple: But where the hell do you get "Peggy" from "Margaret"??? Explain that one, Mr. Science.

Pick13: How do you get Bill from William?

So neither of you read the article?

Well have you ever met Richard? Dude's a dick.

Midnight Rambler: [bulk.destructoid.com image 620x350]

"Why do you keep calling me Dick?"

"Sorry, Mr. Burton..."

That's all i could think of during the recent "Liz and Dick" buzz. Watching that movie tonight, wife-permitting. Best Xmas movie ever. followed closely by The Ref

SuperChuck: Grapple: But where the hell do you get "Peggy" from "Margaret"??? Explain that one, Mr. Science.

Pick13: How do you get Bill from William?

So neither of you read the article?

yes, rhyming blah blah blah... So Margaret becomes Maggie which DOESN'T RHYME AT ALL WITH PEGGY. *ahem* I get the Bill-William thing.

So I really AM a Hick.

/shudder

Why would anyone in their right mind name their kid Richard in this day and age?

Grapple: yes, rhyming blah blah blah... So Margaret becomes Maggie which DOESN'T RHYME AT ALL WITH PEGGY. *ahem* I get the Bill-William thing.

Changing the a to an e is not a big change. Maybe someone thought Peggy sounded better than Paggy or someone misspelled it or misheard it because of an accent.

Grapple: SuperChuck: Grapple: But where the hell do you get "Peggy" from "Margaret"??? Explain that one, Mr. Science.

Pick13: How do you get Bill from William?

So neither of you read the article?

yes, rhyming blah blah blah... So Margaret becomes Maggie which DOESN'T RHYME AT ALL WITH PEGGY. *ahem* I get the Bill-William thing.

I guess Margaret could become Meg (somehow) which rhymes with Peg which gets you to Peggy? That's a lot of steps for a diminutive.

I get tired of all of the Dick/Richard jokes. It's so childish.

eltejon: I resemble this, and my last name is the same as a cable company. So awesome... Born with my own porn name.

Time Warner is much of a porn name. Just sayin'....

dick milch

Richard Flaccid: I get tired of all of the Dick/Richard jokes. It's so childish.

Well played.

Hello buddy boy, Dick Jones here

Always wondered how you get "sha-chef-ski" from Krzyzewski.

Richard Flaccid: I get tired of all of the Dick/Richard jokes. It's so childish.

It could be worse.

/know a guy named Bonar.

Without glancing at the article, going to guess that the "ch" used to be pronounced by the lower classes in England as a Germanic k instead of the shh-like sound that would have come over from Normandy and propagated among the new, French-speaking upper class. Richard/Rickard easily decays to "Dick" from "Rick".

Now to find out how wrong I am...

eltejon: I resemble this, and my last name is the same as a cable company. So awesome... Born with my own porn name.

Your name is Dick Comcast?

//They are pretty much dicks

///Actually, I'm guessing Richard Warner. What do I win?

show me: eltejon: I resemble this, and my last name is the same as a cable company. So awesome... Born with my own porn name.

Your name is Dick Comcast?

//They are pretty much dicks

///Actually, I'm guessing Richard Warner. What do I win?

Ah, I see you are Dick Cox in your profile. That's a good one if true.

show me: eltejon: I resemble this, and my last name is the same as a cable company. So awesome... Born with my own porn name.

Your name is Dick Comcast?

//They are pretty much dicks

///Actually, I'm guessing Richard Warner. What do I win?

Dick Cox

show me: show me: eltejon: I resemble this, and my last name is the same as a cable company. So awesome... Born with my own porn name.

Your name is Dick Comcast?

//They are pretty much dicks

///Actually, I'm guessing Richard Warner. What do I win?

Ah, I see you are Dick Cox in your profile. That's a good one if true.

SONOFAbiatch

show me: eltejon: I resemble this, and my last name is the same as a cable company. So awesome... Born with my own porn name.

Your name is Dick Comcast?

//They are pretty much dicks

///Actually, I'm guessing Richard Warner. What do I win?

The lulz vote for Dick Cox with the runners up being Dick Adelphia and Dick Qwest, with the winner in the "not sure if cable company" category is Dick Bend (after Bend Broadband)

I'm dating a Margaret that hates it shortened, so I'm getting a kick out of these replies.

/ "Hey you!" is my weapon of choice.

CSB, we had a police officer in my town growing up named Richard Head.

Grapple: CSB, we had a police officer in my town growing up named Richard Head.

I went to grade school with Richard Dickerson. His parents should be shot.

Sybarite: I've always found the origins of diminutive names interesting. I remember reading that a few of the odd ones in English come from the fact that the indigenous population in Britain had trouble pronouncing the hard "r" sound in a lot of the names that Normans brought with them. That's how we get Dolly from Dorothy, Maggie from Margaret, Babs from Barbara, etc.

Umm many childhood "nicknames" come from childish pronunciation - either a young child or its siblings messed up on the official pronunciation because it as too hard. Also in a society where many children are named for their parents or grandparents there wind up being a confusing amount of people with the same name - this giving a motive for preserving childhood nicknames.

12349876: Dick Qwest

That was the hentai version of ElfQuest, right?

HairBolus: Sybarite: I've always found the origins of diminutive names interesting. I remember reading that a few of the odd ones in English come from the fact that the indigenous population in Britain had trouble pronouncing the hard "r" sound in a lot of the names that Normans brought with them. That's how we get Dolly from Dorothy, Maggie from Margaret, Babs from Barbara, etc.

Umm many childhood "nicknames" come from childish pronunciation - either a young child or its siblings messed up on the official pronunciation because it as too hard. Also in a society where many children are named for their parents or grandparents there wind up being a confusing amount of people with the same name - this giving a motive for preserving childhood nicknames.

Good justification, Pisspants.

jackiepaper: Midnight Rambler: [bulk.destructoid.com image 620x350]

"Why do you keep calling me Dick?"

"Sorry, Mr. Burton..."

That's all i could think of during the recent "Liz and Dick" buzz. Watching that movie tonight, wife-permitting. Best Xmas movie ever. followed closely by The Ref

I agree. I watch it every year. One of Murray's best performances.

Another fun, related topic is British "cockney rhyming" slang. Brits often replace words with a rhyming phrase. Then they obfuscate things even further by dropping the rhyming portion of the phrase.

Example: Many Brits call a phone a dog, as in "I'll have to get on the dog and talk to him".

Dog is an abbreviated form of "dog and bone"
Dog and bone rhymes with phone.

Lots more here: www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk