Nicknames

I’ve noticed a pattern:

People of around my generation (Millennials and probably also Gen X) tend to have nicknames that are a straightforward clipping of their first name. William is Will, Robert is Rob, Alexander is Alex, Edward is Ed, Elizabeth is Liz or Beth, Eleanor is Ellie.

People of my parents’ and grandparents’ generation tend to have nicknames with a letter or sound altered from the straightforward clipping. Bill, Bob, Alec, Ned/Ted, Betty, Nellie. All these names sound pretty old-fashioned to me, and I very rarely meet younger adults or children with them. But I expect when they first arose they sounded cool and fresh because they were a variation from the obvious. (I’m particularly thinking of things like Alec here. I can easily imagine a young chap in the early-to-mid-20th century thinking he was very modern for being called Alec. I realise Ned and Nellie are much older and originally came about from rebracketing/resegmentation, although I also expect the effect I’m describing helped make them fashionable again a few generations ago.)

And I’m starting to notice a pattern among people of my kids’ generation (those currently at school) where they just don’t abbreviate. My youngest has two friends called Elizabeth and they both go by Elizabeth in full. I know children called Daniel, David, Edmund, Joseph, Matthew, Nathanael, and Peter — several of each in some cases — and none called Dan, Dave, Ed, Joe, Matt, Nat, or Pete. (It’s a noticeable trend but not a universal rule: I do know one little Lizzie).

I don’t think this is just because they’re still kids and haven’t started using nicknames yet. I knew plenty of kids with nicknames when I was in primary school.

I have a vague theory that it might be because society has become more multicultural and hence more accepting of names as they’re originally given: if schoolkids and teachers are already used to interacting with a Svjetlana and a Fabrizio and a Fatomata, then when they meet an Elizabeth or a Nathanael they’re not going to go “that’s too much of a mouthful, lemme give you a nickname” like our parents might have.

Of course, this observation suffers from the self, society or subculture? problem. I don’t know whether the pattern holds true throughout the UK as a whole (society), or whether it’s just that I grew up among people who tended to use clipped nicknames and now live among people who use full names (subculture), or whether it’s simply that the arbitrary and unique set of people I’ve known have happened to exhibit this pattern. (I don’t think it’s the subculture one, though, because of the people I know now, the ones roughly my age are still called things like Rob and Will and Alex.)

I don’t know if there’s been any research on this. It’s harder to do research on the nicknames people are known by than on their actual given names, as the latter are formally recorded in publicly available datasets.