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Help[Opinions] Cotty
Spotted this in a Victorian census the other day in a list of children of a family; it wasn't her birth name, and it's not an nn I've ever come across before. I'm guessing her name was probably Charlotte, but:
a) can you think of anything else it might have been short for, bearing in mind that this was a child born in the UK around the 1860s?
& b) WDYT as a nn for Charlotte?
a) can you think of anything else it might have been short for, bearing in mind that this was a child born in the UK around the 1860s?
& b) WDYT as a nn for Charlotte?
Archived Thread - replies disabled
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Perhaps this is a diminutive for any spelling variation of/for Clotilde - perhaps a younger sibling may not (have been) abile to pronounce the name??
https://www.behindthename.com/name/clotilde
https://www.behindthename.com/name/clotilde
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I think it sounds like it would be Victorian slang for something dirty.
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or else ...
A cutesy name for a little kid's bed. Or the potty.
Or some cutesy TV chef's trademarked word for cottage cheese.
A cutesy name for a little kid's bed. Or the potty.
Or some cutesy TV chef's trademarked word for cottage cheese.
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I can easily see how it could be short for Charlotte, as some derivatives are rhyming versions of other ones; Polly from Molly, for example. Cotty could easily be a rhyming derivative of Lottie/Lotty. I suspect that's how Totty, a vintage derivative of Charlotte, also came about.
Cotty is slightly better than Totty, but I wouldn't choose to go by it!
Cotty is slightly better than Totty, but I wouldn't choose to go by it!
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Yup, that was my line of thinking.
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Totty!!! That is shockingly awful!
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Not a fan. It's not obvious how it would be short for Charlotte and it just seems kind of off to me.
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My first guess would be Catherine.
Frankly, it sounds like baby talk.
Frankly, it sounds like baby talk.
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Many diminutives arise from pronunciation difficulties from babies (or toddlers etcetera) - younger siblings unable to pronounce a sibling's name correctly; and this mispronunciation endures.
This message was edited 4/8/2018, 4:39 AM
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Hadn't thought of Catherine but yup you're right, that's a good possibility.
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I can't think of a name that Cotty would be represent other than Charlotte - but I rather like it for Charlotte. Sometimes pet names that are not semantically, linguistically, phonetically, or etymologically - or even entomologically (smile) related with a person's real name can be best.
This message was edited 4/7/2018, 1:06 PM
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Before I saw your post, I'd have said that Charlotte needed all the help it could get, but now I'm afraid Cotty is a bridge too far.
Worse: I gave the heading and your name a fleeting glance and "saw" them as Cottage Pie!
Maybe Coralie could lead to Cotty? I'm having nightmare thoughts about Coralie or I suppose Caroline and her sister Dorothy (or Dorothea) being known as Cotty and Dotty.
Worse: I gave the heading and your name a fleeting glance and "saw" them as Cottage Pie!
Maybe Coralie could lead to Cotty? I'm having nightmare thoughts about Coralie or I suppose Caroline and her sister Dorothy (or Dorothea) being known as Cotty and Dotty.
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Clothilde. Which, for sure, wasn't this UK girl's name.
Cotty might have been one of those family nick-names that make no sense to anyone outside the family. In my mother's family, she had a sister named Elsie, who was always called Pat, even her husband called her that. Also a brother named Edgar, always called TT.
Not a very intuitive nick-name for Charlotte, I don't think.
Cotty might have been one of those family nick-names that make no sense to anyone outside the family. In my mother's family, she had a sister named Elsie, who was always called Pat, even her husband called her that. Also a brother named Edgar, always called TT.
Not a very intuitive nick-name for Charlotte, I don't think.
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It reminds me of Alcott, ascots, the Cotswolds, and cots...and it rhymes with dotty...
So my first guess would have been that it came from the mother's surname or maybe a behavior.
It doesn't seem like a natural shortening of Charlotte to me.
So my first guess would have been that it came from the mother's surname or maybe a behavior.
It doesn't seem like a natural shortening of Charlotte to me.
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I don’t like it. The first thing that popped into my head was cottage cheese.
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