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Help[Opinions] Re: Older Nicknames
in reply to a message by Rainya
It’s because lots of people had the same name, so the purpose of nicknames was to distinguish people from each other and not just to be shorter. When there are 10 Marys you don’t care that Molly is the same length.
Some of them would still make sense today. Flora is still shorter and easier than Florence, even though they’re technically both 2 syllables. And I haven’t heard of people today using Sadie and Molly for Sarah and Mary, but we have nicknames like Sarah “Sary”, Michael “Mikey”, Jenna “Jenny”, Mara “Mari”, Charles “Charlie”, etc. Even though the syllable count stays the same, the “ee” ending makes it register as a nickname or “short form”.
Some of them would still make sense today. Flora is still shorter and easier than Florence, even though they’re technically both 2 syllables. And I haven’t heard of people today using Sadie and Molly for Sarah and Mary, but we have nicknames like Sarah “Sary”, Michael “Mikey”, Jenna “Jenny”, Mara “Mari”, Charles “Charlie”, etc. Even though the syllable count stays the same, the “ee” ending makes it register as a nickname or “short form”.
