How do names like Richard get nick names like Dick?

Question

How does something like that happen? My friend and I are always trying to figure out how a name like James gets the nick name of Jim or the name Robert getting the nick name Bob? Does anyone know just how this happened?

Answer 1

I don't know , but I always find it a bit funny calling a man Dick to his face without having him mad at me!!!! lmao!!!!

Answer 2

Obviously the name came first. The name Richard is very old, although its origin is disputed. Old English had Richeard, from Ric (ruler) and heard (hard); French had Richart, and Old German had Ricohard. The name Richer was also fairly common until the 13th Century or thereabouts.

In those days, manuscripts, letters, grocery lists, and everything else was written by hand; it was therefore common and easier to use agreed-upon abbreviations. "Rich." was used for "Richer" and "Ric." for "Richard" or "Ricard."

Richard and Ricard were equally popular in the Middle Ages, and the abbreviations led naturally to diminutives--such as Rich, Richie, Rick, and Ricket. Rhyming nicknames were also fairly common in the 12th and 13th centuries, and so we also have Hitch from Rich, Hick and Dick from Rick, and Hicket from Ricket. Some of these later became surnames or parts of surnames. We note that while Dick endures as a nickname, "Hick" has thankfully become obsolete, except when tied to "Dick" in rhymes such as "Hickory, Dickory, Dock."

In the 13th and 14th centuries, "Hick" evolved, however improbably, into "Hudde," from which derives surnames such as "Hudson." W. Bardsley's masterful work, Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames (1901) cites a Latin manuscript that mentions "Ricardus dictus Hudde de Walkden."

Back at the ranch, Dick and Hick were among the earliest of the rhyming nicknames, first appearing in writing around 1220. Other rhyming nicknames include Polly from Molly, Bob from Rob (from Robert), Bill from Will (from William); and Hodge from Roger.

The name Dick (like the name Jack) was used colloquially to mean a man or everyman. The expression "every Tom, Dick, or Harry" attests to the this as a long-established usage; Shakespeare uses "every Tom, Dick, or Francis" in Henry IV Part I.

From the usage of Dick to mean average person, other usages appeared. Many other usages. The Oxford English Dictionary cites a dick as meaning a type of hard cheese in 1847, which lead to the usage of "spotted dick" (to be dealt with in an upcoming Staff Report.) The term "dick" was also used to mean a riding whip, an apron, the mound around a ditch, and an abbreviation for "dictionary" around 1860.

Dick also meant a declaration, in which sense the OED cites someone writing in 1878 "I'd take my dying dick" to mean "I'd swear a dying declaration." The term "dick" came to mean policeman around 1908, and then detective.

And we finally get to where you started. The use of "dick" as coarse slang for penis first arises around 1890. Tracking the history of uncouth words is not easy, since such expressions were not generally written down. How "dick" came to be associated with penis is not known, although the riding whip may have pointed the way.

So there you have it.

Answer 3

The James/Jim and Robert/Bob I kinda get because they're similiar...but no I never understood how you can get Dick out of Richard...that sounded bad.

Answer 4

My call's Richard. human beings call me Artie, after R in richard, some clever dudes call me Dick. I used to apply Richie for a protracted time, and my english instructor calls me Rick. do no longer comprehend why.

Answer 5

Nixon? He was always known as Tricky Dick..maybe he caused it..

Answer 6

well, what is the first thing appear in your mind if a person's name is BOB... what about TIM... i believe it have something to do with their appearance, as well as their characteristic.

Answer 7

Nicknames. And they are short for each other.

Answer 8

probably some huge inside joke

Answer 9

I thought it is Rick

Answer 10

what about bill for william