Why do we call Richard 'dick for short'?

Answer 1

LOL this one has always bothered me, how the heck to we get "Dick" out of "Richard"? I have no idea....

Answer 2

My name is Richard as was my father's. He was nicknamed 'Dicky'.

According to a report I read, back in the days of Old and Middle English, everything was written by hand; "it was therefore common and easier to use agreed-upon abbreviations." An example of an abbreviation was
"Ric." for "Richard".

The abbreviations led to diminutives, such as "Rick".

Rhyming nicknames were fairly common in the 12th and 13th centuries, such as "Hick" and "Dick" from "Rick". "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."

Dick has remained a nickname for Richard. "'Hick' has thankfully
become obsolete, except when tied to 'Dick' in rhymes such as
'Hickory, Dickory, Dock.'"

A web site on the etymology and history of first names in English
agrees that "Bob" is a medieval "rhyming nickname" for Robert. This site also suggests that the change in the initial consonant from "Rick" to "Dick" may have been caused by "the way the trilled Norman R was pronounced by the English."

Answer 3

"Dick" was actually just one of many examples of a trend of creating rhyming nicknames (arbitrarily changing the first letter). Hick and Dick (appearing in writing around 1220) were at the beginning of a great 13th-14th century trend That's where we get all these surprising forms like Polly from Molly, Bob from Rob (from Robert), Bill from Will (from William); and Hodge from Roger.
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdick.html

For other forms of "letter swapping" to create nicknames, and a variety of other methods by which English nicknames developed see:
http://www.geocities.com/edgarbook/names/other/nicknames.html

Apparently ONE impetus in the letter swapping at that particular time was a dislike amongst the native English for the harsh Norman French "r". (Note how many nicknames made substitions for r's -- not only at the beginning of words [Richard, Robert], but in the middle of them -- Mary > Molly, Sarah > Sally/Sadie, Dorothy > Dolly; Harold/Harry (> Hal).
http://www.word-detective.com/061300.html