I have alway wondered .. where do we get Peggy out of Margaret and Bill out of William, and Bert out of Robert or Robbie or Bobbie? Who did this??
2007-03-02 02:28:22 · 5 answers · asked by Jessica Q 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
just like most everything in life,, sometime, someplace, someone thought it up, or perhaps different people in different parts of the world thought it up at the same time,,, either way,,, others liked it, and began using it,,,,,,,,,and it was passed down to the next generation,,,
2007-03-02 02:34:32 · answer #1 · answered by dlin333 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Part of it is when you name successive generations after each other and you need a way of distinguishing wee Robert from big Robert from old Robert from Robert who didn't make it.
There's probably also a bit of culture/language variant going on, from intermixing groups. You know the way that names have 'equivalents' in other languages? Like Jan = John = Jean = Gian. Wherever you have invading peoples, you get mixes of language and names, including variations on pronunciation. Some 'odd' associations likely have to do with that. Others will come out of one language, where a consonant shift makes sense into one where it doesn't. Gaelic is grand for that. We also see it with Hebrew. And English is an absolute slut for borrowing from other languages.
Margaret / Maggie / Meg / Peggy
2007-03-02 10:59:52 · answer #2 · answered by The angels have the phone box. 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You see, in the old days in this country there was no dental hygien and people's teeth never encountered a single toothbrush. As a result their teeth use to disappear at a very young age, say 30! and when you add loosing teeth as a result of fighting and accidents, that number could understandably be lowered! So it is no surprise that the teachers or professors or whoever tried to compile these names into a list for publication or for any other reason, they wrote it down as they could speak it through their lips......Of course I'm not exactly sure about this. Don't write your thesis based on this theory! but it makes sense, don't you think?!
2007-03-02 10:47:35 · answer #3 · answered by karla k 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most of it has come from family nick-names. Which is why many don't make sense. In my opinion a lot of the ones that really don't make any sense came out of the UK's upper class. Ones such as Elizabeth=Buffy or Richard=Dick
2007-03-02 10:38:18 · answer #4 · answered by midraj 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hiya!! This site gives explanations!!
http://www.behindthename.com/
2007-03-05 18:12:43 · answer #5 · answered by just me 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋