Nicknames

[AianC]

Who has found nicknames in their researches?

My interests are in Lincolnshire and I keep coming across, in old family correspondence, and the like, some (very) odd nicknames.......

"Miller's Old Crow" a trainee carter. "Tunch" who became a policeman.

Were these common in the middle to late 19th C? Has anyone come across similar ones?

[Little Nell]

I don't have any correspondence that old. I do know that my paternal grandmother (1876-1956) was called "Peachey" by her friends but have no idea why.

[JudithM]

Not many in my own family, but in the village where I grew up nearly every man had a nickname - Dilberry, Tulip, Sharper, Tinker to name a few. These were men born late 19th, early twentieth century in a village populated by just a few families, so the nicknames helped differentiate between men who had the same name.

[Little Nell]

I am convinced that nicknames would have been very common, rather as in Wales there was Dai the Bread and Evans the Death (Under Milk Wood is fiction, I know, but based on fact) to differentiate.

Most English villages had a handful of surnames and all the first names were very over-used, William, John, Thomas with the occasional Robert or Samuel for chaps, and Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, Susan and Ann/e for the women. They would have had to have nicknames or they'd be forever saying "NO, not John, son of John and Mary, John son of William and Mary!" etc.

[Anne in Carlisle]

My Granny used to call her sister Spide. Her name was really Ida > Spider > Spide.

I did know this so I wasn't too puzzled when I was looking at postcards from her to my granny. It seems Ida called herself Spide even in correspondence!

Anne

[Bee]

One Great-Aunt was called Ciss - short for Alice (her Name)? Or nick-name for 'sister'? Don't know.

And another who was called Kitty (her name was Kate), but in correspondance, she was addresses as 'Dear Auntie Pussy'! Wouldn't be countananced nowadays, but I back then, a 'pussy' was a little cat - Kate!

How many other nick-name wouldn't be acceptable now, I wonder?

Bee.

[Jill on the A272]

I would never have known that my greatgrandmother Harriott was known as "Queenie" had she not tucked her marriage announcement from the newspaper behind her season ticket to the Crystal Palace at Sydenham.

Her son William was known as Darkie, and her daughter Florence as Gipsy.

[AianC]

Nicknames

Thanks for the replies, nicknames were common, as I expected.

The examples given are mainly derivative of given names and quite usual, I think, and still in use, even today.

In my case, for instance, as the youngest of two brothers, he was 'big', I was 'tich'. If we had been at school a generation earlier we would, maybe, have been 'major' and 'minor'

I am more interested in 'Miller's black crow'. How could that have come about? Surely it would have been easier to have found a one word tag. What would have been the reason for such a cumbersome label? Try as I might, I can't think of any reason for this - any ideas?

[Olde Crone Holden]

Alan

there is a little village in Lancashire called Darwen - it was barely bigger than a hamlet at one time and the population was inextricably intermarried.

They all had catchy nicknames too, like

Owd Timothy o' Besses o' Timothy

Skriking Ned

Skriking Ned o'Tomm

Ralph o'th'Back o'the Heights

Puggy Black Hat

and so on.

Not so much affectionate as essential for distinguishing fifteen men with exactly the same name!

OC

[Barbara Dodds]

I have one family freind who is known as Buzz to everyone.

He was the youngest child, and his father was German. "your little Buzzer" (for brother), became Buzzer became Buzz

[Uncle John]

My daughter has a friend Norm (short for Enormous).