Hypocorism

Derivation

Hypocorisms are often generated as:

As evident from the above-mentioned examples, hypocorisms frequently demonstrate (indirectly) a phonological linguistic universal (or tendency) for high-pitched sounds to be used for smaller creatures and objects (here as more "cute" or less imposing names). Higher-pitched sounds are associated with smaller creatures because smaller creatures can only make such high frequency sounds given their smaller larynxes.

The word "hypocorism" is the noun form in English; "hypocoristic" is the adjective form. Some other languages prefer to use the original Greek word "hypocoristicon" as a noun. The noun "hypocoristicon" seems to be rarely used in English.

Armenian

Bengali

Bulgarian

The traditional hypocoristic forms of Bulgarian masculine names end with "-cho", for example: Ivan - Ivancho - Vancho, Stoyan - Stoyancho, Petur - Peturcho, Angel - Angelcho. The traditional hypocoristic forms of Bulgarian feminine names end with "-ka", for example: Ivana - Ivanka, Snezhana - Snezhanka, Bozhana - Bozhanka. In recent times, however, the hypocoristic forms of many Bulgarian names receive English and Russian endings, for example:

Catalan

Croatian

Czech

Male

Female

Danish

Male one syllable names are sometimes lengthened

Female names are sometimes shortened to the last two syllables

English

English also forms nicknames in a variety of manners.

Shortening, often to the first syllable:

Addition of a diminutive suffix, usually -ie or -y, often to an already shortened name. This suffix connotes smallness or endearment. Although most often applied to the names of children, it is not uncommon for an adult to be referred to by the diminutive, especially by family, friends and close acquaintances:

A short form that differs significantly from the name:

Also, initials of complex names are often used as the hypocorism, e.g.: Brandon William → B W → B Dub

Esperanto

Esperanto forms nicknames by suffixing -njo (for females) and -ĉjo (for males) to the first letter(s) of the basic name or word. (This is the only situation in Esperanto in which a word root is shortened or otherwise changed in word-building.)

French

Informal French has a number of diminutive nicknames, although not as systematically as in English.

In French, for both male and female names, hypocorisms are most commonly formed by dropping the last syllable:

Dropping the first syllable is also attested:

Sometimes, only central syllables are kept:

Another method commonly used is doubling one syllable of the name:

For male names, the ending -ot is attested, although its use is rather dated:

It was also sometimes (but rarely) used for females:

The ending -et for males was used around the Renaissance, and is now obsolete:

For female names, the ending -ette was used in the first half of the 20th century, and even often given as the official name:

Some names in -ette are not actual hypocorisms, but the only existing feminized form of a male name:

The ending -on is rarer, often dated or obsolete, used for both genders:

The ending -ou is also rare:

A special case is the ending in -ick/ -ic, which is the French writing for the hypocoristic form in Breton "-ig", used for both genders. The "-ig" form in Breton means "Little ...". This diminutive, in its French form of "ick" or "ic", became in vogue for official names in the second half of the 20th century:

In Breton, the diminutive form "...ig" can be given to any kind of names, nouns or adjectives, (un tammig, a few), while in French it relates only to given names.

The name Soazig shows more than the ending "ig". Often in Breton a hypocoristic form of a given name can be made by putting away the first syllable. "Frañsoaz" becomes a familiar "Soaz" then, given to a child, the name is "Soazig", but not as an official name. This is also a difference between French and Breton: the diminutive ending "...ig" in Breton is only used as a temporary form for young children, while "...ick" is official and permanent in French names, and has lost his sense of a diminutive.

For words, French often produces hypocorisms either by truncating a word after the letter o, or by chopping off the end of the word and adding an o: McDo from McDonald's; gynéco from gynécologue; dico from dictionnaire; dodo (childish word for sleep, from dormir, to sleep); écolo from écologiste; coco from communiste; catho from catholique; psycho from psychologie.

The ending -oche (with or without an intervening consonant or phoneme to make it easier to pronounce) is also sometimes used: cinoche (cinéma), MacDoche (McDonalds), fastoche (easy-peezy, from facile, easy). Words or names may also be shortened or abbreviated without an O: fixs from fixations, 'ski bindings'; Jean-Phi from Jean-Philippe; amphi from amphithéatre (large classroom or lecture hall); ciné (another informal word for cinéma). These words are familiar/informal versions of the underlying words.

The connotation of familiarity (my friend Jean-Phi, as opposed to my new colleague Jean-Philippe; cinoche, the place I often go for entertainment, as opposed to cinéma, the neutral word for a movie theater) is what makes them hypocorisms.

German

Hypocorisms of first names are commonly based on truncation, only keeping the first (Max) or last (Hans) syllable(s), sometimes in contracted form as these examples show. Often the ending -i is added to these truncated nameforms. The name might also undergo a sound shift (Sepp). Further diminutives can be added with the suffixes -lein, -(e)l or -chen, e. g. Gretel or Gretchen as a diminutive for Grete.

Sometimes female names may have the ending -el instead of -i, or any other shortening, especially in southern Germany:

An ending for nicknames, sometimes considered “typical German” is -z:

Hungarian

Hypocorisms of first names are commonly based on truncation, only keeping the first (Kat-; Jul-) syllable, sometimes in contracted form as these examples show. Often the ending -i is added to these truncated nameforms (Kati, Laci, Julcsi, Ági, Feri). Further diminutives can be added with the suffixes -ka, -ke, -kó, -csi, etc., e. g. Lacika, Ferike, Palkó and Julcsi as a diminutive respectively for László, Ferenc, Pál and Júlia.

Icelandic

Hypocorisms usually consist of the first syllable of the name with a diminutive suffix ending in -i (masculine) or -a or ý (feminine). There are however some exceptions, for example Nonni which is an alternative from for Jón.

Italian

Some diminutive forms can be further modified by abbreviation depending on the region. Some diminutives can be abbreviations of more than one name (ex. Pippo can be Giuseppe or Filippo; Lele can be diminutive of pretty much all the names which end in "ele": Gabriele, Raffaele, Emanuele).

A Catholic tradition until 1945, children were named after saints or biblical personas, therefore some people have an English hypocorism which derives from a very obsolete Italian name ex. Calogero, Gerardo or Virginio become Jerry, Genoveffa becomes Jenny, Anastasia becomes Stacy and Maria Grazia becomes Grace.

In some alpine regions, many people called Francesco are called Franz by their relatives and friends. That name is both an abbreviation of the Italian form and a German name in itself.

Nepali (नेपाली)

Persian

In Persian some of the most used personal names have hypocorisms. Many of these hypocorisms are formed by truncating the name and adding an -i to the end, or by using just a part of a composed name.

Polish

In Polish, there are multiple affixes used to create the diminutive. Some of them are -ka, -sia, -cia, -unia, -enka, -śka, -lka for feminine nouns and -ek, -uś, -ciek, -czek, -uń, -eńki, -lki for masculine (among others). Some of the stems change, particularly to more archaic forms of the name (e.g. Andrzej → Jędrek or Agnieszka → Jagusia). Some masculine names take an -o suffix that is considered archaic form, present in Polish since pagan times. Masculine names occasionally take an -a suffix, which is an archaic Slavic form as in Russian (e.g. Jakub → Kuba). Here is a list of common names with some of them:

Portuguese

In Portuguese, abbreviations of the name are common, such as suffixes for diminutive and augmentative. For males, the suffixes -inho (diminutive) and -ão (augmentative) are the most used. In several parts of Brazil, -inho is informally replaced by -im in diminutive words. The same occurs with hypocorisms as, for example, Luisim instead of Luisinho. For females, -inha (diminutive) is the most used in Portuguese; augmentatives are uncommon. In compound names some mixed forms can occur, such as José Carlos being called Zeca, or Maria Luísa being called Malu.

The phenomenon also occurs with terms of address other than personal names; for example, a cachorro or cão (both meaning "dog") can be affectionately called cachorrinho or cãozinho (the most common translations of the English word puppy).

Russian

Russian has a wide variety of diminutive forms for names, to the point that for non-Russian speakers it can be difficult to connect a nickname to the original. Diminutive forms for nouns are usually distinguished with -ик (-ik), -ок (-ok), -ёк (-yok) (masculine gender), -чк-/-шк- (-chk-/-shk-) and -оньк-/-еньк- (-on’k-/-en’k-) suffixes. Names can be somewhat more arbitrary, but still follow a loose pattern. A list of common names and their diminutive forms:

Some names can also be modified with a -ka ending to add a further level of familiarity, but are not normally used for adults who are not family members.

Slovak

In Slovak, feminine diminutives usually end in -ka and masculine in -ko.

Slovene

In Slovene, diminutives are very common. In many cases they have almost completely replaced their originals (such is the case of Špela for Elizabeta, Branko for Branislav, or Alenka, Majda, and Magda for Magdalena). Especially among female names, the etymological link of the diminutive with the original name has been lost and the diminutive is perceived by most speakers to be a separate name (such is the case for Mojca, deriving from Marija, or Maja and Alenka deriving from Magdalena). In other cases, especially among male names, this link has been kept, but frequently boys are given diminutives as their given names (such as Miha instead of Mihael, Ivo instead of Ivan, or Nejc instead of Jernej etc.)

Spanish

Spanish forms diminutives by adding one of several diminutive suffixes: -ito/a, -cito/a, -ecito/a, -ico/a, -cico/a -illo/a, -cillo/a, -uelo/a, -zuelo/a, -ete/a, -ín, -iño/a:

It is common for a person to be known by 2 first names: José Luis, María Teresa, Juan Carlos, etc. Combining the 2 names into one is another common way to form a hypocorism:

Many Spanish nicknames, however, are or can seem very unlike the original name. Notice, however, that the -ch- [tʃ] sound is common in these diminutives:

Also, several names (especially female) may have their endings cut off and the vowel -"i" added at the end in the formation of pet names:

Speakers of Philippine languages follow the same system.

Sri Lankan

Swedish

Male hypocorisms are often based on the first syllable of the name (shortening it if it's long), plus the ending -e. Hypocorisms are almost always two-syllabic with a grave accent.

These forms may be quite old: the oldest possible attestation may be the name Sibbi on the Rök Runestone dating to about 800 AD.

Like male hypocorisms, female hypocorisms tend to be bisyllabic:

Turkish

Welsh

Yiddish (And contemporary Hebrew)

As rule of thumb, adding the "suffix" 'le, 'ale, 'ele or sometimes simply an "L" to the name makes it diminutive and endearing, for both female and male names. It is also in common practice in Hebrew, mostly by Ashkenazi Jewish people. In most cases, as the names would be spelled using the Hebrew Alphabet, an apostrophe would separate the name from the suffix.

It can also work with names which are not predominantly Jewish, for example:

Another suffix used by Yiddish and Hebrew speakers could be 'ke, 'ka and also "inka"/"yinka":

Other diminutive and endearing suffixes in common use by Yiddish and Hebrew speakers are "ush", "chook" and "inyu":

With single syllable names a form of endearment exists where the name is repeated twice consecutively, or with longer names, the last syllable might be repeated, for example:

Many names have their own versions of nicknames specifically for them which are common in Yiddish, or in contemporary Hebrew: