Nickname generator

A nickname is an extra name, and that is what the word meant. Middle English had an ekename, recorded as early as 1303, from eke, also. People heard it as a nekename, the same slip at the word boundary that turned a napron into an apron and an eute into a newt. Nicknames come from a name, a surname, initials (JFK), a trait, a place or a story, and they can be kind, teasing or cruel.

English nicknames look random, but they follow rules. The linguist Andrei Avram found that most are one syllable, usually the first or the stressed one, that they like to start and end on a consonant, and that the -y and -ie forms always make two syllables stressed on the first: Patty, never Patrie. The finder above uses these rules, so it gives Nick and Becky, not made-up forms.

Medieval English loved rhyming nicknames. Rob became Hob, Dob and Nob, and Bob came later than all three; Rick became Hick, and Will became Gill and Bill, though Bill was not common before the 19th century. Meggy, a pet form of Margaret, became Peggy for reasons nobody knows, and Molly became Polly the same way.

Some came from a slip of the tongue: Ned may come from mine Ed heard as my Ned, and Nan from mine Ann. Jack grew from Jankin, a medieval pet form of John. Dick is disputed: it may be a rhyme on Rick, or it may come from how the English said the Norman R. These swapped forms are fading: younger people tend to say Will, Rob and Ed rather than Bill, Bob and Ned.

Every language has its own pet forms, and they rarely look like the name. In Spanish they are used only among family and friends. Russian has a whole ladder of them, and the forms ending in -ka such as Sashka sound rude, so stick to Sasha or Sashenka. The story that Paco comes from Saint Francis as pater communitatis is folk etymology.

Sports nicknames follow a few patterns: The ___ (The Rocket, The Professor), an animal (Messi's La Pulga, the flea), alliteration (Iron Mike), a pun on the surname, or an initial and shirt number, like Ronaldo's R9. Set Style to Sports for names built the same ways.

Pilots' call signs are different: they are given by the squadron, and choosing your own is bad form. They play on a name or a story, are often mildly insulting, and the more a pilot complains, the more likely the name is to stick. Set Style to Pilot call sign for call signs that come with their story.

Nicknames can bond people or hurt them. In a study of primary-school pupils, the most common nicknames were about appearance, more than one child in five heard unkind ones every day, and nearly all found name-calling distressing. Between couples, pet names go with happier relationships: a study of married people linked private words and names to satisfaction, according to Scientific American. That is why the generator leaves out every body and appearance joke.