Linguistic and social properties of nicknaming practices

Morphology

A large range of the academic literature centering on the sociological as well as the cultural and linguistic properties of nicknaming can be found. This literature mostly focuses on only sociological and/or cultural properties and/or the linguistic properties but mostly with varying working definitions of the term nickname. For example, some researchers (e.g., Slater and Feinman 1985) notice the structural and sociological commonalities among both the formal and the nicknames whereas, according to some (e.g., Alford 1988) only the descriptive forms are the nicknames. The definition of the term nickname used in this paper may overlap with some of the categories however; there should be no surprise at the commonalities found between the informal and the formal names. As Pulgram (1954, 11-14) has said; the nicknames are the antecedents of many formal names.

Social meaning of nicknaming

The social meaning and function a nickname basically depends on the society that uses it. For example, in some societies it is used for the sake of disparaging someone, while in some societies it represents the unity and solidarity and it may also be used to show the social hierarchy in some other societies as well. As, (Alford 1988, 82-85). Price and Price (1972) have discussed the fusion of identity, name and reputation, whereas, Burton (1999) and Moyo (2002) have described the societies that connect the power and status with nicknames and names. Morgan, O'Neill, and Harre (1979) and Kany (1999) have talked about the similar patterns regarding the children's nicknames. A user can also be identified with a group through the nicknames that he uses (Aceto 2002; de Klerk 2002), differentiate the individuals in the communities that don't have a lot of formal names (Collier and Bricker 1970; Dorian 1970), they can also point out the similarities between the addressee as well as the speaker (Dickey 1997; Chevalier 2004).

There also exists a relationship between the gender of person being referred to and the function and form of the nickname being used (Slater and Feinman 1985; Busse 1983; Phillips 1990; Cutler, McQueen, and Robinson 1990; de Klerk and Bosch 1996, 1997; Wierzbicka 1992). For example, it is noticed that the males tend to use the nicknames a lot more than the females and the nicknames used by the males are usually disparaging whereas, the ones that are used by the females tend to be more affectionate. The nicknames used by females are also noticed to end on vowels and have non-initial stress along with being be longer than those used by the men. It has also been observed by Cassidy, Kelly, and Sharoni (1999) that the phonological cues are continuously used by child and adult English speakers in order to find out the gender of a novel pseudo nickname.

Structure of the nicknames

In order to make a truncation of a word, 2 or more syllables are sometimes merged into a single syllable. Furthermore, it can also combine with the suffixes such as those ending with -y, -ie, or -ey, -i ( Jespersen 1942, 538-50; Huddleston and Pullum 2002, 1634-36). Although it is very obvious that all theses suffixes have a diminutive functions but it can also be notices that the other functions are used here as well. For example, according to Huddleston and Pullum the -y suffix can at time have a "decorative or rhythmic" function.

Most of the research done on truncated nicknames is centered on the consonant sequences and the set of phonemes that may take place in truncated monosyllabic stem (Kahn 1976; Dunlap 1990; McCarthy and Prince 1986; Short 1983; Lappe 2001, 2003). A number of studies have shown that using one of these truncated suffixes given in the set {-y, -o, -er, -a, -s} or not using any truncated suffixes is the choice that one has while creating a novel truncation. Furthermore, it has also been observed that this choice is the making of the novel truncation depends on the nature of the last segments of the truncations as well.

When talking about the personal names, "truncated" and "nickname" are the terms that one uses to point out the several distinct phenomenon. Non-standardized nicknames are basically used to mention any one individual in particular and they are mostly connected to longer forms (Richard Nixon! Tricky Dick etc.). Whereas, another type of nicknames are the ones that are called pet names and although they are associated with the relationship or the personal traits they aren't linguistically related to the personal name (Elvis Presley!The King).

For the sake of this research, the writer is going to use the term "nicknames" to refer to the commonly known forms of the personal names. Such familiar forms are normally linguistically related to the full personal name.

The variation that is re done in the nicknames is very common and is usually done because of the desire to differentiate different individuals with the same personal name, sociological trends and idiosyncrasies. Moreover, the linguistic patterns on which the nicknames are formed are not only complex but they are also governed by the phonological and morphological constraints with widespread ordering conventions. Even with all these variations there are a lot of languages that have the same patterns for the formation of the nicknames, the most commonly known patterns are the augmentation, truncation and reduplication.

Due to the complexity of the nicknaming patterns the handwritten rules for individual name variant matching are not only time-consuming but also incomplete. Therefore, in this paper we have tried to find out a number of ways through which we could not only build personal name variant resources but also do the matching tasks enthusiastically. The data for the evaluation of this field is very limited as the name variant resources in the English language are not only very rare but also incomplete and literally absent in many other languages.

Because of the huge variety of nicknames available, a lot of questions arise such as; how the nicknames are actually derived? What is their purpose? Why do some have long and phrasal forms while others are short and precise? In order to answer these questions the writer has adopted a deep and wide definition of the word nickname in that covers all the essential points from the pet names to the noun phrases.

1. Nickname: it's an expression used to refer to someone and is different from the actual name of the referent.

A very important theme that has been repeated throughout this paper is that the nicknames are divided into two smaller categories. In this paper the writer has presented the historical as well as the present data (from past and current studies) in order to show that these categories in which the nicknames are divided have always been very distinct in both their usage as well as structure.

Two most common methods of nicknames formation

The two most common methods of nicknames formation are Back formation and truncation. Back formation has its distinctions from truncation as back formation may alter a words meaning or modify its part of speech but truncation forms abridged words from lengthy words but it does not alter the meaning of a word or the part of speech.

For instance the noun renaissance was taken from Latin whereas the verb was revived after a 100 years from back forming by eliminating the -ion suffix. This section of resurrection into resurrect +ion was achievable as English already had Latin words in the fashion of verb and verb+-ion pairs, for example opine/opinion. Many other words then followed the same precedent in which a verb taken from Latin language and a noun ending at ion came into the language simultaneously, for example project-projection and insert-insertion, etc.

Back formation may be analogous to the reassessment of folk etymologies when it becomes the source of false comprehension of morphology of the longer word. For instance, in the case of a singular noun asset; it is a back-formation from the plural assets. In spite of this asset is not a plural, rather it is a loan-word from Anglo-Norman asetz (modern French assez). Also the -s was reassessed as a plural suffix. Numerous words entered English by this way: previously Pease was a mass noun but it was reassessed as a plural which directed to the back formation pea. In the domain of study statistics, the noun statistic was similarly a back-formation. The verb burgle was employed in the 19th century as a back-formation from the word burglar in Britain (which can be matched up to the North American verb burglarize produced by suffixation).

Truncation method for forming nicknames

According to polyglots "truncation" or "shortening" is the procedure in which word formation is done by reducing a word to one of its parts (Marchand: 1969 as cited in Aronoff and Fudeman, 2010).

As put forward by Marchand (1969 as cited in Aronoff and Fudeman, 2010), truncations are not created as words that fit into the average vocabulary of a lingo, rather they are created as terminologies of a particular group such as schools, army, police, the medical profession, etc. where an indication is adequate to designate the whole. For instance; exam (ination), math (ematics), and lab (oratory) invented in school jargon; spec (ulation) and tick (et = credit) in stock-exchange jargon; and vet (eran) and cap (tain) in army jargon. Whilst truncation, the words that are used by some influential groups are also included in the Standard English language due to their frequent utilization whereas the truncation of local people will stay as colloquial speech.

The most common truncation kinds have been listed below:

Back-truncation

The most frequent type employed is the back truncation. In this the commencement is preserved or maintained and the untruncated fundamental can be a simple or a composite. For instance: ad is used as the short form of advertisement; cable is used as the short form of cablegram; doc is used as the short form of doctor; exam is used as the short form of examination; fax is used as the short form of facsimile. Similarly, gas is used as the short form of gasoline; gym is used as the short form of gymnastics and/or / gymnasium.

Fore-truncation

Fore-truncation is the type of truncation that maintains the ending part. For instance: chute is used as the short form of parachute; coon is used as the short form of raccoon; gator is used as the short form of alligator; phone is used as the short form of telephone; and pike is used as the short form of turnpike.

Middle truncation

The middle word is preserved in the middle truncation or syncope. For instance: flu is used as the short form of influenza; jams or jammies is used as the short form of pajamas/pyjamas. Similarly, polly is used as the short form of apollinaris and shrink is used as the short form of head-shrinker.

Complex truncation

The truncated forms can also be employed in compounds in which one part of the initial compound mostly stays whole. For instance: cablegram is used as the short form of cable telegram; op art is used as the short form of optical art. Similarly, org-man is used as the short form of organization man; and linocut is used as the short form of linoleum cut. There are times when the both divisions of the compound are truncated as in navicert (navigation certificate). Since the boundary between the 2 minds is not always distinct, it is hard to discern if the consequential formation is managed as a blend or truncation. As put forward by Bauer (1983), the simplest way to distinguish between the two is by regarding the forms which maintain compound stress as truncated compounds while those that take easy word stress as not.

Other types of truncations

As specified above, truncation is a reduced form of a word or given name. For instance: when its usage is employed in a close situation as a pet name or as endearment.

They are mostly produced as:

1. Reduce the longer word in English to a single syllable and add '-y' or 'ie' to it. For example: movie is used as the short form of moving picture, telly is used as the short form of television or Aussie is often used for Australian.

2. A shorten the original name. For example: Tony is used as the short form of Anthony, Rosy is used as the short form of Rosemarie and Vicky for Victoria.

3. A baby-talk form similar to the original name's pronunciation. For example: Bess for Elizabeth

4. Next is the name given with minute suffix which are used in some lingos when referring to children and when they are being used for an adult, then the meaning can swing from warmth to disdain.

5. -(c)ito/-(c)ita or -(c)in/-(c)ina in Spanish lingo, for example; Juana is used as the short form of Juanita. Additional consonants can be interjected such as Carmelina and Carmencita from Carmen, or combined, such as in Carmina

6. In German -chen, -lein, -(l)i, -(e)le (mostly applied with names), for instance Hundchen or Hundlein (from 'Hund', which means dog) or Kalli (from 'Karl) or Hausle and/or Hausele (from 'Haus'); a back vowel in the origin is generally circumflexed that is to shift or alter from u, o, a to u, o, a correspondingly

7. An analogous form is -etto/-etta, in Interlingua.

8. The typical truncated finishing in Dutch in the case of words and individual names the same: -tje, -ke. In the case where the name finishes with a t or a d the end is then a -je (for example Bert - Bertje). If the ending consonant of a name is m, it then fishes with -pje (for example Bram - Brampje) or even an -metje (for example Bram or Brammetje) or th end can also be -mie (for example Bram - Brammie). As for the other consonants the truncated form followed is -tje. The truncated form that is mostly employed in southern Netherland is -ke (for example Peer or Peerke). In the Frisian the common truncated finish is -ke (for example Ype or Ypke) but the drawback of this form (and others like -ske and/or -tsje) is that it ends up making the name sound feminine (for example Jetse - Jetske) similar to in Dutch (for example Jan for Jantje and Hans for Hansje). Apart from this there is one more truncated finish; in the eastern Netherland (the female mode is -- chien, for example: Anne for Annechien and Lammert for Lammechien.

9. Similarly in Portuguese, with words ending in -(z)inho and/or -(z)inha, for example Ana for Aninha along with Joao for Joaozinho.

10. Again in Italian and the local lingos in Italy, with -ino/-ina along with -etto/etta as in Paolina/Paoletta and Paolino/Paoletto from Paolo and/or Paola. -ello/-ella are also used such as Donato and Donata for Donatello/Donatella. Similarly, -uccio/-uccia are also used, for example Guido for Guiduccio and -etto/-etta, for example Giulia for Giulietta. The -uzzo/-uzza forms, such as in Santa for Santuzza, are characteristic of Sicilian dialect.

11. In Esperanto, -?j- and -nj- affixes (for males and females correspondingly) are applied substituting the final consonant of the origin, thus patro is used for pa-jo (father in English Langauge) and patrino is used for panjo (mother in English Langauge).

12. In Japanese, -chan, -tan, or -pi is employed. For example: Kana for Kana-chan and Akihiro for Aki-chan. If prior to -chan we Geminate (doubling) the consonant or lengthen the vowel, to supply two moras is regular, for instance Setsuko for Settchan and Hiroki for Hii-chan.

13. To form a replica in a variety of lingos like John-John or Didi.

14. In Cantonese and connected dialects, the adding up of a word-final very elevated tone, or altered tone at times merging with the supplementing of prefix 'A' prior to the name. The A syllable is also employed in other dialects taking its birth from the south of China as an expression of warmth and intimacy.

15. In Latin -ulus/-ula mainly popular in the times of the Roman emperor Caligula, whose name means "little boot." He got the name from the soldiers because of the little army sandals he wore when he was juvenile. Similarly the name Ursula is comes from ursa (bear) and signifies "little bear."

16. In Yiddish "-eleh/-leh" such as Leah and/or Leahleh.

As implied from the examples mentioned above, truncations often display (indirectly) a phonological linguistic tendency for reverberations to be employed for slighter being and items. Since smaller creatures have a smaller larynx, they end up making high pitched sounds.

Truncations in various languages

English

The use of nicknames is very common in the English people as well and they use these nicknames in a lot of ways. They often tend to shorten the names to the first syllable such as; for Abraham they use the nickname Abe, for Anthony they often use Tony or Ant, for Benjamin, Benedict the use of nicknames Ben and Benny is very common. Similarly the name Carolyn is often nicknamed as Carol, Lyn or Carrie/Cary, Christopher as Chris, Criffer or Topher, the name Deborah as Deb or Debby. The names like Edwin, Edward, Edmund have seen to have common nicknames such as; Ed, Eddie, whereas, the common names like Elizabeth are noticed to have a lot of nicknames like; Eliza, Betty, Libby, Liz, Lizzy, Lisa, Beth, Bess. For the name Fiona the nickname Fi is very common, for Gabriel its Gabe, for Gregory its Greg and in the same way for Jacob it is Jake, then for a more common name like Jonathan the nicknames are Jon, John, and Nathan and for Joseph the nicknames often heard are Joe, Joey (Aronoff and Fudeman, 2010).

Similarly, the nicknames for some other names such as Katherine are Kate, Katy or Kathy, for Katrina; Kat, Trina are used, for Matthew it's Matt for Megan; Meg and for Michael it's Mike. The similar names like Nathan, Nathaniel have the nicknames such as; Nat, Nate for Peter the nicknames are Pete or Petey, for Priscilla the nicknames often heard are Cilla, Priss, Cilly and Prissy, Ray is the nickname that is often heard for the name Raymond, for the commom name like Robert the nicknames are Rob, Bert, Bob, for the very similar sounding names Samuel, Samantha the nicknames are; Sam, Sammy, for Stephanie the nicknames often used are Steph, Annie and Stephy. The name Victoria has been often nicknamed as Tori, Vick, Vicky and Zachary as Zach (Aronoff and Fudeman, 2010).

Diminutive suffixes specially -ie or -y are often used at the end of the nicknames that are already very short. These suffixes are used to show the love, affection or smallness of the referent and therefore, are usually used for the kids but sometimes the adults are also referred to as with their nicknames having these diminutive suffixes at the end, mostly by the close friends or family members (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010).

The names whose nicknames have these diminutive suffixes are such as; Alexander, Alexandra for which the nickname used is Sandy, for Amanda the nickname such as Amy or Mandy, for Anne; Annie, for Arthur, Arturo the nicknames like Art or Artie, for the names like Barnaby the nickname like Barney or Swarley, the nickname Dan or Danny for the name Daniel similarly Dave and Davy for the name David. The matching names such as Edwin, Edward, Edmund have the nicknames like; Ed, Eddie, Eddy, for Elaine it's Lainie, for Franklin the names are Frank and Frankie, for George; Georgie, for a common name like Isabella and James it is Izzy and Jamie respectively. Similarly for the name Jonathan the nicknames are Jon, John but with the diminutive suffixes they become Jonnie, Jonny, Johnnie, Johnny, for Katherine the nicknames are Kate, Katie for Kimberly the nicknames is Kim but with diminutive suffix it becomes Kimmy, for Lawrence it is Larry, for the name Louis the nickname is Lou but with the diminutive suffix it is Louie (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010).

Likewise for Michael a very common name in the English language the nickname is Mike which then becomes Mikey when the diminutive suffix is added to it, for Nicholas the nickname Nick becomes Nicky, for Oliver; Ollie, for Ronald; Ron becomes Ronnie, the name Rosemary with the nickname Rose becomes Rosie/Rosy, for name Stephen the common nickname Steve becomes Stevie. Similarly the name Susan with the nickname Sue becomes Susie, Suzy, Tom the nickname for the name Thomas becomes Tommy, Timothy having the nickname Tim becomes Timmy while, the name William having the nicknames like Will, Bill, becomes Willie, Willy, Billy when diminutive suffixes are added to it (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010).

There are also some names which have the short forms that are completely different from the actual names such as; the short form Babs for the name Barbara, Chuck, Chaz, Chicka for the name Charles. The names Christopher, Christine has the short form Kit. Dot, Dottie is the short forms for the name Dorothy. The name Edward having Ned, Ted and Teddy (for example Edward "Ted" Kennedy as its short form). Eleanor, Helen having the short forms like Nell, Nellie. Elizabeth having short form nicknames like Bess, Bessie. The name Gerald has Jerry as a short form and the name Henry having Hal, Hank, Harry as short form (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010).

German

Truncations in German language concerning the first names are mostly founded on the shortening of the word, just keeping the last (Hans) or the first (Max) syllables. Usually, to these truncated names forms the ending "i" is added. It is also possible that the names undergo a sound transformation. The addition of more diminutives can be done as well like -lein or -chen, for example; Gretchen as a diminutive for Grete. The names Anna, Anne having the nickname Anni, similarly, Toni for the name Anton, Schorsh (mostly Bavarian and Swiss German) for the name Georg, Nazi for Ignaz, Hansi for Hans, Hannes for Johannes, Sepp for the name Josef as well as Joseph, Kalle and Kalli for Karl, Grete for Margarete. The nickname Max for the name Maximilian, Susi for the similar names like Susanne, Susanna, Susann and Will for the name Wilhem (Aceto, 2002).

It is also possible that at times the female names have -el in the ending rather than -I or some other short form, especially in the southern Germany such as; Barbara has the short form as Babsi or Barbel, the name Ursula has the multiple short forms like; Uschi, Ulla, Ursel and similarly the name Christina, Christine have short form Trina, Trine (northern Germany), while Tina and Tine have a common short form Christel (Collier and Victoria, 1970).

An ending which is mostly considered typical German for the nicknames is "-z" such as; the name Friedrich has the nickname Fritz, Heinrich and Heini are the names with Heinz, Hinz as their nicknames respectively and Kunz is the nickname for Konrad (Collier and Victoria, 1970).

Dutch

The use of nicknames in Dutch is very common. For example for Wilhelmus they often use Willem, Wim or Pim (Aronoff and Fudeman, 2010).

Polish

Multiple affixes are used in the creation of a diminutive in Polish. Some of these for the feminine nouns are -cia, -sia, -?ka, -ka, -enka, -unia, -lka and the ones for the masculine nouns are -u?, -u?, -ek, -czek, -ciek, -lki, -e-ki, for example; the name Agnieszka becomes Aga, Aleksandra becomes Ola and Ole-ka, Aleksander gets multiple names like; Olu?, Alek, Olek, Anna gets multiple names like; Anusia, Anka, Ania, the name Anna-Maria get the nickname Ania, Barbara becomes Basia or Ba-ka, Bart-omiej gets the nicknames Bartek and Bartu? while, Bartosz gets Bartek, Bartu? As nicknames. Dariusz is a name which gets Darek, Dareczek as nicknames, Edward becomes Edek, Edzie, El-bieta; Ela, El-unia while, the nicknames for Emila are Emilka, Emilie (Bybee, 2001).

Similarly the names like; Grzegorz becomes known by the nicknames Grzesiek, Grze?, Henryka by Henia, Henryk by Henio, Heniek. The name Iwona gets multiple nicknames such as; Iwcia, Iwa, Iwka, Jakub is also known as Kuba, Kubu?, the nicknames for Jaros-aw are Jarek, Jaru?, for Jan are Janek, Ja?, Janeczek, for Joanna they are Joasia, Asia and for Janusz the nickname is Januszek, for Katarzyna the names are Kasie-ka, Ka-ka, Kasia, Kasiunia, for Krzysztof they are Krzysiek, Krzy?, for Maciej; Maciek, Maciu? And for the name Ma-gorzata the nicknames are; Ma-gosia, Gosia, Ma-go-ka, Go-ka, Gosie-ka. Likewise Miros-aw has the nicknames Mirek, Mireczek, Mirko, Miru?, Pawe? has Pawe-ek as a nickname, and for Piotr they are Piotrek, Piotru?, for Roman; Romek, Romeczek, Romu?, for Ryszard; Rysiek, for S-awomir; S-awek. Tadek, Tadzio are the nicknames for Tadeusz, Tomcio, Tomu?, Tomek, Tomaszek, Tomeczek are the ones for the name Tomasz, W-adek for W-adys-aw, W-odek is the nickname for W-odzimierz, whereas, the name Witold and Wojciech have Witek and Wojtek as the nicknames respectively, similarly for Zofia the names are Zosia, Zo-ka and for Zbigniew it is Zbyszek (Benua, 1995; 2001).

Esperanto

Nicknames are formed by Esperanto when the suffix -njo is used for the female names and ?jo is used for the male names. For example the names of the females such as Elizabeto has the nickname Elinjo which is formed by Esperanto, Mario has Manjo, Sofio; Sonjo, fratino; franjo, the name onklino has the nickname onjo and patrino has panjo (Bybee, 2002).

While, the male names such as; Aleksandro has a nickname Ale-jo, Jo-jo is the nickname for the name Johano, Pe-jo for Petro, fra-jo for frato and o-jo is the nickname formed by Esperanto for the name onklo (Bybee, 2002).

Swedish

First syllable of names is what the male truncations are usually based on, they are shortened if they are long and end with "-e" such as; the name Anders has the nicknames Adde, Ante; Andreas has the nicknames Adde, Ante. Bengan, Benke are the nicknames of the name Bengt; Bo has the nickname Bosse; Daniel has Danne; Filip has Fille; Fredrik has Fredde; Gustav has Gurra; Henrik has Henke; Henning has Henke; Jan has Janne; Joakim has Jocke. Similarly, the Kristian gave rise to the name Krille; Kristoffer to Krille, Stoffe; Lars to Lasse; Leif to Leffe; Magnus to Mange; Mikael to Micke; Oskar to Orre; Per to Pelle, Perra. The name Pontus was used in the formation of the nickname Putte; Roland was used in the formation of Rolle; Sebastian for the creation of Sebbe, Basse; Sven to form Svempa, Svenne; Tobias in the making of Tobbe; Torsten in the creative of Totta; Ulf gave rise to Uffe; Viktor to Vicke and Vilhelm to Ville (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010).

These forms are probably very old and most probably the oldest evidence of this is in the name Sibbi dating way back to the 800 AD on the Rok Runestone (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010).

Spanish

The Spanish people forms the diminutives by the addition of one of the many diminutive suffixes; -cito/a, -ecito/a, -ito/a, -cillo/a, -ete/a, -ico/a, -illo/a, -cico/a -zuelo/a, -uelo/a, -in, -ino/a such as; the name Juana has the nickname Juanita or Ju. Jorge has the nickname Jorgito and it is further modified to Jor. Antonio is the name having multiple diminutive suffixes; Antonin, Antonito, Antonete, Tono and Antonillo (McFarlane, 2004).

Some people have two first names like; Maria Teresa, Jose Luis, Juan Carlos etc. Truncation is formed by combining two names into one such as; from Maria Teresa the names Maritere, Mayte, Marite are formed. Maria Luisa combined to form Marisa. Mamen, Mamme, Mayca are formed by the combination of Maria del Carmen. Maribel, Marisa by the combination of Maria Isabel. The name Luzma is formed by the combination of Luz Maria and Marifer, Mafer by combining Maria Fernanda. Maria Salvadora is combined to form Marisa. Juan Carlos is used to make the name Juanca. Juan Esteban has been used to form the nickname Juanes and Juan Manuel to form the name Juanma (McFarlane, 2004).

There are a lot of Spanish nicknames that do not match the original name at all. However all these diminutives have a -ch- [t?] sound such as; Alberto formed Berto, Beto. Alfonso is the name from which Fonsi, Fonso, Fon, Poncho were formed. Anastasio was used in the formation of Tasio, Tacho. Cheto is created by Aniceto, Tono by Antonio, Bea, Beti from Beatriz, Cacho from Carlos, whereas; the name Concepcion is used to make the names Concha, Conchita, Conchi. The name Diego is used to form Yago. Lola has been created by Dolores, Edu, Lalo from Eduardo while, Neto and Chano are created from Ernesto and Feliciano respectively (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010).

Likewise; Federico formed the names Quico, Kiko, Fernanda; Fer, Nanda. Francisco formed the names; Fran, Pancho, Curro, Paco, Pacho, Quico. Graciela formed Chela, Gra. Guillermo created Memo, Guillo, Guille, Picho. Nacha was created by Ignacia, while, Chabela, Chavela, Isa, Chabel, Chava originated from Isabel. The name Jesus formed Chuy, Chucho, Chus, Suso. Jorge is the name that formed the nickname Coque, whereas, Lala, Lau, Yaya were formed by the name Laura. Maximina gave rise to Chimina. Mercedes formed the name Meche. Miguel created Migue. Rober, Berto, Beto is the names that were created by the name Roberto. Chayo, Charo were created with the name Rosario, whereas, Santiago formed the names Santi and Chago. Soledad created Sole and Lola and the name Vicente formed Vicen and Chente (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010).

There might also be several names, especially those of the females with their endings cuff off and having a vowel "-i" at the end in the shape of a pet name such as; Beatriz has the nickname Beti, Javier has Javi (m.), Javy. Leticia has the ncikname Leti. The names Pilar, Maria del Pilar have the common nickname Pili and Susana has Susi (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010). Same system is followed by the people who speak Philippine languages.

Italian

The modification of a few of the diminutive forms can be done by the abbreviation, for example; the name Luigi becomes Luigino and then after further modification it becomes Gino (Lappe, 2001; 2003).

Hungarian

In Hungarian the truncation of the first names are usually based on the shortening of the word, keeping the first syllables only and those also mostly in the contracted form as is shown in the following example, the addition of the ending "i" is done to these truncated forms usually as well like; Feri, Kati and Julcsi. More suffixes could be with the suffixes -csi or -ka, such as Anna (Anne) becomes Ani (ka), Gyorgy (George) becomes Gyuri, Janos (John) becomes Jancsi, the nickname for Jozsef (Joseph) is Jozsi, for Karoly (Charles) is Karcsi, Margit (Margaret) the nicknames are Manyi, Manci, Zsuzsa (Susan) has Zsuzsi as the nickname, Terez (Theresa) has Trezsi (obsolete) as the nickname and Villi is the nickname for Vilmos (William) (Chevalier, 2004).

Russian

There is a large variety of diminutive form of the names that is found in the Russian language, and for a person who doesn't speak Russian, pointing out these forms could be very difficult. Diminutive forms in the Russian language for the nouns are usually differentiated by an -hk (-ik), -ok (-ok), -ek (-yok), -?

- (-on'k-/-en'k-) and

- (-shk-/-chk-) suffixes. Although the names in the Russian tend to be more random but they still do follow a loose pattern. There is a huge number of similar names along with their diminutive forms, some of those names are; Aleksey with Alyosha, Alyoshen'ka, Lyoshka, Lyosha, Alyoshka, Lyoha as the names according to the diminutive form, for Aleksandr along with Aleksandra the diminutive form names are Sashechka, Sashen'ka, Sasha, Shurik, Sanya, Sashka, Shurka, Shura, San'ka, Shurochka. For Anastasiya they are; Nastas'ya, Nastya, Nastyona, Nastyushka, Nasten'ka, Nast'ka, Asya. The name Andrey has the names with diminutive forms Dyusha, Andryuha, Dyukha, Andryusha, Dron. Anna has the names Anya, Anyuta, Annushka, Anechka, Anyutka, Nyurka, Nyura, Nyuta, Nyusha, for Artyom the name is Tyoma, for Boris they are Borya, Boryusha, Bor'ka, Boren'ka,. Dmitry has the diminutive form names such as; Dimulia, Dimochka, Dimych, Dimon, Mitya, Miten'ka, Dima, Mit'ka, Mityusha. Galina has the names like; Galka, Galechka, Galya. Gennady have the multiple names like Genka, Gesha, Gena, Genchik, Genochka and Genych. The name Georgiy is also known as Yury, Goga, Gosha, Zhora, as they are its diminutive form names. Glebka is the name for Gleb. Grinya is the diminutive form name for Grisha. For Irina the names are Ira, Irochka, Irisha, Irishka and Irunya. For Ivan the names are Vanechka, Ivanushka, Vanya, Van'ka, Vanyusha. Kiryusha, Kirya are the name for Kirill, while, Kostya, Kosten'ka, Kostik, Kost'ka are the diminutive form names for Konstantin. Kseniya along with Oksana have the names Oksanka, Ksana, Sana. Leonid has the names Lyonya, Lyonechka, Lyon'ka, Lev; Lyova, Lyovochka, Lyovka, Mariya; Masha, Manya, Mashka, Mashechka, Mashen'ka, Marusya, Mikhail; Misha, Mishen'ka, Mishka, Mishanya, Mischechka, Mishutka, Miha (Zamuner, 2003).

Similarly, the names Nadya, Naden'ka, Nadyusha are the diminutive form names for Nadezhda. Natusen'ka, Natashen'ka, Nata, Natusik, Natashka are the names for Nataliya and Natasha. The name Nikolay has the nicknames Kolen'ka, Kolya, Nikolasha, Nikolen'ka, Kol'ka, Kolyan. Oleg has the nicknames such as; Olezhka, Olezhek, Olezha, Lega, Olegushka, Lyoka. Olya, Olen'ka, Olechka are the ones for the name Olga. Pavel is the name with Pasha, Pashen'ka, Pavlik as the nicknames. Pyotr has Petyunya Petya, Petrusha, Peten'ka, as the nicknames. Radimir had Radya, Mira as nicknames. The diminutive form names for Roman are; Roma, Romych, Romochka, Romka, for nicknames for Sergey are; Seryozhen'ka, Seryoga, Seryozha, Seryozhka, Seriy, for Stepan are; Stepan'chik, Styopan'ka, Styopa, Styopushka, Styopka. The name Stanislav has the nicknames Stasya, Stasik, Stasen'ka. Sofiya has the nicknames; Sonya, Sonechka, Sofa, Sofochka. Svetlana have Sveta, Svetka, Svetyushka, Svetochka, as the diminutive form names. Svyatoslav and Vyacheslav are the two names with Slava, Slavik, Slavochka as nicknames. Tatyana has the following nicknames; Tanya, Tanyusha, Tanechka, Tan'ka, Tan'chik, Tan'ushka. Similarly, Vika, Vikulechka, Vik are the nicknames for the name Viktoriya. Likewise, Volodya, Volod'ka, Voloden'ka, Vovochka, Vova, Vovan Vovka, are the names for Vladimir. For Yaroslav the names are Yarik, Yaroshka, whereas, Yefim has the diminutive form names such as; Fima, Fimochka. The name Yekaterina has a nickname Katerina which is further modifies into; Katya, Katyukha, Katen'ka, Katechka, Katyusha, Kat'ka. The names Yevgenia and Yevgeny have names; Zhenya, Zhenechka, Zhen'ka, Zheka and the name Yuriy has the diminutive form names such as; Yura, Yurka (Zamuner, 2003).

Another method to modify some names is by ending them with "-ka" as this increases the level of familiarity, but names of this kind are not used for the adults who are not from the family (Zamuner, 2003).

Serbian

The names in the Serbian language are; Aleksandar is known as Aca, Sale, Sasa. Aleksandra is known as Sasa, Saska and Sandra. The name Ana is known as Anica, Dragana as Gaga, Gordana as Goga, Goca, Katarina Ka-a, Kata. Len-e, Lenka are the nicknames for Lena. Ljilja and Ljuba are the nicknames for Ljiljana and Ljubomir. Jelena is known as Jela, Jeca. The name Jovan is known as Joca, Jovica. Mara is the nickname for Marija, Sneza for Snezana. The nicknames Vlatko and Vlada are for Vladimir whereas; Zvonko is for the name Zvonimir and Zoki, Kiza for the name Zoran (McFarlane, 2004).

Romanian

In Romanian the diminutive form of the names are created such as; the name Adrian is known as Adi, Alexandru as Ale, Alecu, Alex, Sandu, Claudiu as Diu-u, Diu, Clau, Constantin as Costic?, Titi and the name Cristian as Cristi. The nickname for the name Daniel is known as D-nu?, Dani, Dan, for Dorina it is Dori, for Elena it is Ema, Lena, Lenu-a, for Eugen; Jenic? And Eugenia; Jeni. Fernanda is known as Anda, Florentina as Ina, Gabriel as Gabi, Georgeta as Geta, Georgina as Gina and the nicknames for Gheorghe are Georgic?, Gic?, Gigi, Gu?

. Hori becomes the nichname for Hora-iu, Nu-i for Ileana. Ionel, Ionu? And Nelu are the nicknames for Ion, Ioan, whereas, Maria is known by the names M-rioara, Mimi, Mioara, Monica by Moni, Nicolae by Nicu, Nae, Nicu-or. Likewise the nickname for the name Octavian is known as Tavi, for Ovidiu it is Ovi, for Petre the nicknames are Petric?, Petru?, Petri-or, for Raluca; Ralu, Uca, ?tefan; Fane, F-nel, ?tef-nel. Tibi and Teo are the nicknames for Tiberiu and Teodor respectively. The name Valentin has the nickname Vali and Vlad has the nickname Vladut (Cutler, McQueen, and Robinson, 1990).

Conclusions and Future Work

In this paper the researcher focused on the formation and truncation of nick names from complete personal names indicating not only the capabilities in different languages but also the flexibility of the methods that have been used. Furthermore, it also shows the possibilities of success of these methods in the languages having similar nicknaming conventions.

Since the wide-range of nickname resources are too extensive, and in addition, are not available very easily and are also inclined to change. The truncation methods discussed above are very flexible, rank based and can be re-used in case the data changes. Lastly, in this paper we have presented a basic example to learn the nickname truncation models. Whereas, future studies can further explore the alternative methods that can be used to learn several other linguistic forms of forming nicknames.