I’m looking for books (or general information) concerning the formation of common nicknames, i.e. when [name]Mary[/name] became [name]Molly[/name] became [name]Polly[/name], information about the whys and hows and whens, maybe things like when the first mention of a [name]Molly[/name] is, when [name]Molly[/name] started being a stand alone name on birth certificates, all of that sort of thing. I’m just fascinated by the subject! Does anyone have any good ones to share?
I don’t know if you’ll be able to find it, but I have a book called NICKNAMES: THEIR ORIGINS AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES by [name]Jane[/name] [name]Morgan[/name], [name]Christopher[/name] O’[name]Neill[/name] and Rom Harre, published in [name]London[/name] 1979–it’s interesting, but a lot of it is about derogatory nns.
On second thought, I think you’ll find what you’re looking for in the Nicknames chapter of THE [name]STORY[/name] OF OUR NAMES by Elsdon C [name]Smith[/name].