Isaac Freeman on Nostr: People sometimes wonder why short versions of names are often oddly formed. Why is ...

People sometimes wonder why short versions of names are often oddly formed. Why is ‘Bob’ short for ‘Robert’? ‘Peggy’ for ‘Margaret’? ‘Hal’ for ‘Henry’?

I believe that the answer in all cases is that at some point in history a three-year-old sibling tried to pronounce the name,and everyone in the family thought it was fun and started using it too.

I reckon this sort of thing may explain vast swathes of human culture.