My mother was an Agnes and called Nancy most of her life. And a grandmother called Margaret was apparently calle Maggie or Meg as a child and Peg or Peggie after she married. I`ve always presumed Nancy was a nickname - somehow - for Agnes. Anne > Hi, > > I agree with the list members' versions of where Jock comes from. Not everybody on this side of the water (Canada) realises too, that men called Sandy are actually born Alexander, at least in Scotland. I only recently learned that Nancy can be "short" for Ann. But can anybody out there explain to me why Peggy is short for Margaret? > > Mary > born Glasgow > living in Canada >

While we are on this name topic Would it make sense to call someone named Lydia Jane, Nettie Jane? Perhaps it came about by way of younger siblings unable to pronounce Lydia? Ginny

Hi, Ginny (Virginia, I presume?) The short answer is probably not. Nettie would come from possibly Annette. Deriving it from Lydia I'd think was improbable. We can get from Lydia to Liddy, but the substituting of L, R, N doesn't happen at the beginnings of words (I can't think of any examples, anyway), but only in the middle and at the end. It sounds like they just didn't like Lydia. Maybe there was a great aunt Lydia who left her money to stray cats instead of to her namesake, so they figured the bargain was off. You never know with names. Sometimes it's just a whim. Jim Polson > While we are on this name topic Would it make sense to call someone > named Lydia Jane, Nettie Jane? Perhaps it came about by way of younger > siblings unable to pronounce Lydia? > > Ginny

Hi, Ann (or Nan or Nancy) My mother was an Agnes called Nancy, too. Her family called her Aggie and I think she moved to Canada to get away from it. :-) Today we pronounce Agnes as Agg Niss, more or less how it is spelled. When it first became popular in Scotland it was a French name and was pronounced Anyes. You sometimes find it spelled Annis. Since names starting with a vowel often add N for their pet form (like Ann-->Nan) you would get Annis-->Nannis-->Nance, and then a diminutive with -y -->Nancy. Jim Polson > My mother was an Agnes and called Nancy most of her life. And a grandmother > called Margaret was apparently calle Maggie or Meg as a child and Peg or > Peggie after she married. I`ve always presumed Nancy was a nickname - > somehow - for Agnes.