nurse name

TankHughes commented on the word nurse name

On pg 28 of this surname book, the footnote says "Popkiss may be derived from some " nurse name in the same way."

English Surnames: An Essay on Family Nomenclature, Historical ..., Volume 2

By Mark Antony Lowe

https://books.google.com/books?id=Bj8nAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA29&dq=conquergood+surname&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjcyNbf_-_YAhUQ5WMKHR46DesQ6AEILjAB#v=onepage&q=conquergood%20surname&f=false

I don't know why the quotation mark is used before nurse name and I don't know what nurse name means and googling it just gets me a list of famous nurses.

January 24, 2018

vendingmachine commented on the word nurse name

A nurse name is a hypocorism, a diminutive form of a name. Hypocorisms include pet names or calling names, often a diminutive or augmentative form of a word or a given name when used as a nickname or term of endearment.

January 24, 2018

qms commented on the word nurse name

Well done, vm. Thank you. From the citation Tank gives I am thinking that “Popkiss” might be a “nurse name” for “Hopkins.” I had a grand aunt called Lalla. Her actual name was Ellen, but when my father was a toddler he could not pronounce that and said “lalla” instead. So she remained for the rest of her life. It is a little harder to understand such developments in surnames.

January 24, 2018

vendingmachine commented on the word nurse name

A well-known example of a nurse name (from a surname) is "Chips" (Professor Arthur Chipping from the 1969 film "Good-bye, Mr. Chips".)

Prior to Professor Chipping's marriage, however, and his subsequent personality change, his pupils called him "Ditchy," short for "dull as ditch-water."

Not sure if "Ditchy" is a "nurse name" since it isn't a term of endearment, but it is a nickname of sorts.

Ha, regarding your Great Aunt Lalla. My guess is that numerous "nurse names" found their origins via baby talk or a toddler's (temporary) fluency disorder.

See also sobriquet.

January 26, 2018