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Question:I recently started to wonder why people named Richard has "Dick" as their surname.

see, my surname is Dede, from Andre. Alexender is Alex, Katrine is Kate (I'm a bit unsure about that one), and the list is endless...

but why is Ricard "Dick"?


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I recently started to wonder why people named Richard has "Dick" as their surname.

see, my surname is Dede, from Andre. Alexender is Alex, Katrine is Kate (I'm a bit unsure about that one), and the list is endless...

but why is Ricard "Dick"?

A "nickname" is a name of a person or thing other than its proper name. It may either substitute or be added to the proper name. The term hypocoristic or "pet name" is used to refer to a nickname of affection between those in love or with a close emotional bond (like "snugglebuns" for one's husband/wife/lover). The term "diminutive name" refers to nicknames that convey smallness of the names, e.g., referring to children (Jimmy for Jim, Bobby for Bob). A nickname can often be a form of ridicule.

Nicknames for people:
To inform an audience or readership of a person's nickname without actually calling them by their nickname, the nickname is placed between the first and last names and surrounded by quotation marks (i.e. Catherine "Cate" Jones). The middle name is eliminated (if there is one). Very rarely is the middle name mentioned with the nickname (exceptions being when the first name is composed of two words, e.g. "Beth Ann").

They may refer to a person's job or title.
"Sawbones" (or further shortened to "Bones," as in Dr. McCoy from Star Trek: TOS) or Doc for Doctor. Slang name for a surgeon and, in particular, an orthopaedic surgeon (who may have "sawed bones" on the battlefield in days gone by).

It is common in many genealogical records, especially more informal records such as census records and obituaries, to find your ancestors listed under names you might not expect.
In many cases these names may have been the nicknames that they were known by to their family and friends (for example, William Robert Jones may only have been known as "Billy Bob", so he was listed that way on family records,etc.) Dick was a very common nickname used by our ancestors.
The online Etymology dictionary says "dick means
"fellow, lad, man," 1553, rhyming nickname for Rick, short for Richard, one of the commonest English names, it has long been a synonym for "fellow," and so most of the slang senses are probably very old, but naturally hard to find in the surviving records.
"Dick" is also used to mean "detective".

Firstly, that is not a surname, it's called diminutive. A surname is just a last name. As in Smith. Or Bond. But yeah, I'm not an expert, but I've always assumed it was as follows: Someone was lazy and didn't want to say "Richard". So they saw their friend, and they called him "Rich". The name became popular. Someone else decided Rich had too wealthy connotations, so they called Richard "Rick". Then, one day, Rick said to Jimmy, "Hey, my name's Rick!" And Jimmy was all like, "Dick?" And Rick was all like, "No, Rick." And Jimmy was odd, so he was all like, "Can I call you Dick?" And the newly-christened Dick was all like, "Yeah, whatever. Why do you go by Jimmy, Mr. James Baltimore?"

I don't understand... this sounds interesting, though can u please somehow tell me what u mean?
thank you!

I think you mean why is Dick the "nickname" for Richard. In spoken English, it doesn't seem to match up. The "D" and "R" sounds are not similar. In other languages where the letter "R" is "trilled", (German / French) it makes plenty of sense. Spanish example: Ricardo is shortened to Ric ("reek"), sounds very close to "deek" with trilled R. Lkewise, Richard in German is pronounced the same way as it is in Spanish, just drop the "o" at the end. put Angles, Saxons and Jutes together with Normans, Franks, etc. and it would make sense to get a d-d-d-eek, from d-d-r-e-e-k-h-a-r-t (Germanic/Spanish pronunciation of Dick and Richard).
English came out of Germanic/Teutonic tongue - meaning the Germanic/Teutonic language existed before English evolved out of it.