A feeling of curiosity always pops out in one’s mind when the thought of why the alternate names are called, as nicknames come across. In the 14th century, we can trace its origin when eke name was formed, meaning an additional name. Eke name was first seen documented in ‘Handlyng Synne’ in 1303 by Robert Manning of Brunne.
There are many more instances about which we can talk in this article. We should date back to its origin, and speak about its history in the further section of this article.
History
Having already talked about when the eke name was first used, let us talk about other instances. In 1440, Geoffrey, in his dictionary ‘Promptorium Parvuloram’ stated ‘nake name or ‘eke name, agnomen’. In the same way, in 1483, an English to Latin dictionary ‘catholicon anglicum’ stated ‘an Ekname, agnomen’. We can see another instance of this in Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer by Sir Thomas More in 1532, which said:
I should here call Tindall by another name: …it were no nyck name within the least and yet would there some then say that it wasn’t honest so to do, and this may some such folk say as in the villainous words of his spoken by this blessed sacrament will find no fault in the least. But meseemeth surely that at the initial hearing of such a shameful word spoken by such a shameless heretic this Holy Eucharist of Christ, the entire Christian company present shouldn’t be ready to contain themselves from calling him “knave” all with one voice directly.
Jumping over to the 17th century, you can see other instances as well to track down its origin. In 1617, Itinerary by Fynes Moryson, we see a statement where James Fitz-Thomas was by, a nicke-name, called the Suggon Earle. Within this century, nickname and nick name became more popular and widely used as compared to the earlier mentioned eke name, with time the former vanished the use of latter completely.
We can have a look at other examples after looking at which we can understand the reorganization of eke name to a nickname, some of those examples are ‘another’ from’ an other’, ‘apron’ from ‘napron’, and ‘umpire’ from ‘noumpere’.
In England, some of the nicknames are associated with a person’s surname. Some of the nicknames referred to a person’s physical characteristics. On the other hand, in Chinese culture, nicknames were commonly used to address each other in a community, for example- friends, relatives, and neighbors as well.
Some bonus facts :
- The moniker is said to first appear in print in 1849 and was “known to be originally a hobo term” of uncertain origins. The word’s beginnings to the habit of English refer to themselves as part of the “monkery,” that is, monks (as they routinely took new names when they made their vows).
- It came as no surprise that sobriquet was originally a French word, where it had the same spelling since the 1400s.
- Since the mid-1400s, “otherwise called” came from the Latin word of the same spelling meaning “another way” has been used in English.