Nicknames, a Very English Thing
Let us take for example the 5th Duke of
Devonshire and his family. The Duchess and his mistress, Lady Elizabeth Foster called
him “Canis” because he was happiest at home with his dogs. Amongst themselves the duchess was Mrs. Rat
and Lady Elizabeth Foster was Racky. Their children were Hart (Marquess of
Hartington), Little G or just G (Georgiana) and Hary-o (Harriet).
At this point, it was rare for the eldest son to be sent to
school (a big author I know says she's never found any Georgian/Regency first born sons with a school record), but school days were a great source of nicknames for younger sons and for first born sons from the Victorian period on. Most were either based upon
your name, your title, or upon some physical quirk or deed/stunt. Just look at the characters in P.G.
Wodehouse’s works: Plug, Fruity, Beefy,
Puffy, Mustard, Nobby, Bicky, Chuffy, Gussie, Boko, Tuppy, Kipper, Bingo,
Stinker, Buffy, Stiffy, Catsmeant, Corky, Sippy, Rocky, Sandy, Gazeka, Looney,
Spennie, Flick, Hash, Chimp, Soapy, Smooth, and my favorite, Stilton.
Sometimes the names make sense, e.g. Stilton’s surname is
Cheesewright, Mustard’s is Pott and Kipper’s is Herring. Often it’s simple a play on their name, Sandy/Alexandra,
Gussie/Augustus, Aggie/Niagra. Occasionally, they’re explained by the character’s physical description,
e.g. Beefy is a big, brawny man, and sometimes we can guess, as with Stinker (aka Lord
Tilbury). Many of them however are inexplicable (Bingo, Hash, and Boko?), but
because they’re so grounded in the world, you never question that there IS a
reason/story behind the name. Wodehouse
himself was called Plum by the way.
A few strange real life ones: Jerry Lewis was “Id” (short
for Idiot). Sally Struthers’s sister called her Packy (short for Pachyderm
because she was chubby). Gordon Summers
is better known as Sting because of a black and yellow sweater he wore. Buster
Keaton was so dubbed by Harry Houdini himself because of his ability to fall
down a flight of stairs and come out unscathed.
So if we just play with Devonshire … He could have been D,
Devon, Dray if late Victorian (a play on
Shire, which is a horse breed), he could also be Hart (as indeed the 6th
Duke was), and perhaps Cup or Tankard or Bowl as a play on the “dish” part of
Cavendish.
So yeah, those outlandish nicknames writers give their
heroes? Totally period and very, very English.
2 Comments:
Stilton is absolute genius! I love these nicknames and I find it hard to believe people cannot see the lure of nicknames in a period when titles and addressing persons correctly was so strictly held. Especially young men who went away to school together or were thrown together so much as teenagers and young men.
I know! And nicknames give you so many opportunities to needle a character. *grin*
Post a Comment
<< Home