Undoubtedly, everyone at some point or other has referred to someone by a nickname. I don't mean a dubious nickname such as "tiny" or "stretch" but rather when someone is called Jack (John) or Peg (Margaret) or even Dot (Dorothy).Ever wonder how these truncations came to exist? Most commonly the reason for the nickname was a shortening of the name for expediency. And believe it or not, many of the origins of these nicknames date back to medieval times! For example, a surname often times would consist of a shortened first name and adding 'kin';Philip becomes Philkin. Eventually, as time passed, these suffixes would be dropped but the root name remained. Even so, some of the suffixes are fairly commonplace today. For instance, Jenkins, Wilkins, Perkins, Tompkins, Wilcox, Johncox, etc.
So how did Jack come about? It is actually derived from the -kin suffix we talked about earlier. Jack was something that caught on after many of the endings were dropped. The earliest mention of "jack" as a standalone is from the 13th century. The name abounds in folktales and children's nursery rhymes, including "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Jack Sprat," "Jack and Jill," and "Little Jack Horner," which shows that Jack had already become the name for the typical "everyman" in England centuries ago. It is once again the typical name in England, where Jack has been the number-one name for boys since 1995.
Now that you know about the origins of Jack, maybe you are interested in some more names. Here are a few links for some further reading:
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