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Molly and Mary??
I was looking up the name Molly a minute ago and saw the meaning is "pet form of Mary". How do you get the name Molly out of Mary? I can see getting 'Miley' out of 'Molly' but not 'Molly' out of 'Mary'. So how did that come about? Any body know? I was just wondering.*~!. A.b.B.y.E.l.O.g.A.n.!~*
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See here, under the Others section:
http://www.behindthename.com/glossary/view/diminutive
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Sorry. This was meant to be a response to the original question.In medieval times there wern't that many first names and few if any surnames. A village could have dozens of Marys, Margarets, Johns, and Roberts. Nns became the only way to tell people apart so they got pretty loose with the derivations. Robert --> Rob --> Hob --> DobMargaret --> Meg --> Peg --> PeggyMary --> Molly --> PollyEdward --> Ed --> Ted --> NedJohn --> Jack or Jenkin ("-kin" means little)Walter --> WatAnne --> Nan --> NancyThis doesn't explain exactly how Mary turns into Molly. Just put it down to creativity and illiteracy. :-)

This message was edited 3/24/2008, 1:49 PM

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The "r" sound was turned into "l" in other names, too. Like Sally (Sarah), Hal (Harry), Hallie (Harriet), and Callie (Caroline).
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