I adore
Daisy as a nick for
Margaret and have considered it myself because my mother was
Margaret and well, I don't exactly love it.
My only reservation is that people may perceive
Daisy as unintelligent or flighty, etc. Then, of course, there are the phrases 'pushing up daisies,' 'lazy
Daisy' and 'crazy
Daisy' that give me pause. Still love it, though.
I definitely feel it's a tradition worth carrying on but don't have a problem with
Daisy by itself. Personally, I'd be more inclined to go the full name-route just the same way I prefer
Lily as a nick for
Elizabeth.
Re: the origin, my theory is that someone educated knew of the French meaning of marguerite and was also aware of
Marguerite's relationship to
Margaret and cleverly applied the nn
Daisy to
Margaret. According to Hanks and Hodges (Oxford Dictionary of First Names), flower names didn't become en vogue for women until end of the 19th century so I'm curious when
Daisy first became associated with
Margaret.
This message was edited 6/26/2008, 1:58 PM