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ArchivesHow do you get Dick from Richard?
Just curious.
"People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing all day."
Rate my personal name list please :) https://www.behindthename.com/pnl/217493
"People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing all day."
Rate my personal name list please :) https://www.behindthename.com/pnl/217493
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Richard -> Ricke, Rik, Rycke, etc.
I've seen the change from Rick to Dick, Hick, etc. explained as:
a) "the inability of the English to cope with the velar Norman R" --Hanks and Hodges
b) "rhyming nickname" --Withycombe
I've seen the change from Rick to Dick, Hick, etc. explained as:
a) "the inability of the English to cope with the velar Norman R" --Hanks and Hodges
b) "rhyming nickname" --Withycombe
2
Dick is a rhyming nickname for Richard. It was not the only one used in medieval times -- Hick was also used in medieval England, and so the surnames Hicks, Hickson, and Higgins go back to an ancestor in medieval England named Richard just as Dix, Dixon, Dickens, etc. do.
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