Vintage Nicknames for Girls

Now that Theodora (and Dorothea) are back, the adorable Teddi might work again for a baby girl.

You can just hear some sassy dame in a 1930s movie using this name. We prefer the original -- or even its original, Amabel.

Wheezy short form of lovely name, featured in the movie "Steel Magnolias." Go for Lou or Lulu instead.

Cutesy pet form of Clementine.

Kizzy remains the most popular spelling of the Keziah short form, at least in some part thanks to its appearance in the 1977 television show Roots.

Florence is back, and the adorable short form Flory (or Florie) is too. Or you could just choose Flora and cover all bases with one stroke.

Feline nickname for Tabitha — a bewitching vintage choice.

Trapped somewhere in the nether region between Haddie and Catie, with the added confusion of sounding like someone who works on a golf course. Caddie Woodlawn was a TV heroine of the Old West in the 1980s. Caddie had its moment, but we don't see it becoming one of the more popular girl names starting with C.

It sounds like a modern nature name, but Leafy was coined as a Puritan nickname for the girls' name Relief, which referred to the relief of Christ.

Jeanie is a midcentury bobby soxer kind of nickname that might almost be so old it's new again.

A modern version of the dated Betty. You might want to consider varying Elizabeth, too, to the Italian Elisabetta.

An uncommon short form of Patricia – an innovative way to honor Great-Aunt Pat.

Prime pert-teenager name in midcentury TV shows, replaced by Maggie.

All but unheard of today, Floy was a popular Florence nickname used on its own in a century ago: it was Number 448 in 1914.

Gert is an old school nickname for one of the oldest school names, Gertrude. Only the most adventurous, so-far-out-it's-in baby namers will choose Gertrude or Gert today, but it's definitely geek chic.

Looks very much like it lost its first initial.

Too fiscal.

Barra is a Gaelic-speaking island in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, that’s been inhabited since the Neolithic era. A male nickname for Finbarr in Ireland, as well as a stand-alone name, Barra was used by George R.R. Martin as a girl’s name. It means ‘fair-haired’.