Nickname Names

Hy was once a nickname for Hyman, a Jewish Anglicization of Chaim. Today it has gone extinct, for obvious reasons.

The charming Hitch played by Will Smith in the eponymous movie put this into the lexicon. Also known as the nickname of director Alfred Hitchcock and writer Christopher Hitchens, who titled his autobiography "Hitch."

Flip is a down-to-earth, attitude nickname for the very proper Philippa. If you want to downshift even further from Pippa, Flip may be your gender-neutral choice.

Has diverse associations: the long-term Communist head of Yugoslavia, one of Michael Jackson's older brothers, and an animated Disney character -- none of them a very strong recommendation.

Nacio is attractive and energetic -- one of the most appealing Spanish nickname names. Songwriter Nacio (born Ignacio) Herb Brown wrote many American standards, including Singin' in the Rain.

See WILLIE.

A concise and zippy short form of Elizabeth, Liberty or similar, used for the main character in the novel and film adaptation of Emma Donoghue's The Wonder about a nurse sent to observe a girl who is miraculously surviving without food, to check the validity of her parents' claim.

Similar to Amy and Romy, Omie is a sweet yet unexpected diminutive of Naomi. It might also work as a short form of Ramona or Salome, and as a feminine form of Omar.

Elzie was given to 16 baby girls in the US last year, almost certainly as a spelling variation of the increasingly popular sweet nickname Elsie, a diminutive of Elizabeth.

In Mandaeism, Hag and Mag are a pair of demons typically mentioned together; Hag being male, and Mag being female.

Riff is the name of the leader of the Jets in West Side Story, drawn from the musical word for a repeated phrase in a song. A tragic character in the musical, but a jaunty sounding name with the vibes of Ridge, Riggs, Raffy, and Lyric too.