Polly a nn for Mary?

[lipsty.livejournal.com]

I went to see a production of The Admirable Crichton last night. The three daughters in the play are called Mary, Agatha, and Catherine. When the family get shipwrecked, they come to be known as Polly, Aggie, and Kitty. Clearly, I can see where Aggie and Kitty derived from, but is Polly an accepted nickname for Mary? I've never heard that before...

Comments

[harinakshi.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of that before but if you Google "nicknames for Mary" you'll see it is the real nickname.

[th3-unicorn.livejournal.com]

Yes, my italian-english dictionary also cites Polly as a nickname for Mary :)
Agatha is one of my favorite names ever, but I have to say "ughhh" at Aggie :/
I don't mind Kitty for Catherine and especially Kit.

[mikanala.livejournal.com]

My grandmars name is Agnes Helen and goes by Nessie.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Yes, Polly is a nickname for Mary. I've never heard it as a nickname for anything else, really.

[freezemyazaleas.livejournal.com]

I usually hear it as a nickname for Paulina or Pauline.

[rowan-belle.livejournal.com]

I know that Molly is a nickname for Mary, so I guess Polly isn't too far of a stretch.

[mommyaubrey.livejournal.com]

why must nicknames come from the name??

[cremepuff.livejournal.com]

I don't think they have to come from the name, it's just that it's more common for them to do so. So when people see a nickname like Polly that only has 1 letter in common with its original name, of course they're going to be curious how the nickname came about.

[mommyaubrey.livejournal.com]

i guess... just to me its strange i don't get called anything that comes from my name... all of my nicknames are just things that have to do more with my personallity.

[pegasus2o5.livejournal.com]

Yep, Mary has some pretty out-there nicknames; Polly, Molly, Maisie, etc.
That came about because at one point in time so many girls were named Mary, sometimes even in the same family, you had to do something to tell them apart. Margaret and Sarah have some odd nicknames, too.

[penguiny7.livejournal.com]

Polly being a nickname for Mary kind of comes about in two steps. First, the Anglo-Saxons couldn't pronounce Rs very well, so when the Normans brought names like Mary to England the Anglo-Saxons made nicknames for them that changed the R to another consonant, and thus Molly is derived from Mary (other examples are Sadie and Sally from Sarah and Dolly from Dorothy). Secondly, in the Middle Ages it was common to change the first letter of a nickname to another consonant to make a new nickname, so Polly comes from Molly (other examples of this are Peg from Meg, Bill from Will, and Bob from Rob).

[lipsty.livejournal.com]

I love any answer with medieval history in! Thanks.

[pollysweet.livejournal.com]

Yes, This is one of many acceptable nicknames for Mary that don't seem to have anything to do with the name. I believe my baby name book has a comprehensive list of them, but I don't have it at the moment.
The reason is that for a long time many Catholic families used Mary as a name for daughters almost exclusively and the name was so common that they had to come up with tons of nicknames simply to avoid confusion.
My favorite book is 'An Old Fashioned Girl' by Louisa May Alcott. The main character is named Polly but her real name is Mary.
I also think that Dick being short for Richard and Bob being short for Robert is quite weird, but you are right about this one being even more so.

[lipsty.livejournal.com]

That makes a lot of sense - lots of Marys need lots of nicknames.