The Secret Joy of the Hypocoristic

TMV editor and co-blogger Holly in Cincinnati noted in an email to me that the major Republican candidates have first names which are four-letter words — as in John, Mitt, Mike and Rudy.

As a former newspaper headline writer and present-day blog headline writer, this is manna from heaven.

Howcum?

Because of the limited amount of space in some headlines.

Example:

This works perfectly well when there’s the space, but when a copy desk chief shoots you a headline order that allows you only five or six characters per deck, or line, you have a problem.

The solution:

If a personage with a longish name doesn’t have a nickname, chances are headline writers will find one through hypocoristics, or giving a lesser form to a given name such as . . . well, Rudy.

Elizabeth is perhaps the most hypocoristic-able name in the English language because there are so many lesser forms, including Bess, Bessie, Bette, Bet, Betty, Beth, Betsy, Eliza, Elise, Elsa, Elsie, Elle, Ella, Lisa, Leesy, Lisbeth, Lissie, Libby, Lily, Lizzie, Liz and Liza.

The best recent-ish example of a hypocoristic is “Ike,” the moniker given Dwight D. Eisenhower not by headline writers but by his family as a child as a lesser, more easily prounceable form of his last name.