Nickname Names

Super-sweet name that was the title of a Broadway play -- but best known as a type of apple. The Dutch variation is Pepijn is finding some popularity in that country, where short nickname names are stylish.

Pippin

The new kid on the block in terms of Christopher short forms, it was introduced into the mix by actor Topher Grace, who didn't like Chris. 

Topher

This spelling pares Will down to the bare minimum — and why not? It is also a Welsh diminutive of William / Wiliam / Gwilym.

The cute short form gained prominence when it was used for young Prince William of England.

Wills

Lissy may be this generation's answer to Missy. It's rare to see Lissy on a birth certificate, but if you pay attention, you may notice it as a nickname for names such as the classic Elizabeth or hot traditional choice Felicity.

Lissy

Derived from a Spanish title of the Virgin Mary, Guadalupe, Lupe has both a spiritual and animal meaning. In relation to its long form, it is associated with a convent in Spain and the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe to a Mexican man in the 16th-century. Taken as a stand-alone name, it derives from the Latin word for "wolf", lupus.
 
Appearing in the US Top 1000 for boys and girls in the first half of the 20th-century, it fell out of fashion in the 60s, and a recent year saw it given to just 7 boys and 9 girls respectively. In comparison, 244 girls and 31 boys were called Guadalupe the same year, while alternative short form Lupita was used 38 times.

Lupe

A sweet, nostalgic nosegay kind of name, Posy has been long fashionable in England, a country of gardeners, but this pretty bouquet-of-flowers name is still rarely heard in the US, though it could be seen as a more unusual possible alternative to Rosy or Josie.
 Posy is a little sister name in the Hunger Games series, while before that, Posy Fossil was a character in Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes. In 2026, it appeared on a character in the popular TV series, Bridgerton.
 
For now, Posy is the least popular spelling of the name with Posie first, Posey second, and Posy used for less than ten baby girls in the US in a recent count.
 Posy (or Posey or Posie) could also work as a nickname for a range of other names, from Penelope to Sophia to Primrose, though it started as a pet form of Josephine. Other P-beginning flower names you may want to consider along with Posey: Poppy, Petal, Primrose.

Posy

Susy is a feminine name primarily used as a diminutive or nickname for Susan, Susannah, or Suzanne. These parent names derive from the Hebrew Shoshana, meaning "lily" or "rose." Susy offers a playful, approachable alternative to the more formal Susan, with a cheerful, youthful quality that has appealed to parents for generations. The name enjoyed its greatest popularity in the mid-20th century, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, when diminutive forms were fashionable. While less commonly given as a formal name today, Susy retains its charm as both a given name and nickname. The spelling variant with a single 's' distinguishes it slightly from the more common "Susie." The name evokes a friendly, warm personality with its soft sounds and familiar cadence.

Susy

Athena, the name of the Greek goddess of wisdom, warfare, handicrafts, mathematics, and courage, has become one of the most popular mythological namesakes in the contemporary Western world. On the rise in the US, the UK, France, and Iceland, time will tell if this short form catches on.
 
Similar in sound to Thea, it appears in the 2021 Marvel film Eternals, played by Angelina Jolie, and in the comic on which the film is based. A year later in 2022, it was given to 25 baby girls in the US, having been out of the stats since the 70s, when it was only given to 5 girls.

Thena

A feminine multicultural nickname name perfectly able to stand on its own, Zanna might technically relate to either Susanna or Jane, making it a flexible honor name for an ancestral Susan or Jane or even John.

Zanna

Mauve-tinted nickname with vintage charm that could just follow in the footsteps of ABBIE.  More prominent now as the nickname for the Texas A&M sports teams.

Aggie

Cosy but cool, Archie has been a favorite nickname for boys in the UK since the 2000s. More recently, it re-entered the US Top 1000 after a 30 year absence and saw a big rise after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle chose it for their son in 2019. As a girl name, it has been occasionally used, albeit rarely.
 
With options like Stevie, Billie, and Scottie on this rise, however, this vintage nickname may appeal to some parents thanks to its softer sounds and similarities to the likes of Marcy, Ari, Darcy, and Charlie. 
 
The TV medical drama BBC Casualty featured a female character called Archie, played by Genesis Lynea. When a patient made a disparaging comment on her name, she shrugged it off, explaining she'd chosen it for herself. There's also actress Archie Panjabi, who was born Archana ("honoring, praising" from Sanskrit).

Archie

Although she declared her independence as far back as the reign of Elizabeth I — Good Queen Bess, Bess now sounds less passé than Beth or Betsy. 

Bess

Eula is a slightly sweeter and more compact version of Eulalia. Currently, neither name is given to more than a handful of girls each year. Eula was fairly popular in the US during the early twentieth century, and she last ranked in the Top 1000 in 1960.
 Eula Beal was an American opera singer, and Eula Biss is an award-winning American writer.

Eula

This cutesy nickname is best known as that of Imogene Threadgoode in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes.

Idgie

Jan, not short for Janet or Janice but standing on its own, ranked in the Top 200 throughout the 1950s but dropped off the Top 1000 in the 1980s and now is a truly extinct name, given to fewer than five baby girls in the US each year.

Joss is more fashionable than Jocelyn or Josslyn. This is a short form that could be used independently, a la the singer Joss Stone. One of a troupe of adorable boyish nicknames newly fashionable for girls a la Lou and Charlie. 

Joss

Replaced Patsy as the midcentury's popular, peppy babysitter. 

Patty

Short and simple Ty could work as an alternative to Kai or Sky, or as a short form of Tyler/Tyla or Tyra.

Related to the powerful South African warrior people, sometimes chosen by African-Americans to celebrate their heritage.
 
Zula is also a Norwegian diminutive of Zuzanna.

Zula

 — directly on the birth certificate these days. Sometimes they like the nickname better than the formal name, sometimes they want more control over what their child is actually called, and sometimes they simply see the short form as cuter, more modern, and more stylish than its proper equivalent.

, other nickname names in the US Top 1000 include 

. Rare nickname names with the potential to be future hits include 

, are full names in their own right, they make the list because they can be short forms of longer names, such as 

, have been used as full names for so long that they're more widely used than their proper forms.

And then there are the nicknames that have more recently found their footing as proper names. We'd count 

Some nickname names you might want to consider for your own baby include the following.

Nicknames that are used as proper names, for baby girls and baby boys, with meanings, origins, and popularity, including Alfie, Rory, Maisie, and Coco (Page 32)