ABSTRACT
Nicknames or by-names had always been used as unofficial names in addition to or instead of official ones. Some, we have seen, became second names. In the modern era, once second names had become established, nicknames persisted of course, being used within communities, institutions and families. They were usually individual in origin but they could be inherited. They were also different in kind from other names by this time in that they retained a more primitive, “descriptive” function.85 Unlike the first or family name, the nickname still records some real feature of the person named. A broad distinction may be made between nicknaming in “traditional” communal and in “modern” more restricted settings.
