Hey Swistle, fun question for you. Sort of by happenstance, both our girls have historic names with bird nicknames. Katherine called Wren and Hilaria called Lark. (Okay, honestly it’s 30% full names, 20% Wren and Lark, 50% Doodle and Roo, from a lullaby I sing them.)
We are not currently expecting, but it struck me as a fun sort of lying-awake exercise: what other names have avian and/or natural nicknames?
I’d get particularly excited about something that led to the nickname Dove. Dora Verity? Paloma, I suppose. David!B.
That IS a fun question, and a perfect one for a day when it feels as if there is some faint hope that spring may one day return to our midst.
I am fond of the names where the natural nickname Bertie can instead be Birdy/Birdie. I think it’s a lovely way to handle an honor name that may not quite have come back into style just yet (Roberta, Alberta). I think it also works as a nickname for Bernadette.
I have heard that that name Robin started as a nickname for the name Robert, and I haven’t been so charmed since I heard of Hodge as a nickname for Roger.
As I sit in the waiting room of a doctor’s office, I hear a receptionist named Avis saying her name again and again as she answers the phone, and I think about how uncommon her name is, especially considering how close it is to the much more common name Ava.
More bird (or similar nature-y) names/nicknames?
The first nickname that comes to mind for me is Jay. Could be short for Jane, James, Janelle, Janine, Jason, Jaqueline…
Or Linnet. I’m not sure what it would be short for, though. Maybe something ending with -lyn, like Jocelyn or Marilyn? Or I could see it possibly working as a nickname for Lenora.
Wren and Lark are AMAZING nicknames for Katherine and Hilaria – you can hear it once you’ve heard it, but neither is at all obvious. In the same way, I think you could get to Dove from Daphne.
It really suits them, too. And in Little Women, when Beth tells Jo she’s a gull, Meg’s a turtledove, and Amy’s a lark…it just made me love it all the more.
Is this just for girls?
Frances or Felicity nn Finch
Dorothy nn Dee or Chickadee
Henrietta nn Hawk or Lady Hawk
Sarah or other S name nn Swift
Boys too!
My husband’s name is Robert, and my nickname for him is Bird, but I might start calling him Robin too :) I love this question!
Gulliver nn Gull
Josephine nn Jay
Dolores or Dorothy nn Dove, or for a boy: Donovan nn Dove
Luna nn Loon
Bridget nn Birdie
Christopher nn Crow
Meredith / Meranda / Esmeralda nn Merle
Estelle / Estella / Stella nn Starling
Brandon / Brandall nn Bran
Victoria nn Rhea
Spencer nn Sparrow / Snipe
Theodore nn Thrush
Truman nn Tern
Starling is a great suggestion!
I think Stella etc with a nickname of Starling is brilliant!
Elisabeth nn Birdie (from Betsy/ Betty)
Davina nn Dove
Paloma nn Dove (from meaning)
Henry nn Hawk (from Hank)
Stella or Estelle nn Starling
Donald nn Ducky (although I think any D name, preferably Irish, works – like Declan nn Ducky)
Connor nn Crow
Oliver or Oleander nn Owl
Susannah nn Swan
Rupert nn Robin (another form of Robert)
Our daughter’s name starts with a J and we call her J-bird/Jaybird. One of her teachers calls her Jailbird, but in a sweet way. Ha.
Margaret -> Magpie
Edward -> Eider
Catherine-> Catbird
Philip-> Pipit
Peter-> Pitta
Finn-> Finch
Teal, Verdin, Bluebird, all seem like they could fit somewhere. I’ve definitely seen pigeon/pidge as a term of endearment.
For us, Phoebe became Phoebert/Phoebird/Bird. We weren’t aware of the bird until after we put it on our list, but it helped make the decision!
P.S. I meant we weren’t aware at first that the phoebe is actually a type of bird.
I love Dorothy with your sister set and Dorothy as a way to Dove!
Dorothy Vera
Dorothy Verona
Dorothy Valentine
Dorothy Vivian
Dorothy Venetia
Would it work with Theodora, do you reckon?
Harriet – Heron? Especially Harriet Anne. Or Sharon/Aaron – Heron
Dominic – Dove
Gillian – Gull
Finn/Finley – Finch
Elaine/Lorraine – Crane
Paul – Pollywog
Other Wrens: Laurence, Renata, Randolf/Randall, Elowen
Other Larks: Lara, Laurel maybe
I really love Daphne – Dove and Susanna – Swan from others’ comments.
Jonah means dove in Hebrew. Fun fact: Dov is also a Hebrew name that means bear!
Dove could also be short for Davia (DAH-vee-uh).
I like Sparrow as a standalone name. I guess it could be a nickname for a longer S name… Sophronia?
I’ve met people nicknamed Ren, short for Oren and Lauren. And recently heard about someone named Heron, nicknamed Bird.
Ravenna could become Raven.
Or Finley to Finch.
I’ve always known that Birdie was a nickname for Virginia, but I don’t see that one on anyone else’s list yet.
I always liked Dickie (dickie bird) as a nickname for Richard on a little boy, but of course it pretty unusable these days (at least in the US).
Robin for Robert is also adorable.
Maybe as historic novel character names, I can totally picture two little boys from 100+ years ago named Robert and Richard – Robin and Dickie *swoon*
I have a Carolyn I sometimes call Caro-Sparrow or just Sparrow.
I don’t have a suggestion, but I wanted to say that my son is named Callum, and Callum means “dove,” because it commemorates the Latin name Columba. So maybe there could be some kind of girl name derived from that, where Dove becomes the nickname.
Oooh…
Susanna / Suzanne > Swan
Olivia > Owl
I like your suggestion of Theodora (or Theodore) Dove best, mostly because it follows from the ending, unlike most nicknames, which matches Wren & Lark. It’s a fun challenge, so I’ll stick to one-syllable bird names that come from endings/mids:
Crane: Magdalene, Thackeray
Crow: Woodrow, Thurlow, Ricardo, Roscoe, Shiloh, Jericho
Dove: Alfredo, Fernando, Leonardo, Orlando, Malcolm (Colm = dove)
Finch: Griffin, Augustin, Adalyn, Gwendolyn
Goose: Lucius, Lucia
Gull: Dougall, Ferguson, Nigel/Nigella
Hawk: Murdoch, Bradshaw, Macaulay
Merle: Esmerelda, Palmer, Cameron
Swan: Antoinette
With sisters Katherine ‘Wren’ and Hilaria ‘Lark’, my faves are Thackeray ‘Crane’, Griffin ‘Finch’, Antoinette ‘Swan’ and Esmerelda ‘Merle.’
In my high school I had a friend named Nadav, and his family called him Dove.
It’s why Elizabeth is so high up my list – so I could use Birdie as a nickname. I just love all the nicknaming capabilities of Elizabeth!