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Weird abbreviations

Nic

Nic

Strata Poster
In another topic said:
he sends an email to multiple people with their @hants.gov.uk email address
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Now, as we all know, this refers to Hampshire. What I've never got is why some of the counties are abbreviated in this way?

Most counties' abbreviations are just the first few letters then an s on the end (Berks, Herts, Lancs etc). Middlesex turning into Middx is logical (just remove a few letters from the middle) but it doesn't fit the pattern of the others. Turning 'shire' into 'ants' (as in Hants and Northants) makes absolutely no sense to me at all!

However, the one that totally baffles me is Oxfordshire which becomes Oxon. WTF?!

Its the same for names. These days, the vast majority of people will choose a nickname which is just a shortened version of their own name (ie Christopher/Chris, Steven/Steve, Kathryn/Kat etc etc). However, it didn't always used to be this way. Some of the traditional nicknames have always totally baffled me. Like William becoming Bill for example? I guess the 'ill' makes sense, but where the hell did the B come from?

Daisy, Dolly and Peggy were all traditional nicknames for ladies called Margaret. Huh?!

Can anyone come up with any other good examples? Can you help to explain this nonsense? Do you just think I'm talking total balls and should shut the hell up? Speak now! :)
 
You don't speak balls, you speak clit.

Anyway, Hampshire is shortened to Hants because the Anglo-Saxons called it "Hamtunschire" and it was referred to "Hants" in the Doomsday Book. I looked this up the other week funnily enough when I was bored at work!

It's probably the same for Oxon etc.
 
My gran is Peggy (Margaret) and my Grandad was Bill (William), though he was always called Sonny by his family (his sisters Diddle (Edith) and Daisy (Daphne) ).

So yeah, it's very silly. I think with names, it's probably mostly to with famous nick names. Henry V was known at the time regularly as King Harry. I don't know if Henry was the French equivalent of Harold?

Salop is what Shropshire was known as until about 1980. It was changed because the original was a Saxon version of Shropshire, but the Normans couldn't pronounce it, so just said Salopsheer (kind of thing) which was shortened to Salop.
 
Just thought of one, Geordies call Newcastle Brown Ale, "dog".

So using that logic, do they rightly call Queen of Chav Cheryl Cole a "Newkie brown"?
 
^Heh, very good.

I remember an old skool Harry Hill episode when he wished there was a county Pampshire, so you could call it "Pants".
 
I always did wonder why Hampshire was shortened to Hants.

Same as Portsmouth is often shortened to Pompey (not referring to the Roman emperor) but came from shipping when captains used to sign their logs as Pom.P in reference to Portsmouth Point and grew from that.
 
Ian said:
Just thought of one, Geordies call Newcastle Brown Ale, "dog".
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They do?

Never heard that before and I work in Newcastle. Why is it that everyone know more about where I live then I do?
 
^ I gleamed that information from the back of a Newkie Brown bottle.
 
<3 The information on the yellow label! <3

I've heard it called Tyneside Dishwater more times than Dog though.

I don't have any weird ones that I can think of presently (well, CFers notwithstanding of course!), but the abbreviation of the Hispania F1 Racing Team to HRT always makes me LOL! :P
 
My nan was called Polly, but her real name was Mary Selina Goatcher.

My dad was called Harry but his real name was Leslie Edward.

Neither have every made sense to us.

My Grandad was called Jock when his real name was Charles William Smith, but it was his dad that was Scottish.
Also his sister was called Jean but her real name was Jane Thomson Aitken Smith. Apparently Jean is the English for Jane.
 
This thread reminds me of a Hey Arnold Episode, the one where they try to break a world record. And they try to make a giant pizza. Whilst being cooked it starts to expand. They had to multiply all the ingredients by about 20 from a small pizza. Cut a long story short, they ask Sid if he remembered to put in 20 teaspoons of puree instead of 1 or something in that region. "Teaspoons?" - "Yeah, what else did you think tsp stood for?" Shot of the pizza about to explode, and Sid looking horrified replies - "Ten square pounds!" Then the pizza explodes everywhere, hilarious.
 
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