The origin of nicknames

I have a colleague whose first name is Addy.

Someone emailing her the other day addressed her as “Anny.”

These things happen. And I should make clear that Addy did not take offense. Not at all. (You should hear some of the calls she gets. She is not thin-skinned.)

But now I face a challenge. How can I resist the temptation to start calling her “Anny”?

Well, for one thing, she doesn’t seem like an Anny. But isn’t this how a lot of nicknames get started?

About 30 years ago, during a heated game of Risk (the board game), I inexplicably called a nice guy named Steve “Stu.”

There might be those who still refer to him as such.

Have you ever launched a nickname that way or had one attached to you in like manner?