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[Opinions] Can Rune/Rue be a nickname for Veronica?
Like many people on these sites, I'm a writer. I really like the names Rune and Rue on my character but there aren't a lot of names that go with either of those. The character comes from a Christian family, so that narrows my search even more. So, my question is, could Rune or Rue be a nickname from the "Ron" part of Veronica or would it just be too much of a stretch? I guess it would sorta be like Tony from Anthony.

This message was edited 11/30/2014, 8:10 PM

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I think Rune/ Rue for Veronica is too much of a stretch. Unless there's someone with a speech problem who keeps saying Veroonica instead of Veronica, or as an inside joke.But Tony from Anthony isn't. In many languages, the form of Anthony doesn't have an h; Antonio, Anton. English is one of a small handful of languages that has the th sound.
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I think that Rune and Rue are too much of a stretch. Veronica is a lovely name, though.
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Tony is often a nickname for Anthony because the British pronunciation is An-tony, as well as Italian American families Anglicizing the original Antonio. However, like Peggy or Sadie or Bess for Margaret or Sarah or Elizabeth, Tony is a traditional nickname. Rune/Rue is not.As far as I can tell, Rune/Rue would only work for Veronica if you're pronouncing it Ve-roon-ica. Otherwise it'll be confusing. Ramona might work as a full name.
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Well, Rune would be an out-of-place nickname for someone who is Christian-religious. Mostly because Rune (though applicable to all ancient faiths) are generally associated with Paganism in literature. Rue is also a sad meaning, which is not likely something Christian parents would use. But, either could technically work despite the unlikelihood, especially if the nickname was used to demonstrate a streak of rebellion in the character. I like the nickname - though it is a stretch from Veronica. If you could give it a decent back story (little brother caller her va-roon-ka, because he couldn't pronounce it and it evolved into simply roo or roon, Rue/Rune...) it could work for a written piece. Tony from Anthony doesn't change the base sound, which is why it works naturally. Especially since some accents pronounce Anthony as an-ton-ee. If it were me, and I didn't have a backstory to easily explain the nickname... I would pick something other than Veronica.
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Maybe Rue, but it's a stretch. Rune from Veronica is...awful. First of all, Rune is a masculine name and it doesn't sound anything like Veronica AT ALL. Ron or Ronnie makes more sense than both Rue and Rune. Or Vera, Nica, Roni ?
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Anthony was pronounced Antony until very recently, so the Tony nickname makes sense. Plus it's got historical usage. Rue / Rune doesn't have a connection to Veronica. You could use Ruth, that makes sense.
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I think it's too much of a stretch, especially for a character. It would seem to me like the author really wanted to name the character Rue or Rune, but was just ... sort of afraid to, and thought way too hard about it. I'd rather just see the character named Rue, with no explanation.Ruth, Jerusha, Prudence, Ruby, Gertrude
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Ruth, Ruby, and Prudence all seem like great solutions for this dilemma.
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Well, in some places Anthony is pronounced Ann-tony... so I'm not sure if it is completely the same. Rue & Rune both seem a bit of a stretch for me. Rue I could see being short for Ruth... which would probably fit in a Christian family.
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