View Message

Nicknames for Temperance (eta)
Okay, hipster alert. I liked it before it hit the top 1000. But whatever. I'm thinking about nicknames for Temperance and having a bit of difficulty. The only one I've come up with that I like is Peri. Temp (and Tempy too) sounds awkward to me. Any suggestions?ETA: Also rather like Emmy.

This message was edited 5/17/2012, 12:53 AM

Archived Thread - replies disabled
vote up1

Replies

Where I'm from, northern New Jersey, there is a minor local legend about a girl named Tempe (pronounced TEMP-ee) Wicke. During the Revolutionary War, she lived in a house in Jockey Hollow, near Morristown. The house is still standing. The legend is that one day she was out on her fine horse, and ran across some soldiers who made it clear that they intended to take her horse. She got away from them and galloped off, but she knew that they would follow her and take the horse, so she hid the horse inside the house. The house is now called The Tempe Wicke house.I've always been surprised that such a minor occurrence spawned a legend--it's not that heroic or clever to hide a horse inside a house--but for whatever reasons, it did.It's assumed that in the case of Tempe Wicke, Tempe was short for Temperance. Apparently there's no documentation of her full name being Temperance, but it seems likely.So you can see that Tempe as a nickname for Temperance was in use during the eighteenth century. As a result it doesn't sound awkward at all to me. It's intuitive and it trips right off the tongue. I like Temperance,also, and if I were ever to use it, I'd happily use the nickname Tempe. I do prefer the spelling Tempe to Tempy.
vote up1
I really like Emmy, definitely not a stretch, the name has an 'Em' sound in it!I was discussing names with a friend from college, and I like Temperance too, and when I said this she revealed it had been her grandmother's name. She went by Penny, not an obviously nickname, but apparently her gran came up with it when playing about with the letters in the name. She was creating words, trying to find a nickname she liked, and when the word 'Pen' came out of it she decided on Penny. Quite novel I thought!
vote up1
I would consider Penny an unrelated nickname for Temperance. I'd consider it a nickname for Temperance the same way that my father's nickname was Bud and his real name was Joseph, and my SO's nickname was Buster and his real name is Kenneth. Actually, purists differ in the definition of "nickname" from the way it is used here. To them, a nickname such as Joe for Joseph and Sue for Susan is a "pet form", because they spring from the elements of the name itself, and names such as Bud for Joseph and Buster for Kenneth are actually "nicknames" because they are a totally unrelated stand-in for the name itself.Penny just isn't intuitive for Temperance. If you want Penny, why would you use Temperance? The two sound nothing alike and are not related and nothing in Temperance suggests Penny. Unless a Temperance in a family was being used for honoring purposes and there was a probability that two Temperances or Tempes would get mixed up (the reason my father got his nickname), I don't see the point.
vote up1
I did say it wasn't an obvious nickname for Temperance.However, my friend's grandma didn't like any of the intuitive nicknames for Temperance, hence why she played around to come up with something else!
vote up1
Ooooh. I love the nickname Penny! I'm neutral on Penelope, and Peninnah had my friends making "ninny" jokes, so that could be perfect. :)
vote up1
Is Tempe too "Bones" character?Peri is cute. Emmy seems a bit of a stretch.
vote up1
Tem? Temmy? Perry? To be honest they all seem a bit forced, especially Perry and Emmy. I like Tem and Temmy best, though. I think it's ugly as sin, no offense :P I don't get how it became so common, I guess a TV show character? I heard that Temprynce was also used last year. It looks like somehow didn't know how to spell the word. I once knew a Tempest, which sounds a bit similar and she was called Tem and Temmy sometimes.
vote up1
I like Perry. Em and Emmy wouldn't be too much of a stretch. And I think Tem is fine, but Temp is awks. Annie? Stretching?
vote up1
Tem. I think it's not bad!
vote up1