Phonetically, I’m called Ee-vah (long e sound), Ay-vah (long a sound), Ay-fah (German pronunciation), Ay-fee, Eh-vah, Ee-vee, and even just plain E by a sibling. You would think that should be pretty simple. Nope, just three letters and no middle name.
It’s is not a shortened version of Evaline, Evangeline, or Eva-Marie. My name is short-only three letters-E-V-A. Do parents feel like they’ve gotten the name choice wrong? What about completely unrelated nicknames like Buddy or Cookie. At least those are somewhat related to the original names. An “i,” “y,” or “ie” gets added to change Paul to Paulie, Patricia to Patty, or Charles to Charlie. Parents earnestly deliberate over what to name their child only to have their Anthony become Tony, John become Jack (I could never figure that one out), Allison to Ally, Elizabeth to Liz, Lizzie, or Beth. I’ve often wondered why people shorten names or have nicknames.
