Posted by Robert Hill on May 31, 2012 at 13:32:02 user eclrh.
In Reply to: Re: Nancy/Ruth posted by LukeDolman on May 31, 2012 at 05:39:18:
The idea that Nancy might have been an actual given name of Ruth Blackett had never occurred to me before.
Offhand I can't think of anywhere in the series where we learn a second forename of any character, though the dedication of Peter Duck gives us Ted Walker's full initials.
Many common forenames arose as contractions or familiar forms of other forenames, and then came to be regarded as separate names. Nancy arose as a version of Anne or Agnes.
The OED records nancy-boy from 1927, as meaning an effeminate man or boy or a male homosexual, and records nancy from 1888 with a similar meaning, and from 1819 as meaning the buttocks. It also has other variants, some with earlier dates.
We've noted before that many of the character names have rude meanings: John, Titty, Roger, Nancy, Dick.