The two main female characters in the story that I'm working on are Rachael and Elizabeth. Elizabeth is easy, and has a lot of potential nick names: El, Elly, Liz, Liza, Lizzie, Beth, Bethie, etc. I think those carry over however you spell 'em. How would you spell "Rach" as short for Rachael? I read "Rach" as rhyming with "mach" but perhaps that's just me. I always had a problem with the spelling of "soc" for a nickname for...hmmm...socialite? I'm not really sure what it's an abbreviation of. It's pronounced "Sosh" with a long O. Always sticks for me, regardless. Some day, I'll name a protagonist "Mary" or "Jenny" and then I won't have to worry about this @#$#@. Thanks, C.
I did a couple of google searches, on Rache and Rach, The first gave me nothing helpful, but the Rach search immediately picked up several Rachel Ray references, in which she is frequently referred to as Rach. You can do similar searches on most nicknames. But really, nicknames are informal. People will spell them the easiest or most obvious way. Somewherfe there is probaly a girl who signs the notes she passes in class, "Rache."
Thanks, Mr. C. It's what seemed the most obvious to me, but I was ready to change the name of the character because I was worried abour "Rach" being pronounced as "Rock". And Rachael really works for this character. Google, google, google. Sheesh...some computer geek *I* am. Next time anyone asks, I will tell them I work at McDonald's >.>
I think that if you make it clear the character's name is Rachael at the beginning, readers will automatically read 'Rach' as sounding the same in the full-length version of her name. It's not actually uncommon for Rachael to be shortened that way, so I would say it's fairly safe to use it without fear of it being read incorrectly. One other suggestion would be to use the second half of her name and look for variations. 'Chelle' >? 'Chili' >?
Thanks for the variations! It's logical to me that different people would call her different things, and it'll be a great way to show who's speaking in a conversation without using speaker attributions.
I'm a Rach and there's always Charle (yes I know it's missing an a but you spelt my name wrong ) as an anagram if you want to be really fancy.
I used "Rachael" as a name once, and I turned it into the nickname "Roach." It doesnt have to be just a shortening of the name; you can be creative with your interpretations. Other ones I came up with are, of course, the standard "Rach" and "Rache." You could be really cheesy and use "Rachie" but I dont know how well that would fly. There's the monosyllabic "Ray." Does she have a last name or middle name you could combine the names with? I've heard "RJ" and "Ray-Jay" before. Also, look to her personality or group of friends --that's where I got the "Roach" nickname from... You dont seem to bad with nicknames yourself; "Mr C" made me smile. Mind if I steal it and act like I came up with that one on my own? Kidding. Sorta...
imo, if you, the writer, have to wonder and worry about it now, it'll definitely be a problem for some readers, so the name should be changed to avoid that... it's not going to ruin your story to give the character a name that can have a no-prob nickname!
To amplify Mercurial's point, be creative and make a memorable nickname. Who'd have thought someone named Andrew would become known as Ender? But the nickname was uniquely appropriate.
