Why are person's whose first name is Robert, called Bob, William is shortened to

Question:

Why are person's whose first name is Robert, called Bob, William is shortened to Bill, Richard, is called Dick

You would think Robert would be Rob, William - Will, and Ricahard would be Ric; but this is not the norm across the country and I was wondering about the origin of the name and the shortenings of them. Etomology would be a good start and country origin would be a great place to start but I'm not sure where to look on the internet for this background. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Maybe a history would direct me to an answer of when this started, where, and why.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Well Bob, Bill, are all newer shortening of those names. Pretty much created with in the last century or so as names migrated between different languages and pronunciations.

Well in Medieval times people used Rob along with things like Hob, Nob, Dob, and other similiar rhyming nicknames to shorten Robert. Bob is of Dutch origin I think, as is more recent, but still at least two hundred years or so old.

Bill is believed to be the result of an Irish mispronunciation of Will, as well as changes made in the early 19th century as immigrants flooded into the US, accents and general language barrier problems resulted in changes in spelling and pronuciation of alot of names.

Dick actually comes from medieval times and was the result of the way Rich was pronounced by the Normans.

Note of course I'm not an expert on the topic, jsut a hobby, so I could be off on some of this.