We can make names themselves into endearments by employing various adornments — changing regular names in little ways that seem to mean something like “you are adorable.” We can do this by adding letters to the end of the name (“Moshe” to “Moishele”), changing endings so that they end in “y” sounds (“Dov” to “Dovi”), shortening them (from “Avraham” to “Avrum”), and so on.
The endearment is endearing, building feelings of affection between the parties. In fact, using endearments consciously is an effective relationship-building tool within the family. “Would you like some coffee, dear?”
Note that people tend to use neither endearments nor adornments when expressing displeasure. They may use the person’s formal full name that is otherwise never employed, as in “Avraham Tzvi Yehuda Blumenthal, you put that hammer down right now!”
Names can also be used to create distance and even animosity. Name-calling by frustrated siblings is a common example of this phenomenon.
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