Hypocoristic

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A hypocoristic (or hypocorism) is a lesser form of the given name used in more intimate situations, as a term of endearment, a pet name. Often generated as

a reduction of a longer word to a single syllable, then adding -y or -ie to the end, such as movie ('moving picture'), telly ('television') or Aussie ('Australian').
a contracted form of a given name, such as Tony from Anthony or Vicky from Victoria.
a baby-talk form approximating the name's pronunciation, such as Bess for Elizabeth.
a given name with a diminutive suffix; in some languages diminutive forms of names are used primarily when referring to children and the meaning can oscillate between tenderness and condescension when used for an adult.
- -ito/-ita or -ín/-ina in Spanish, such as Juanita from Juana. Extra consonants may be interposed as in Carmelina and Carmencita from Carmen, or merged, as in Carmina.
- -chen, -lein (making the word extremely cute), -(l)i (usually used with names) in German, such as Hündchen or Hündlein (from 'Hund', meaning dog) or Kalli (from 'Karl', a name), normally accompanied by a change of the vowel to ü, ö or ä, respectively (e.g. Hund - Hündchen, Arm - Ärmchen, Holz, Hölzchen).
- a similar form, -etto/-etta, in Interlingua.
- a parallel construction in Portuguese, with -inho/-inha, as in Aninha from Ana and Joãozinho from João.
- same in Italian and Italian regional languages, with -ino/-ina and -etto/etta as in Paolino/Paoletto and Paolina/Paoletta from Paolo and Paola. There are also -ello/-ella, as in Donatello/Donatella from Donato and Donata, -uccio/-uccia, as in Guiduccio from Guido. The forms -uzzo/-uzza, as in Santuzza from Santa, are typical of Sicilian dialect.
- -ĉj- and -nj- affixes (for males and females respectively) in Esperanto.
- -chan, -tan, or -pi in Japanese, such as Kana-chan from Kana and Aki-chan from Akihiro. Gemination (doubling) of the consonant or lengthening of the vowel before the -chan to provide two moras is common, such as Settchan from Setsuko and Hii-chan from Hiroki.
- reduplication in various languages, such as John-John or Didi.
- the addition of a word-final very high tone, or changed tone, in Cantonese and related dialects, sometimes in combination with the addition of the mid-toned prefix a before the name.

As evident from the above-mentioned examples, hypocoristics frequently demonstrate (indirectly) a phonological linguistic universal (or tendency) for high-pitched sounds to be used for smaller creatures and objects (here as more "cute" or less imposing names). Higher-pitched sounds are associated with smaller creatures due to the fact that smaller creatures can only make such high frequency sounds given their smaller diaphragm sizes.

The word "hypocoristic" is used as a noun or adjective in English; some other languages prefer to use the original Greek word "hypocoristicon" as a noun. The noun "hypocoristicon" seems to be rarely used in English.