Nicknames

When I was in high school, I had a friend named Molly and I remember being shocked when I learned that that was her whole name. I've been doing a bit of research on names and am surprised by the popularity of nicknames as given names.

According to the Social Security's list of the top 1000 names of 2008, the following names are fairly popular given names:

• Jack (#39)
• Jake (#112)
• Andy (#211)
• Frank (#278)
• Charlie (#307)
  
• Danny (#330)
• Chris (#348)
• Ricky (#365)
• Larry (#375)
• Joe (#411)
• Sam (#458)

• Molly (#104)
• Kate (#139)
• Ellie (#167)
• Maggie (#214)
  
• Abby (#259)
• Angie (#340)
• Annie (#392)

This is not a new phenomenon — almost all of these names were also in the top 500 in 1908. I guess I just didn't realize just how many people named "Abby" or "Jack" aren't really Abigails or Johns.