the.com/nick
the name you get so people stop calling you the other, longer name.
means a shortened or affectionate alternative form of a given name, or, as a verb, to steal something small or graze it slightly.
from from middle english nekename, misheard through 'an ekename' as 'a nekename' — ekename meaning additional name, from eke, to add. the verb sense of stealing or cutting comes separately from old english/germanic roots meaning a small notch or precise cut.
nick of timeoriginally meant the exact precise notch, not luck
in the nickbritish slang for prison, since the 1800s
old nickcenturies-old nickname for the devil himself
for instance
nick fury — marvel's eyepatched spy chief, first appeared 1963
nick carraway — narrator of the great gatsby, 1925
saint nicholas — 4th-century bishop who became santa's nickname source