Let’s say you like the idea of the name True…but you’d prefer that it be a nickname as opposed to a legal name.
Which names out there can be shortened to the nickname “True”?
Let’s start with the most popular options. Each of these saw enough usage last year to be included in the 2018 baby name data, though none of them were common enough to make the top 1,000:
- Truman comes from an English surname that was originally a nickname for a trustworthy man (trewe means “faithful, trustworthy” in Middle English).
- Truett & Truitt are also English surnames. They were derived from the place name Trewhitt, which is thought to be made up of the Old Norse word tyri, “resinous pine-wood,” and the Old English word wiht, “river bend.”
- Gertrude can be traced back to the Germanic words ger, “spear,” and trut, “beloved, dear” — though some sources say the second element is thrud, meaning “strength.” Variant forms include Gertrud and Gertrudis.
- Trudy & Trudie are diminutive forms of Gertrude or any other –trud(e) name, such as Ermintrude, Hiltrude, or Irmtrude.
The names below have been in the data historically, but none made the cut last year specifically. In fact, several are one-hit wonders.
| Etrulia | Ortrude* | Truby | Trucilla |
| Truda | Trudell | Trudence | Trudis* |
| Trudith | Truel | Trula | Truma |
| Trumaine | Trunell | Trunetta | Trusha |
Which of the –tru– names above do you like best?
*Just so happens that Ortrude and Trudis were both 1916 one-hit wonders inspired by literature.
