Most English-speaking Americans are familiar with the ways in which nicknames and diminutives are formed in the U.S. Typically, the last syllable is removed and sometimes the long e sound is appended to make it diminutive. For example, "Joseph" is truncated to "Joe", and the long e sound is added to form "Joey".   Anglo-Saxon names often change the first letter of a diminutive. Robert becomes Rob becomes Bob becomes Bobby; William becomes Will becomes Bill becomes Billy; Richard becomes Rich becomes Rick becomes Dick.

Any American can easily identify that Dick is short for Richard, but that convention is not at all obvious to the non-English speaker.