Not an antedating

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:47 PM -0500 11/6/03, Bethany K. Dumas wrote:
>On Thu, 6 Nov 2003, James A. Landau wrote:
>
>  >Now for my request to ADS-L:  can anyone provide a plausible feminine form
>>for "Josh"?
>
>What's wrong with Josh? I advised a female studet names Alex yesterday.
>(her name is Alex - it is not short for Alexandra or anything else.) These
>things start somewhere.
>

Yes, but where they usually start is indeed with a long form (like
"Alexandra") that motivates the original use of the hypocoristic.

Because I have too many things I'm supposed to be doing, I googled
"girl named Josh" and pulled up (among very few others):

"I actually do know a girl named Josh (short for, no lie, Joshuina)"

The other hits are less relevant:

"She had to use fake identification because a girl named Josh would
be a little suspicious"

i like being mysterious for your info.  besides. ok, i'ma girl if you
wanna, but a girl named josh? hmmmm...

As for Brittany and JC they were married and had two kids, a boy and
a girl named Josh and Samantha.

(--one assumes respectively).

larry