nm

While many given names have been abbreviated for conventional tonguespeak, these contractions are usually not optimal the textual communcation, arguably the prevalent mode of discourse in contemporary digital society. A printed word needs to be identifiable, but not necessarily pronounceable. This means that the internal vowels can be omitted while a couple of key consonants are left in place. Secondly, nicknames will no longer be required to start with an upper case letter, as that requires an extra keystroke. By convention, feminine names will be shortened to three letters, as they are more numerous and lengthier, while masculine names will be shortened to a pair of characters. (An 'o' may be appended to select Masculine names to indicate Mediterranean origin).

For example:

Paul -> pl; Paula -> pla;

Robert (-> Rob/Bob) -> rb; Roberta -> rba

Bartholomew (-> Bart) -> bl

Genevieve (-> Gen) -> gnv

Mohammad -> mm/ma/mu/mh/md

Obviously, there are a limited number of combinations to go around, but most of the common names will receive an abbreviation.