Imagine a Japanese learnin English who would like to check the following nick names in a dictionary thinking they are just common nouns. What would they find ? Sometimes it is necessary to think about the meaning in British English (BrE).

Art : oh, I like arts too
Bill : bill of rights, electricity bill ?
Kit : tookit, Kit-kat ?
Kitty : Kitty-chan !!
Cliff : cliffhanger, definitely
Kris : dictionary says "Malay/Indonesian dagger with wavy edged blade", sounds dangerous.
Gene : DNA ?
Ginger : the gingerbread man !
Sue : probably a lawyer
Stew : I love beef stew !
Chuck : Don't chuck that at me !
Dick : no comment
Fanny (vagina in BrE)
Randy : Let me introduce you to my randy friend.. erh, I mean my friend Randy.
Nick (means "prison" in BrE)
Mat : table or door mat ?
Rod : must belong to a fisherman (I wouldn't want to be named Rod Fisher )
Ray : the rays of the sun warm my heart
Barby : like the doll or the adj. of barber ?
Herb : ok you can smoke, but don't abuse.
Pat (offensive term for an "Irishman" in BrE)

Now imagine our Japanese learning English is just hearing these names. What will it sound to his/her ears ?

Doug => dog ?
Brad => blood ? (Brad Pitt > blood pit, eurk !)
Rick => lick ?

With a bit a (superfluous) logic, the same Japanese person will try to imagine the possible inflexion of the word not found in his/her dictionary.

Hatty => must be the adjective of hat
Dolly => same for "doll" (my friend Barby is so dolly !).
Connie => adjecive of con artist ?
Sadie => I feel so sadie today...
Carrie => must be the singular of caries
Bab => must be short for baboon, babylon or baba
Hal => halal ?