On: Surnames from nicknames nobody has any more

[ninalanyon]

> a lot of people don't realize Harry is a nickname

Does no one know Shakespeare any more?

  I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
  Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
  Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
  Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

[randomcarbloke → ninalanyon]

Familiar in his mouth as household words Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.

[Anthony-G → ninalanyon]

I had actually read Henry IV, Part 1 in school many decades ago but in that play the young prince Henry was (mostly) called Hal – not to be confused with his opponent, Henry Percy, better known as Harry Hotspur.

Off-topic: I wonder if this the first recorded use of the phrase “the game’s afoot”?