Nicknames in the First Century

According to Wikipedia, nicknames started around 1303 a.d., but as usual, history was written by the victors, or in this case, yet again, the Gentiles. The Tetrarch Herod Antipater was called "Antipas" for short, Joseph ben Caiaphas was mockingly called "Ha-Koph," which means "the Monkey," and Nicodemus ben Gurion was affectionately referred to as "Buni." "Shlomo" has been around forever as a nickname for "Shelomon," which is Aramaic for "Solomon" and you can bet that the name "Saul" was yet another nickname for "Solomon." Even our hero, Yehoshua bar Yosef, was nicknamed "Yeshua," or "Jesus" for short.  Nowadays, the name "Yehoshua," which is Aramaic for "Joshua" would be shortened to a simple "Josh."  Can you imagine "Josh the Savior?"  (By the way, the early Catholic Church substituted the Gentile names "Paul" and "James" for the very Hebrew-sounding names "Solomon" and "Jacob" as a way of distancing their saints from their Jewish roots. But that's the subject for a whole new rant.)