How Aussies Shorten Names — Stevo, Bazza, Shazza Explained

Australians are famous for shortening just about everything. From arvo (afternoon) to barbie (BBQ) to Stevo (Steve), this love of nicknames runs deep in Australian culture. Linguists call these forms hypocoristics — and Australian English uses more of them than any other variety of English.

Three suffixes dominate. Once you know the patterns, you can guess the nickname for almost any short Aussie name.

The -o suffix

The most iconic of the lot. Take a short masculine name, drop any trailing 'e', add an 'o'. Almost any one-syllable bloke ends up with one of these on the building site or at the pub.

Beyond names, the same suffix gives us the iconic Aussie vocabulary: arvo (afternoon), servo (service station), bottle-o (liquor store), garbo (garbage collector), ambo (paramedic), journo (journalist), rego (registration), smoko (smoke break).

The -zza suffix

For names with an R sound after the first vowel — Barry, Gary, Sharon, Terry — Aussies double down on the consonant and append -zza. The result rhymes and rolls off the tongue.

Internationally, Bazza was popularised by the satirical character Barry McKenzie; Gazza came to British attention via footballer Paul Gascoigne. Both originated in Australian usage.

The -bo suffix

Less common, but distinctively Aussie when it appears. Used mostly on monosyllabic names that end in 'm'.

Why do we do this?

Linguists Anna Wierzbicka and Roland Sussex have argued that Australian hypocoristics serve as solidarity markers — a way of signalling "we're mates, we're close enough to use casual forms". The 19th-century working-class Irish-Australian milieu is often cited as the cultural source: a place where formality was suspect and easy familiarity was prized.

These nicknames aren't just informal slang. You'll hear them in workplaces from building sites to government offices, in headlines about "Tony Abbo" or "Albo" (former PMs Tony Abbott and Anthony Albanese), and across Australian sport, music, and television.

Browse names with Aussie nicknames

371 names in our database carry at least one classic Aussie nickname. Tap any to see the breakdown.