🔗 Weird Medieval Guys: How birds got human names

Magpies were originally known simply as “pies” until the nickname “Mag”, short for Maggie, short for Margaret was added to the front sometime in the Middle Ages. Before it began to be treated as a single word, it was rendered as “Mag Pie”, a sort of fanciful full name for the creature.

Fascinating. This is, shall we say, the “money” quote of the linked post, but the rest is still quite an interesting read.