The term nickname came from the wrong division of the phrase an ekename. Eke is an Old English suffix/word meaning "additional". A few other common English words came about this way, such as:
apron (a napron, "small tablecloth" --> an apron),
newt (an ewt, "lizard" --> a newt),
umpire (a naumpere, "arbiter" --> an aumpire),
ammunition (French la munition, "weaponry" --> l'amunition),
lone (al one, "completely one" --> a lone [one used to rhyme with cone, bone, loan, etc])
Ned (mine Ed --> my Ned)
Nan (mine Ann --> my Ann)
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