"Anakin" as a name, is totally awesome. "Anakin Skywalker" has a nice ring to it. It's has this archaic sense to it that seems to me to fit well in the SW universe.

"Ani", however, is a terrible nick name for the handsome rogue jedi. I once tried to think of other solutions to this nick name problem and, unfortunately, "Anakin" doesn't seem to provide a lot of diminutive options.

But on my drive to work this morning... I thought of Obi-Wan -> Ben and how little sense that makes etymologically speaking... yet how much sense it makes on an emotional level.

So what kind of nick name can you come up with for "Anakin" that doesn't royaly screw up the feel of the character?

My best effort in the matter would have to be Anakin -> aNakin -> aNikin -> Nik. Nik name? Get it? Nik is obvoiusly a derivation of the English name Nick... but Ben & Luke are English names as well, right?

Still, it doesn't feel quite right to me. Any other stabs?