Proper noun

1. . Also used as a pet form of Henry and Harold.

Quotations

• Yet weep that Harry's dead, and so will I;

  But Harry lives that shall convert those tears

  By number into hours of happiness.

• 1830 Mary Russell Mitford, Our Village: Fourth Series: Cottage Names:

  Henry now, what a soft swain your Henry is! the proper theme of gentle poesy; a name to fall in love withal; devoted at the font to song and sonnet, and the tender passion; a baptized inamorato; a christened hero. Call him Harry, and see how you ameliorate his condition. The man is free again, turned out of song and sonnet and romance, and young ladies' hearts. Shakspeare understood this well, when he wrote of prince Hal and Harry Hotspur. To have called them Henry would have spoiled both characters.