I came across an interesting origin for the word “nazi” here: http://www.faktoider.nu/nazi_eng.html

OED agrees:

The term was originally used by opponents of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and may have been influenced by Bavarian Nazi, a familiar form of the proper name Ignatius and used to refer to or characterize an awkward or clumsy person. The German form Inter-Nazi (shortened < Internationale INTERNATIONALE n.) which is attested much earlier may also have contributed to the adoption of the term Nazi.

Interesting indeed; thanks for the post.

a familiar form of the proper name Ignatius

Why “Ignatius” rather than Ignatz, I wonder?

I’m guessing it’s because Bavaria is heavily Catholic.

But German Wikipedia says: ”Nazi war ursprünglich eine Koseform des Vornamens Ignaz, der in Bayern und Österreich häufig war.” I suspect the OED is just being stuffy.

Oh, right.  I missed that Ignaz is a shortened version of Ignatius. Perhaps you’re right about the OED.

Great comment by Moacir in my thread about this:

This means, then, that “Nazi” is a cognate of “Nacho.”