1930s: from Little Tich, stage name of Harry Relph (1868–1928), an English music-hall comedian of small stature. He was given the nickname because he resembled Arthur Orton, the Tichborne claimant (see Orton, Arthur).

• Harry Relph (1868–1928), was a diminutive English music-hall artist whose stage name was ‘Little Tich’. He acquired the nickname as a child because of a resemblance to Arthur Orton, notorious as ‘the Tichborne claimant’. Orton had returned to England from Australia in 1866 claiming to be Roger Charles Tichborne, the heir to a title and estate who had been lost at sea, but was eventually tried and imprisoned for perjury. In the First World War British soldiers began to use tich or titch as a name for a small person. Titchy developed from this in the mid 20th century.