Fan Nickname/Real Life

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Fan Nickname in Real Life include:

Subpages

Celebrities

  • Maggie Trollsbane - For her massive popularity on IMDb.
  • In the fandom, Misha Collins is sometimes referred to as MishMish or "The Overlord". He encourages the latter.
  • Leona Helmsley was referred to as the "Queen of Mean" (see The Other Wiki for details)
  • In the various entertainment industries (i.e., not just one in particular), if the offspring of a previously (or even still) well-known celebrity becomes a celebrity in their own right, those unfamiliar (or even familiar) with the fame of the parent will often refer to the parent as "[offspring]'s [parent]". For example, Lionel Richie has been referred to by fans of his (adopted) daughter Nicole Richie as "Nicole's father".
  • Due to a prank that sparked an edit war over on The Other Wiki on the day his papacy was announced (and the fact that he and Ian McDiarmid look more than a little alike), the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is still called Pope Sidious in some parts of the interwebs.
    • Also Emperor Popeatine or Darth Benedict. (The resemblance sparked a lot of commentary.)
    • Due to his history in the Hitler Youth and somewhat strained relationships with some influential Jewish organizations, some people refer to him as "Pope Nazi".
  • capslock_atla has given M. Night Shyamalan, Director of the Avatar: The Last Airbender Live Action Adaptation The Last Airbender, some nicknames such as Shamwow, Shampow, Shamallama, Shamalamadingdong and Shamalamadingdongthewitchisdead. Recently, Shame-a-lon and Sham-a-lon have become appropriate.
  • It's very rare to find an account of Wild Bill Hickok's death or a discussion of his murderer without the phrase "the coward Jack McCall" coming up at least once.

Politics

  • British tabloid fans and the more lighthearted monarchy watchers are known to refer to Queen Elizabeth II with her tabloid nickname 'Brenda.'
    • To expand, after a BBC documentary was shown in 1969, Private Eye magazine gave each member of the Royal Family nicknames to suggest that they were characters in a soap opera. The Prince of Wales is "Brian", the Duke of Edinburgh is "Keith", the late Princess Margaret was "Yvonne" and the late Diana, Princess of Wales was "Cheryl".
  • Peter Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, of Foy in the County of Herefordshire and of Hartlepool in the County of Durham, PC aka "The Prince of Darkness" and "Mandy". (For the love of God, he's even a legitimate Baron! Therefore, now officially a 'Dark Lord'!)
    • There was even an instance where he autographed a fan's paper with the phrase 'from the Dark Lord'? Confirmation.

"Who made him a Lord?? The Sith?!!"

      • So perhaps now "Darth Mandy"?
  • Australian senator Stephen Conroy is often derisively referred to as "Conjob", due to his surprise plan (not mentioned during the election) to include a nationwide internet filter that the government will have complete control over. This, naturally, is one of his kinder nicknames.
  • Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been nicknamed K-Rudd - 'cause he's down with the youth, y'all.
    • His other nickname is the Ruddbot, due to his mannerisms and lack of personality.
      • Those who dislike him also favour "Kevin Dudd".
    • Some also call him Kevin07, the name of his 2007 Prime Ministerial campaign. Probably intentionally, said campaign name mutated memetically around Australia and gave rise to other nicknames punning upon it, including Kevin24/7 (after his public image of being a singlemindedly work-focused nerd) and Kevin747 (after the amount of international travel he did in his tenure).
  • George W Bush was referred to by his middle initial so people wouldn't get him confused with his father in conversation. It quickly degraded from 'double-you' to 'dubya'.
    • Wouldn't a Roman numeral after be more simply?
    • George Walker Bush (son) is a different name from George Herbert Walker Bush (father), so junior or II would not be appropriate. They are sometimes distinguished as "Bush 41" and "Bush 43", derived from their order as US Presidents.
    • Dave Barry nevertheless mockingly called him "George W. Bush, jr., III", in reference to George Washington and to his impaired relationship with 41, who always loved Jeb best, and to the many tyrannies of Mad King George III of England, as called out in The Declaration of Independence.
      • Dave Barry also called him 'George Herbert Walker Sputumhead Bush' more than once. That name stuck too.
    • Mollie Ivins called Bush "Shrub" in a book of the same name. Liberals everywhere started using it immediately afterwards.
    • Some British journalists called him "George Wanker Bush" or a starred version of same.
    • How could anyone ever forget "The Wushie"?
    • Some Conservatives upset with his softness on border issues took to calling him "Vicente Bush" or simply pronouncing the W as "doble-veh."
    • Bush himself tried to get people to know him as "The Decider," apparently unaware that nicknames don't work when they're self-given.
      • A few liberals liked these for entirely different reasons: to mock the fact that Bush is fluent in Spanish, but apparently not in English, despite the fact that English is his first language.
  • Das Governator, Der Gubernator: Arnold Schwarzenegger, who served as Governor of California from 2003 to 2011.
    • Shouldn't it be Der Governator? It's arguable. The robot Terminator was definitely an "it".
      • Yes, that's even his nickname in German news shows.
      • And specifically, the German terms for Governor (and the linguistically-borrowed term for Robot) are masculine nouns - so if it weren't sufficient that he has, you know, a Y chromosome, it would still be more accurate to use 'der' than 'das.'
      • "Das" sounds more German than "Der" to non-German speakers, unfortunately combining Gratuitous German with Rule of Funny.
    • He's also been called "Conan the Republican".
    • He's also been referred to as Herr Gropenfuhrer.
    • Since his recent lovechild scandal(and in reference to some of his more magnificently bastardish exploits) he's been referred to as Arnold/Tony Sopranonegger.
  • "Prick Perry" for Texas Governor, Jesus freak, and all-around tool Rick Perry.
    • Also Slick Rick and Governor Goodhair.
  • The king of Sweden is dyslexic, earning him the nickname "knugen" among the Swedes. "Knugen" being a jumbled up version of "kungen", which means "the king". (On occassion, he has also been referred to as "the knig" by Swedes talking about him in English)
    • Prince Carl Philip has also earned the not-so-distinguished nickname Calle-Phille, or simply CP.
  • 4th President of Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid, for some reason is usually referred as "Gus Dur". The current President Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is also affectionally having a nickname "SBY".
  • "Teabaggers" started out as a Fan Community Nickname for the American "Tea Party" movement until members caught on to the Double Entendre with the sexual act of teabagging.
  • Richard Nixon is almost just as commonly called Dick Nixon, or "Tricky Dick." He received that nickname back in 1950, when he ran for the Senate. The fact that the word also refers to a penis is not lost on the people who call him this.
    • Likewise, former VP Richard Cheney is almost never referred to as such, and critics of his often just call him "dick" as a loaded term, ie "That sure was nice of you to [do whatever action considered to be objectionable], dick."
  • Dutch prime minister J.P. Balkenende. Google an image of him to see why he was nicknamed Harry Potter.
  • Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the Information Minister under Saddam Hussein, was referred to by commentators as "Baghdad Bob" and "Comical Ali" for his famously messy press conferences where he would claim victory was imminent for Iraqi forces fighting against the United States of America, despite things like gunfire being audible in the distance as he talked.
  • In Italy, emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria's name was commonly Italianized to Francesco Giuseppe, which in turn was mockingly shortened to Cecco Beppe (Frank Joe in Italian). Austrian soldiers in WWI were called "Cecchini": this word is still in use in modern Italian, only with a different meaning - snipers.
  • Camillo Benso, count of Cavour, 19th century Italian politician and leading figure in the Italian unification, was affectionately called "papà Camillo" by the people of Turin. This is somewhat amusing, as students of history recognize him as a Magnificent Bastard paralleled in his time only by Bismarck.
  • Most major Nigerian political figures are discussed in the press and in public using usually jocular nicknames:
    • Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo is known as "Baba" for his public image as a domineering father-figure with no patience for opposition.
    • Ex-military Head of State and current presidential candidate Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida is "IBB" from his initials, but also "Maradona" for "dribbling" the nation with his doublespeak and broken promises.
    • Former military Head of State Sani Abacha was "The Basher" as a play on his surname and his harsh dictatorial style.
    • Late President Umaru Yar'Adua was "Baba Go-Slow" for his administration's seeming inaction on all issues (understandable considering the guy was secretly suffering from late-stage Churg-Strauss Syndrome, complete with multiple organ deterioration).
  • Canadian Prime Ministerial nicknames:
    • Sir John A MacDonald = "Old Tomorrow"
    • Louis Saint-Laurent = "Uncle Louis"
    • John George Diefenbaker = "Dief the Chief"
      • Also Diefenbalker.
    • Lester B. Pearson = "Mike"
    • Brian Mulroney = "Lyin' Brian"
    • Paul Martin = "Mister Dithers" (not because of his resemblance to the Blondie character, but because of his habbit of dithering.)
    • Stephen Harper = "Steve" (or "Steve-o)," mainly because of his much publicised hatred of the name when George W. Bush applied to him.
    • Jean Chretien always stylied himself "Le Petit Gars de Shawinigan" ("The Little Guy from Shawinigan"), but this was never really popularly used. The term "Shawinigan Handshake," however, is universally used to describe throttling a protestor with his bare hands.
  • Ronald Reagan earned the nickname "Teflon Ron" due to his ability to keep problems and scandals from sticking to him.
    • For similar reasons (and as a reference to his sexual proclivities), Bill Clinton was known as "Slick Willie".
  • Barack Obama has more nicknames than anyone can count. There's Lolbama, Obambi, Obama bin Laden, Osabama, Ogabe, Obimbo, Barry Soetoro, Comrade Obama, BO, Failbama, the Obamessiah (for his messianic portrayal of himself and of him by his supporters), Obamanation, Bam-Bam, and so on.
    • You forgot my favorite, ObaMao. Even used in China!
    • Barry Soetoro is more of a Conspiracy Theory bait than it is a fan nickname. Supposedly, Barack Obama is really Barry Soetoro, a Kenyan National brainwashed to become a manchurian candidate by the Democratic party. It spins off of an internet hoax on a fake birth certificate created by photoshoppers to troll Birthers like Orly Taitz. The fake was so real, it actually made its way around conspiracy circles, being mentioned on Alex Jones' infowars, Prison Planet, and Coast to Coast AM.
    • Obama-llama-ding-dong.
    • Obanana or just Mr Banana a few times.
    • Barack OBAMFa (Bad Ass Mother F*cker)
    • Mr. Long-legged MacDaddy.
    • Some people will content themselves with over-emphasizing his middle name, apparently believing they have a point.
    • Among fans of a certain tabletop game he is referred to as the Lord of Change.
    • Another recurring one is Barack Obana.
    • Obamasnow.
  • Donald Tsang, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, is often called "Bow-tie" thanks to his suit style preferences.
  • Current Florida Governor Rick Scott is sometimes referred to as Voldemort. It's not too hard to see why, though he's not just called that because of his looks.

Stephen Colbert: A 29% approval rating low. Though he'd probably be doing better if he wasn't trying to kill Harry Potter.

  • German Chancellors:
    • Angela Merkel: "Mutti", or "Mum". It's kind of flattering at first glance as the "mother to the people", but also has more negative implications of being both a patronizing matriarch and a simplistic housewife.
    • Gerhard Schröder: "Genosse der Bosse", "Comrade of the Bosses", for his rather Tony Blair-like departure from traditional leftism.
    • Helmut Kohl: "die Birne" (the Pear) after a carricature that pictured him as a pear with a face.
    • Konrad Adenauer: "der Alte" (the Old One, for being incredibly old—he was first elected at 73 and remained in power for 12 years)
  • Mexico:
    • Former President Felipe Calderon: "Fecal" (a combination of his first letters of his name and last name)
    • His successor Enrique Peña Nieto has LOTS of fan nicknames due of the tremendous hatedom he had: "Das Pena, Nieto" (Translated as "You Disappoint Me, My Grandson") plus others.
    • Current (as of 2022) president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, on his PRD presidential candidate days was known as "El Pejelagarto" (The Gar Fish) since he's from the Southern state of Tabasco and the gars are from that state, and due of his thick Southern accent. He's also nicknamed (in a very derogative way) as "El Pejendejo" ("The Gar-sshole").
    • Independent candidate Víctor González Torres: "Dr. Simi" (After the mascot of his chain of drugstores named "Farmacias Similares")
  • "Rick Sanatorium" for Rick Santorum, at least in Denmark. Probably popularized by the comedy section of the newspaper "Politiken". Used as a derogatory nickname, to ridicule his extremism.[1]
    • The other definition of "Santorum"... the mixture of lube and fecal matter

Military

Military technology is covered in nicknames, both official "Reporting Names" used for quick communication and unofficial nicknames. Some of the best...

  • Weapons:
    • In a somewhat morbid example (considering the reference point) a common nickname in the swedish military for Claymore-type mines is Lille Skutt.
    • The underslung grenade launcher for an M16, the M203, is named by soldiers as a forty mike mike.[2]
    • The Stielhandgranate 'stick grenades' of the Germans in WW 1 and WW 2 were nicknamed 'potato mashers'. Compare.
    • The BAR (Actually, M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle, which more or less makes the abbreviation a nickname anyway.) called the 'Big Ass Rifle'. The BAR fires the same rounds as the M1 Garand rifle, but is a bit larger in appearance, magazine size, and is automatic. And weighs more than twice as much as the Garand, which at 10 pounds is no lightweight itself.
    • The Chinese QBZ03 assault rifle's macho nickname inside the Chinese PLA and some fans is "Hard & Black".
    • The Thompson submachine gun had a multitude of nicknames. That Other Wiki can show you.
    • Fragmentation grenades are simply shortened to the name 'frags'. Carried over into 'killing an unpopular superior officer' in The Vietnam War, since using a fragmentation grenade to do so would make it impossible to prove the killer did it if no one would say he did, which carried over later to Video Games (though when used as a verb there, it just means 'kill').
    • The M3 submachine gun is generally called the grease gun, having some similarities in appearance to the mechanic's tool.
    • The FMG 180 is given the name of Javelin due to its flight path...going from bazooka, up in the air quite a ways, then falling back to earth to the enemy.
    • The M2 Browning heavy machine gun has been known as "Ma Deuce" since World War II, as "she always has the last word."
    • The PHALANX Close In Weapons System (CIWS), an anti-missile Gatling gun and radar combination, is so mechanically complex and breakdown-prone it is said CIWS stands for "Captain, It Won't Shoot!" Also, because of the way it looks, it is sometimes called R2-D2 with a hard-on.
      • Another one, at least when it first came into service, was "Sea Wiz" based on the name.
  • Military Aircraft:
    • The World's Leading Distributor of MiG Parts - the F-4 Phantom II, for shooting a lot of the Soviet-built aircraft down. The F-4 has a lot of nicknames, including The Double Ugly, Flying Brick and the Louisville.
      • The German nick is "Luftverteidigungsdiesel", or "The Air Defence Diesel" (its engines trail out black smoke).
      • Another German nickname for the Phantom is "Eisenschwein," which translates to "Iron Pig." It's not the most maneuverable plane in the world.
    • Warthog or the Hog - The A-10 Thunderbolt II.
      • This is even better on Osan Air Base in Korea. Where a statue of a Warthog is a major landmark, and referred to as the "Pig on a Stick"
    • Grach (rook) - The Russian Su-25 "Frogfoot", from the callsign its pilots used in the Soviet-Afghan War.
    • Another well-known Russian machine, Mi-24 "Hind" was nicknamed "Crocodile", probably for its distinctive silhouette and nasty "bite". The Mujahadeen referred to it as "The Devil's Chariot" for its lethal effectiveness.
    • Russian fighter jets generally do not have "popular names" like Western aircraft do (such as the F-15 Eagle or F-14 Tomcat), however the MiG-29's NATO reporting name, "Fulcrum," has become popular among its pilots, making it both this trope and Sure Why Not.
    • Viper - The preferred pilot name for the F-16, which is officially the Fighting Falcon. Don't use the latter around F-16 pilots.
    • The B-52 bomber, officially nicknamed the "Stratofortress", is far more often called the BUFF, or "Big Ugly Fat... Uh... Fellow." Yeah. Fellow. That's the ticket.
    • The F-111 was known to its pilots in the U.S. as the "Aardvark", a name that was actually made official at its retirement ceremony, the Australians took it further by nicknaming it "the pig". Two possible reasons for this: the charitable one is due to its terrain following radar allowing it to 'hunt amongst the weeds' much like a pig, the less charitable reason is the colloquialism 'pigs might fly'.
      • The EF-111 (electronic warfare variant of the F-111) was known as the "Spark Vark".
    • The F-117 is more commonly known as the "Stinkbug." Also called the "Frisbee". Or the "Wobblin' Goblin" due to how it wobbles at slow speeds during in-air refueling.
      • The development aircraft that eventually became the F-117 was nicknamed the "Hopeless Diamond" because the aeronautical engineers had difficulty believing that it could be made to fly.
    • The F-15E Strike Eagle is the "Mud Hen."
    • The Douglas A-1 Skyraider (AD in the pre-1962 scheme) was known as the Able Dog or the Spad. The latter refers to the French biplane that was the main aircraft of the Allies in World War I; as a piston-engined straight-winged aircraft designed during World War II, the Skyraider looked ludicrously out of place among the supersonic jets of the Vietnam War.
    • The Vought F4U Corsair was affectionately(?) nicknamed 'the bent-wing bastard from Baltimore' by British pilots.
      • Also the "Ensign Eliminator" for its temperamental flight characteristics.
        • Another Vought fighter that also earned that nickname was the F7U Cutlass. Sadly, the Cutlass was nowhere near as good a fighter as the Corsair was, as it didn't have the latter's redeeming characteristics.
      • The Japanese called the F4U "Whistling Death" due to the noise it made in a dive and its superb kill ratio against their own planes.
    • Curtiss' SB2C Helldiver bomber was called "Son of a Bitch, 2nd Class" even by admirals due to the wide variety of reliability problems and structural flaws, that initially even prevented it from performing its supposed main task - divebombing.
    • The F-105 Thunderchief is called "Thud", the B-1 is called the "Bone," the Vought A7 was called the "SLUF" (Short Little Ugly Fellow), if it's an aircraft, chances are that it's crews call it something else. Here's a webpage of some of them.
      • It's worth noting that the B-1 has a proposed second version; the B-1R. You do the math.
    • The tiny, notoriously unsafe F-104 Starfighter was often called "The Missile With a Man in It" or, less affectionately, "The Widowmaker", particularly among German pilots who were a disproportionately large portion of Starfighter pilot fatalities. In Italy, it was nicknamed "Bara Volante" (Flying Casket) for the same reason. It was also known in Germany (especially among American servicemen stationed there) as the "Lawn Dart"; wherever it was deployed, it was said that every yard near the base had one stuck in it.
    • UAV pilots are sometimes called the "Chairforce" by conventional pilots.
      • And the Air Force in general is called the same thing by the other military branches.
    • The McDonnell Douglas-General Dynamics A-12 Avenger was intended to replace the venerable A-6 during the Nineties, but was canceled due to cost overruns. Its triangular shape, for stealth purposes, earned it the inevitable nickname "The Flying Dorito."
    • The Douglas SBD Dauntless divebomber was known as the "Slow But Deadly" to its crews: despite their relative slowness in comparison to the fighters of the time period, SBDs managed to sink a number of Japanese vessels, most famously the aircraft carriers at Midway. The Dauntless was also, although 50 mph slower than the A6M Zero, nimble and well-armed, and thus one of the only bombers of the period to have a "plus" score against fighters, meaning it shot down more enemy aircraft than Dauntlesses shot down. Slow but deadly indeed.
    • The SR-71 Blackbird, when it was operational, was nicknamed the Habu, after a deadly snake found on Okinawa, from which the Blackbirds operated.
    • The Douglas A3D Skywarrior was by far the largest plane ever deployed from a carrier, thus the nickname "Whale." When reconfigured for electronic countermeasures, it became known as the "Electric Whale." And, since it had a crew of three and no ejection seats, it was also referred to as "All Three Dead."
    • A Popular Mechanics issue from the early nineties had its main article dedicated to the (still widely popular in media back then) F-14 Tomcat. In it, it was revealed that the pilots from the aircraft carriers had nicknamed such fighter "The Turkey" and preferred to fly the F/A-18 Hornets.
    • During the Vietnam war, the AC-47 gunship was officially nicknamed the "Spooky", but the massive amounts of smoke it generated when firing its three 7.62mm gatling guns earned it the unofficial nickname "Puff the Magic Dragon".
    • The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter used by Those Wacky Nazis was in its heyday arguably the deadliest fighter aircraft in the world, and earned the nickname "Butcher Bird" from the British. Its German pilots called it "Würger", German for "Shrike".
    • Another World War II aircraft, the Il-2 Sturmovik, a sort of spiritual predecessor to the aforementioned A-10 Warthog, was known for its incredible durability and gained a whole slew of nicknames from the Soviets and Germans alike. Among its nicknames are "Concrete Plane", "Flying Tank", "Flying Infantryman", "Black Death", "Iron Gustav", "Tractor", and "Slaughterer".
    • The B-26 Marauder earned a number of derogatory nicknames for its high skill demands on the pilot, and the high speeds at which it had to land and take off. "Martin Murderer" was popular at the Marauder training base in Tampa during 1941/1942. The test pilots called it the "Flying Prostitute" because it had "no visible means of support", a reference to its very small wing area in relation to its size.
  • Ships:
    • "Sprucans"- Spruance-class anti-submarine destroyers, due to the traditional description of destroyers as "tin cans".
    • In a related case, after her collision with the guided missile cruiser USS Belknap, the carrier USS John F Kennedy acquired the nickname "Can Opener."
    • The US 'Kidd' class destroyers were originally built under a contract with the Shah of Iran, which was canceled pretty quickly when the Iranian revolution took place in 1979. The destroyers were instead completed and put into US service and where they were known as the "Ayatollah class". Also, due to their naming convention, they were sometimes called the "Dead Admiral class".
    • The USS Missouri was one of the top battleships of WWII. It was affectionately nicknamed "The Mighty Mo."
    • USS Enterprise (CVN-65) is also known as the Mobile Chernobyl due mainly to the fact that she is powered by eight nuclear reactors, more than any other ship ever built. The designers figured that she'd need as many reactors as a conventional ship would need boilers. The later nuclear-powered carriers of Nimitz class use much more advanced reactors, getting just as much power out of only two. She is also known as Three-Quarter Mile Island, referring to her length (the longest warship ever built) and the other infamous nuclear reactor incident.
    • "Lusty" - HMS Illustrious.
    • "The Great White Whale" - SS Canberra
    • "The Grand Old Lady" - HMS Warspite
    • "Big Mamie" - USS Massachusetts (BB-59)
    • "The Grey Ghost" - USS Enterprise (CV-6)
    • "Mobile Chernobyl" - USS Enterprise (CVN-65)
    • "The Big E" - USS Enterprise (both of them)
      • "The Big E=mc^2" - USS Enterprise (CVN-65)
    • "Already Broke" - USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51)
    • "Shitty Kitty" - USS Kitty Hawk
    • "The Big Stick" - USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71)
    • "The Fighting I" and "The Evil I" - USS Intrepid (CV-11). (Intrepid had famously bad luck during WWII.)
    • "Ike" - USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69)
    • There's a couple of standards in the US Navy that apply to ships in particular categories: A ship with low morale may often be referred to by its crew as "Cell Block [hull number]" and a ship that rarely leaves port may be called "Pier [hull number]" or "Building [hull number]."[3]
  • Armor
    • Early life jackets - Mae West, because wearing one gave you ginormous bosoms like Wests'.
  • Tanks:
    • The earlier, gasoline-fueled versions of the M4 Sherman tank, mostly used by the British, were frequently called "Tommy Cookers" or "Ronsons" after the lighter that lit every time. Later versions, however, used diesel.
    • Diesel didn't enter into it (most of the British Shermans were diesels), the fire risk came from exposed ammunition.
    • Diesel tanks were, if anything, more likely to get their crews killed than gasoline powered ones due to the poor power response (and consequent sluggish response of the tank) of diesel engines of the era.
    • Soviet tank destroyers, such as the SU-85 and SU-100, were sometimes called "Zookeepers", after the fact that their primary targets, German heavy tanks, were commonly named after big cats (most famously the Tiger and Panther).
    • The M3 Grant was a predecessor to the Sherman, and under Lend-lease, quite a few were shipped to Russia during WWII. It quickly became known as "a coffin for seven brothers."
    • M3 Stuarts, not to be confused with the above example, were a light tank that was Lend-leased to the British, where it was quickly coined as "Honey" due to its good handling and reliability.
    • The German Hummel was a self-propelled artillery piece. Hitler ordered the nickname dropped, however, as he thought "Bumblebee" was inappropriate for a fighting vehicle.
      • Similarly, the Sturmpanzer 43, a variant of the Panzer IV medium tank, was known as both the Brummbär ("grumbler") and the "Stupa".

Vehicles

  • Suzuki's GSX-R line of sport bikes are affectionately called "Gixxers" by British enthusiasts. This was eventually made canon with the release of the Suzuki Gixxer entry-level motorcycle.
  • Knucklehead/Panhead/Shovelhead/Evo - A series of mechanically-related engines made by Harley-Davidson for their Big Twin motorcycle line from 1936 to 1999, so called by enthusiasts due to the shape of the valve covers used, though Harley initially referred to them as OHVs in their official literature; these became so widely used that the company eventually acknowledged them in their history pages.
  • Twinkie - A Harley-Davidson Twin Cam engine, sometimes used pejoratively by enthusiasts who prefer the older Evolution engine.
  • Big Body and Small Body are used by Filipino car buffs to refer to E90 and E100 model Toyota Corollas respectively, which were quite ubiquitous in the Philippines during the 90s. The "Big Body" was so called due to its larger size and rounder overall shape compared to the E90.
    • Lea Salonga Mags - A specific style of five-spoke rims which came as standard equipment on higher-end E100 Corollas, named after the Filipino Broadway actress who sang in a Corolla commercial that prominently showed the rims.
  • Ditto with the Mitsubishi Lancer, which was a chief rival of the Corolla in the Philippines alongside the Nissan Sentra. The fourth and fifth-generation Mitsubishi Lancers are referred to by Filipino car enthusiasts as "Hotdog" and "Pizza Pie" respectively, due to the shape of their brake lights bearing a crude resemblance to a sausage on the fourth-gen model and a slice of pizza on the succeeding model. The fourth-generation Lancer has also been nicknamed "Bilog" (round) or "Itlog" (egg) due to its rounded overall shape especially with the headlights and tail lights. The rebadged export version of the third-generation Mirage, sold in the Philippines under the Lancer nameplate, was christened "Singkit" or "slant-eyed" by Filipino enthusiasts, ethnic stereotypes notwithstanding.
  • Godzilla - Nickname given by the Australian car magazine Wheels to the Nissan Skyline GT-R, starting with the R32 model in 1989 as a play on its monstrous performance and country of origin, particularly the iconic Kaiju character Godzilla.
  • Box-type - Used generically in the Philippines to refer to older 70s or 80s car or truck models with a boxy body shape, particularly the second-generation Mitsubishi Lancer.
  • Landy - Land Rover. Eventually made canonical when Jaguar Land Rover filed a trademark for the nickname in 2014.
  • Beetle - The original Volkswagen, officially referred to by the company internally as the "Type 1". The Beetle nameplate eventually became official when the New Beetle was released in 2000.
    • Vocho as it is known in Mexico, where the Type 1 was still continually produced until 2003 when stricter auto safety regulations rendered older Beetles (which at the time were commonly used as taxicabs) obsolete.
    • Pendong, Kotseng kuba (hunchback car), Pagong, Ba-o, (turtle), Boks (tin can) in the Philippines.
  • Bimmer - A BMW.
  • Kidney Grille - The iconic grille on every BMW model.
    • Beaver Teeth - A somewhat pejorative nickname for newer model BMWs which attracted attention for their comically large grilles.

Countries

  • Australia: Land Down Under, Oz
  • Canada: The Great White North
  • Japan: Land of the Rising Sun
  • Philippines: The Pearl of the Orient
  • New Zealand: Land of the Long White Cloud, The Shaky Isles
    • Kiwi: An informal demonym for people from New Zealand, and by extension a nickname for the country itself, after the flightless bird endemic to it. Popularised by an Australian brand of shoe polish since the early 20th century.
  • The US has many nicknames, since each state has an official nickname and a few fan nicknames.
    • Technically, the usual parlance of calling the USoA 'America' is a nickname.
    • A popular, derisive nickname for the country is 'murrica (as if one is trying to emulate a deep, coarse Southern dialect. Mostly stems from the notion that the most outspoken patriots are angry rednecks.
  • France is often nicknamed "l'Hexagone" by multiple French news channels, because of, well, it's hexagonal shape

Cities

  • United States of America
    • Atlanta: Hotlanta
    • Baltimore: Charm City. The City that Reads. (Negatively, "Bodymore, Murderland" and "The City that Bleeds")
    • Boston: Beantown
    • Chicago: Chi Town, City of Big Shoulders, Windy City
    • Dallas: Big D
    • Las Vegas: Sin City
    • Milwaukee: Brew City, Mil Town, and occasionally, The Brew or The Mil
    • Minneapolis/St.Paul: The Twin Cities
    • New Orleans: The Big Easy
    • New York: The Big Apple
    • Philadelphia: The City of Brotherly Love, Philly, Illtown
    • Seattle: The Emerald City
  • Italy
    • Rome: The Eternal City
  • Mexico
    • Monterrey: La Sultana del Norte (The Female Sultan of the North)
    • Aguascalientes (both the city and the state): La Tierra de la Gente Buena (The Land of the Good People)
      • And, in a very derogative way, it's sometimes nicknamed La Tierra de la Gente... Buena Para Nada (The Land of the Good... For-Nothing People) because of the perceived lazyness of their people there.
    • Jalisco: La Tierra del Mariachi (The Land of the Mariachi) since Mexican Mariachi is said from being from there.
      • Its capital city, Guadalajara, is nicknamed La Perla de Occidente (The Pearl of the West) and its neighbor city, Zapopan, is La Tierra del Maiz (Land of the Corn).
      • One of the (in)famous neighborhoods, San Juan de Dios, is nicknamed in Guadalajara as San Taiwan de Dios since there's a sizable Chinese community there, and lots of stores that sells Chinese products.
    • Mexico City: La Ciudad de la Esperanza (The City of Hope) and outside the city (and inside too) it's nicknamed Chilangolandia (Chilangoland, since the people from Mexico City are nicknamed Chilangos in a peyorative way.)
      • The Mexico City's neighborhood of Tepito (who is considered the Mexican version of the New York's Bronx) is nicknamed El Barrio Bravo (The Tough Neighborhood)

Other Examples

  • In Armageddon, Bruce Willis's character says that NASA undoubtedly has a crew of guys "just sitting around thinking shit up". These guys... the crew that sits around thinking shit up, are known as the "Steely Eyed Missile Men" for their ability to cooly and calmly think up technological solutions to the hardest problems on Earth or in Space.
    • Being called a 'Steely Eyed Missile Man' is the absolute highest of NASA compliments; those 'guys that sit around thinking shit up' are the very best at what they do, so being counted among their ranks means you've really impressed people. And only the best of those people, the ones who come through under incredible pressure, get to be called "steely-eyed missile men."
  • People related to Video Games:
  • There's a whole language of fan nicknames in the CB Radio circuit, it would take far too much space to list them all here, though.
  • Since almost every product by Apple follows the pattern if the lowercase letter "i" and one single word (iPod, iPad, iTunes, iPhone,) the iPod Touch has always stood out, so many people have simply shortened it down to "iTouch."
  • The 1970s style handlebar moustache is popularly known as the "Porn Stache".
  • Scilons for Scientologists by Anonymous; also "clams" by the protesters, particularly the pre-Chanology ones, at OperationClambake.com due to one of L. Ron Hubbard's "thought experiments" being to imagine clams "snapping open and shut! Open and shut! Open! Shut!" on a beach (I think it had something to do with perceiving the universe or thetans).
    • Clams are what Hubbard believed humans had evolved from. (Being Hubbard, Did Not Do the Research is a given.)
    • Replacing the s in any of these, including the real name, with a $ is also quite common. This happens to Micro$oft too.
  • Australian free-to-air television network SBS, jokingly said to stand for "Sex Between Soccer", or "Sex, Blood and Soccer".
  • Electronics and the stores that sell them are rich veins of Fan Nicknames. For instance, the Blackberry series of mobile phones (many other functions) have been nicknamed Crackberries: like the concentrated form of cocaine known as "crack", the things are very expensive and either massively addictive or something you need rehab to get away from.
    • For another example, the first USB mice Apple produced for release with the then-new iMac received the uncomplimentary nickname "hockey pucks," both for the ridiculously non-ergonomic design and for the best use their shape permitted for them.
  • Metformin, the front-line medication for type 2 diabetes, can have a disruptive effect on the digestive system, especially for those still acclimating to it, leading to the nickname 'metfartmin'.
  • The South London district of Newington is far more commonly known as "Elephant & Castle", to the extent that even London Transport call it that. The name comes from the fact that one of London's several "Elephant & Castle" pubs stood there (there's still a pub of that name there, but whether it's the original or a successor thereto is unknown), and the pubs are in turn named for the fact that the Infanta de Castile once owned large tracts of what is now London land.
  • In Chicago the sculpture named "Cloud Gate" is universally known as The Bean... Much to the artist's annoyance.
  • Also in Chicago, the newly-renamed "Willis Tower" is still the Sears Tower. We don't care who owns it now, it's still the Sears.
  • Chicago again, the Marina Towers highrise is sometimes called "Wilco Towers", having appeared on the cover of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.
  • In February 2010, Washington D.C., which typically shuts down for a mere three or four inches of snow, received more than thirty inches in one week. Residents have used a number of nicknames of varying levels of cleverness to the experience, but the two most common are definitely "Snowpocalypse" and "Snowmageddan."
  • In downtown Vancouver, just outside one of the skytrain stops, is a sculpture universally referred to as the big ball of tin foil.
  • The Japanese TV Stations TBS (Not the US one) and MBS are called "The Real Robot Network" due to the abundance of Real Robot shows that aired there since the 2000's.
  • 30 St. Mary Axe, London, is rarely referred to by its address or its official name, the Swiss Re Building as, due to it's distinctive shape, most people call it The Gherkin. It's unlikely that this will ever change.
  • Nicknames have been a big NASA thing.
    • Vomit Comet: The KC 135 weightlessness trainer
    • Flying Bedstead: The LLTV, or Lunar Landing Training Vehicle
    • LM: Lunar Module, but pronounced 'Lem' after the old Lunar Excursion Module name
  • A style of dress shoes typically worn by children during the early 20th century (though shoes similar to them have been worn by the likes of Henry VIII as depicted in paintings of the era) and later exclusively worn by girls and women are known as "Mary Jane" shoes after the Buster Brown character of the same name.
Back to Fan Nickname
  1. ↑ a sanatorium was technically a facility used to treat tuberculosis, but it was often used as an euphemism for a Bedlam House, as in "poor Ophelia got "infected" with the "disease" of "consumption", so we had to send her away to the sanatorium"
  2. ↑ The M203 launches 40 millimeter grenades, and the letter "m" is "Mike" in the NATO phonetic alphabet.
  3. ↑ Note this particular nickname only works if the number is higher than 14 or so, depending on how many piers the actual base has. May or may not work with buildings, which usually have letters and numbers.
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