42 Fascinating Nicknames & Stories Behind Them

There was a girl nicknamed Sober Sue, who was offered work at a theatre that would offer $1,000 to anyone that could make her laugh. All summer people tried to make her laugh, even professional comedians came onto the show, none of which prevailed. Sober Sue had facial paralysis.

2. NASA has 2 satellites chasing each other around the Earth tracking the distance between themselves to measure gravitational anomalies. Their nicknames are Tom and Jerry.

3. A man in the United Kingdom was so fed up with his city not repairing potholes that he went out and spray-painted penises on them, earning him the nickname “Wanksy.”

4. There is a grizzly bear nicknamed "The Boss" who's eaten two black bears, survived being hit by a train, weighs 300 kg, but has never shown aggression towards humans despite spending a large amount of time near public places.

5. President James K. Polk is nicknamed by some historians as “the least known consequential president.” He promised to serve just one term, and he achieved all of the agenda he set at the beginning of his term.

Politicians mocked John Adams, nicknaming him "His Rotundity" after he had suggested that the president should be titled like royalty, suggesting titles such as, "His Majesty the President" and “His Highness, the President of the United States of America, and Protector of the Rights of the Same."

7. Southern live oak was a secret weapon of the USS Constitution, one of America's first naval vessels, that was nicknamed "Old Ironsides" after so many cannonballs bounced off her hull because live oak wood is a super dense wood.

8. More high-ranking Nazi officers died in the Czechoslovakian car Tatra 77a and 87 than in active combat, prompting Hitler to ban his officers from driving them. It was nicknamed the "Czech secret weapon" by the Allied forces.

9. In 1963, a Volkswagen Beetle donated by the manufacturer became the first car in the Antarctic. It was so good for Antarctic use, being able to withstand temperatures below -50°C and winds above 150 km/h, that it was nicknamed "Red Terror" by the users.

10. Legendary football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant earned his nickname by agreeing to wrestle a bear for $1 at a carnival when he was 13 years old. The bear bit his ear, and the carnival never paid him $1.

Arthur John Priest (1887 - 1937) was an English stoker in the 1900s - 1910s. He became famous because he survived at least five shipwrecks (including the Titanic) and several other ship collisions. He gained the nickname "The Unsinkable Stoker". He died on the mainland in 1937.

12. Ancient Greek mathematician, Eratosthenes, was nicknamed "Beta" because he was skilled in many things, but never the best.

13. The Beechcraft Bonanza airplane is nicknamed “the doctor killer” due to the number of wealthy professionals who take up flying as a hobby and end up crashing in it.

14. There was a famous 18th-century racehorse named Potoooooooo. His original name was Potatoes. Potatoes acquired the strange spelling of his nickname, Pot-8-Os, when a stable lad was asked to write it on a feed bin. The lad's version, Potoooooooo, was said to amuse his lordship so he kept it.

15. Jelly Roll Morton, at the age of 14 tricked his great-grandmother into believing he was a night watchman at a barrelhouse when in fact he was working as a piano player in a brothel. In that atmosphere, he often sang smutty lyrics and there he took the nickname “Jelly Roll”, which was slang for vagina.

Scottie Pippen, of Chicago Bulls Fame, was given the nickname “No Tippin Pippen” for his lack of tipping waiters and once tried to haggle with strippers on the amount they were charging.

17. Marjory Stoneman Douglas fought against efforts to drain the Florida Everglades and reclaim land for development when she was 79 years old. Her tireless efforts earned her several variations of the nickname "Grande Dame of the Everglades.” She also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

18. There is an area in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where scientists have discovered Great White Sharks congregate every year. They have nicknamed this stretch of the ocean “The White Shark Cafe.”

19. Sausage sizzles are public sausage barbecues generally held either as free community events or as fundraisers that have become a recognized and expected addition to polling booths at Australian elections. The sausages at these events have been nicknamed "Democracy Sausages."

20. Don LaFontaine, who was nicknamed "Thunder Throat" and "The Voice of God", voiced over 5,000 movie trailers. His final voice-over role was for an episode of Phineas and Ferb, in which he said in his final line: "In a world ... There, I said it. Happy?"

The infamous RMS Titanic had a near-identical sister ship called Olympic, nicknamed "Old Reliable", that was re-commissioned in World War 1 as a troop transport ship and was notable for having carried over 200,000 troops during the war and sinking a German u-boat by ramming into it head-on.

22. Rather than building up, millionaires in central London are building down, creating mega-basements. Nicknamed "iceberg homes" because there's more square footage under the ground than above.

23. The Australian Mk 3 Centurion 169041 was nicknamed "The Atomic Tank" due to it surviving a 9.1kt blast from 460 meters away. The tank was simply driven off after the test and went on to spend another 23 years in service, including time in the Vietnam war.

24. Similar to the fact that the American South may be referred to as "The Bible Belt", or the Great Lakes Region is referred to as "The Rust Belt", the Mormon Corridor (in the Midwest of the US) is nicknamed "The Jello Belt" because they consume twice the amount of Jello as the average American.

25. Roman Emperor Caligula was actually called Gaius. The nickname Caligula meant ‘little boots’ and came from the fact that his father liked to dress him up in child-sized armor. He hated it.