50 Interesting Nicknames & Even More Awesome Facts Behind Them

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1 Whipping Tom

Whipping Tom

Whipping Tom was the nickname given to a serial spanker in London in 1681. He would wait for an unaccompanied woman, grab her, lift her dress and slap her buttocks while shouting “Spanko!” before fleeing. Vigilantes began to dress in women’s clothing and patrol the areas he was known to operate.


2. Doug Hegdahl was a quiet American Prisoner Of War who was nicknamed “The Incredibly Stupid One” by his Vietnamese captors. Upon his return to the United States, he provided the names of over 200 prisoners of war, which he had memorized to the tune of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.”


3. Saadat Shahr is a small rural community in Iran which has been nicknamed ‘Astronomy Town’ because of its residents’ passion for stargazing. Women sold their jewellery and everyone else in the town chipped in to pay for an observatory. On special astronomical occasions, all the lights in the town are cut to improve the view of the night sky.


4. American Wikipedia editor Steven Pruitt holds the highest number of edits made on the English Wikipedia under the alias “Ser Amantio di Nicolao.” With over four million edits and more than 35,000 articles created, he was named as one of the 25 most important influencers on the Internet by Time magazine in 2017. He was nicknamed the ‘Wizard of Wikipedia.’


5. General George Thomas was arguably better than both Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant. He never lost a battle and once completely destroyed a confederate army, earning him the nickname “sledgehammer”. History has forgotten because he was too modest and always downplayed his own accomplishments.


6 Night Witches

Night Witches

The Night Witches was a World War 2 German nickname given to the all-female aviators of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment. They would idle the engines near their target and glide to the bomb release point with only wind noise to reveal them. The Germans likened the sound to broomsticks, giving their nickname.


7. 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.


8. 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.


9. 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.”


10. 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.


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11 Least Known Consequential President

Least Known Consequential President

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.


12. 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.”


13. 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.


14. 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.


15. 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.


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16 Paul “Bear” Bryant

Paul

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.


17. 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.


18. Ancient Greek mathematician, Eratosthenes, was nicknamed “Beta” because he was skilled in many things, but never the best.


19. 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.


20. 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.


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21 Jelly Roll

Jelly Roll

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.


22. 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.


23. 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.


24. 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.”


25. 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.”


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