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An excellent list of all the best British regional nicknames

Oi! Cod-head!

An excellent list of all the best British regional nicknames

By Dave Fawbert

30 January 2018

What would we all do without Wikipedia?

Before Wikipedia, how did anyone know anything at all? Sure, I’ve heard about these things called ‘books’, but honestly, who’s got the time or the patience to go reading one of those. I imagine that before Wikipedia, whenever anyone was asked about a fact or something, they’d just freeze, like a computer that’s gone wrong, judder about a bit and then collapse to the floor until someone gave them a kick to restart them.

Anyway, as well as being the best place to find out anything at all (academics may disagree but, let’s face it, it’s true isn’t it), it’s also the absolute best place to discover lists of things that you never knew existed.

Exhibit A: a list of Soviet space dogs

Exhibit B: a list of humourous units of measurement

And Exhibit C: a list of British regional nicknames

Yes, that’s a list of British regional nicknames, aka the ridiculous words we’ve come up with over the centuries to describe people from various parts of this Sceptred Isle.

And, and you’d expect, they are ridiculous. So read the following, and start affectionately calling your mate from Hull a ‘cod-head’ at every conceivable opportunity.

Aberdeen: A Don, (originally a football term, it is now used to describe anyone from Aberdeen and surrounding area)

Arbroath: Red Lichtie or Lichtie, Codheid

Barnsley: Tykes, Colliers (a former mining community), Dingles (by people from Sheffield)

Bacup: Bacupian (this name has developed as there is a popular joke in the area that people from Bacup are their own separate species)

Barrow in Furness: Shipbuilder

Belfast: McCooeys

Birmingham: Brummie

Black Country: Yam Yam, Ninehead

Blackburn: The chosen ones

Blackpool: Sand grown ‘un, Donkey lasher, seasiders,

Bolton: Trotter

Bramley (West Yorkshire): Villager

Brighton: Jug (archaic)

Bristol: Ciderhead

Burnley: Dingles, a reference to Burnley’s proximity to Yorkshire, Lancashire/Lancs and the other family from the TV soap opera Emmerdale (normally used by people from Blackburn, Preston and other parts of Lancashire)

Bury: Shakers

Caernarfon: Cofi

Caithness: Gallach

Carlisle: Carliol

Ceredigion: Cardi

Chesterfield: Spireite

Colchester: Colchie, Roman, Camuloonie, Steamie, Castler, Cross’n’Crowner (after Colchester’s coat of arms).

Corby: Plastic Jocks

Cornwall: Kernowick, Merry-Jack, Mera-Jack, Uncle Jack or Cousin Jack (when abroad).

Coventry: Godivas

Cranfield: Fr. Damien, Gummy Bear, Mountain Fakoor (Dummy version)

Crawley: Insect

Crewe: Chip Eater

Darlington: Quaker

Devon: Janner

Doncaster: Flatlander (especially by people from Sheffield), Knights, Doleite

Dumfries: Doonhamer

Durham: Posh Geordie, Cuddy, Pitt Yakker (due to Durham’s mining heritage)

Eastbourne: Winnicks or Willicks (dialect name of a guillemot or wild person)

Edinburgh: Edinbourgeois, Edinbugger

Essex: Essex Calf (archaic), Eastie, Esser, wideboys, Saxon, sexy, Scimitars (from the County Arms)

Fraserburgh: Brocher

Frodsham: Cheshire, Jowwy/Jowie Head (from old Cheshire/Runcorn meaning Turnip, reference to the rural position of the town)

Glasgow: Keelie, Weegie

Goole: Goolie

Grimsby: Cod Head (after the fishing port in Grimsby), Grimmy

Gillingham: Chavs, Medwayers

Gosport: Turk-towners

Great Yarmouth: Yarcos

Hampshire: Hampshire Hog, Bacon Face (reference to Hampshire as a pig-raising county in former times)

Hartlepool: Monkey Hanger, Poolie

Hawick: Teri

Haydock: Yicker

Highlands and Islands (of Scotland): Teuchter, used by other Scots and sometimes applied by Greater Glasgow natives to anyone speaking in a dialect other than Glaswegian

Hinckley: Tin Hatter

Hull: Cod Head, Hully Gully

Kent: Yellow Tails (French nickname for people from Kent)

Ipswich: Tractor Boys

Isle of Wight: Caulkhead (named after the caulking of boats) Historically Corkhead - Caulkhead is an urban myth perpetrated after the Isle of Wight County Press received no replies to its inquiry on the origins of Corkhead in the 1970s

Heywood (Greater Manchester): Monkey town

Lancashire: Yonner (specifically south-eastern Lancashire)

Leeds: Loiner

Leicester: Rat-eye (from the Roman name for the city: Ratae), Chisits (from the pronunciation of “how much is it,” which sounds like “I’m a chisit”); Foxes, Bin Dippers (named after Foxes)

Leicestershire: Beanbelly (from the eating of broad beans)

Leigh: Lobbygobbler, Leyther

Lincolnshire: Yellow Belly (after a species of frog common in the Lincolnshire and East Anglian Fens)

Linlithgow: Black Bitch, from the burgh coat of arms

Littlehampton: LA, from the local accent being unable to pronounce the h in hampton

Liverpool: Scouse or Scouser, Mickey Mouse

(Plastic Scouser: a person who purports to be from Liverpool, but is not)

(Woolyback, or Wool: anyone not from Liverpool, but in particular refers to people living in the surrounding towns such as Birkenhead, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Warrington, Widnes, Wigan and St Helens)

Llanelli: Turk

London: Del Boy, Shandy, Cockney (East End)

Luton: Hatter

Manchester: Manc

Mansfield: Scabs (very offensive, linked to the divisions during the UK miners’ strike (1984-1985)), The Stags

Malmesbury: Jackdaw

Middlesbrough: Smoggie, an abbreviation of Smog Monster

Milton Keynes: Cattle, Plastic Cow-Jockey, Thief (reference to the transfer of Wimbledon football club to Milton Keynes).

Montrose: Gable-endies

Nantwich: Dabber

Neath: Abbey-Jack, blacks, black-jacks.

Newcastle upon Tyne: Geordie, Magpie, Mag

Northern England: Northern Monkey

North Shields: Fish Knabber

North Wales: Gog

Norwich: Canaries, Country Bumpkin, Norfolk Dumpling,

Nottingham: Bogger, Scab (insult; see Mansfield)

Nuneaton: Codder, Treacletowner

Oldham: Yonner (from Oldham pronunciation of ‘yonder’ as in ‘up yonner’) Roughyed

Paisley: Buddie

Peterhead: Bluemogganer, Blue-Tooner

Plymouth: Janner. Originally a person who spoke with a Devon accent, now simply any West Countryman. In naval slang, this is specifically a person from Plymouth.

Portsmouth: Pompey, Pomponian, Skate, Pompeyite

Redcar: Codhead

Rotherham: Chuckle, Rotherbird

Royston, Hertfordshire: Crows

Rye: Mudlarks

Selkirk: Souter

Shavington: Tramp

Sheffield: Dee daa, Steelmekker

South Shields: Sand dancer

Southampton: Mush, Scummer

Southern England: Southern Fairy, Shandy Drinkers

Southport: Sandgrounder

Stockport: Stopfordian (from an old alternative name for Stockport)

Stoke-on-Trent: Potter, Clay Head, Stokie, Jug Head

Strood: Long tails, Stroodle

Sunderland: Mackem

Sutherland: Cattach

Swansea: Jack, Swansea Jack

Swindon: Moonraker

Tamworth: Tammy’s, Sandyback, after the Tamworth Pig, Three Wheeler after the Reliant Robin.

Tarbert, Loch Fyne: Dooker (named after guillemot and razorbill, sea-birds once a popular food among Tarbert natives)

Teesside: Smoggie, ‘Borough Boys (after Middlesbrough)

Telford: Telf, Chav

Wallingford: Wally

Walsall: Saddler

Warrington: Wire, Wirepuller (after the local wire industry),

Watford: Vegetable, YellowBellies

Welshpool: Souped

Westhoughton: Keawyeds (Cowheads, after local legend)

West Riding of Yorkshire: Wessie (in other parts of Yorkshire)

Weymouth and Portland: Kimberlin (Portland name for a person from Weymouth)

Whitehaven: Marra, Jam Eater

Widnes: Chemic, Widiot, Woolyback, or Wool: anyone not from Liverpool, but in particular refers to people living in the surrounding towns such as Birkenhead, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Warrington, Widnes, Wigan and St Helens

Wigan: Wiganer, Pie-eater, Pie-nosher, Purrer

Wiltshire: Moonraker

Winsford: Plastic Scouser

Wolverhampton: Yam yams (from local dialect where people say “Yam” meaning “Yow am” meaning “You are”)

Worthing: Pork-bolters

Workington: Jam Eater

Wrexham: Goat

York: Yorkie

Yorkshire: Tyke

(Main image: Pixabay / Deviantart, other images: Rex/iStock)