Scores of Brits have taken to social media to confess the hilarious nicknames they have for their unspecting neighbours – with some much more imaginative than others
We all have that one person down our street that we smile and nod to regularly, but whose name we have no idea of.
For that reason, we identify them with our friends and family using an imaginative – or often unimaginative – nickname. And chances are we’re referred to unknowingly by something ridiculous ourselves.
One X (formerly Twitter) user has been busy pondering the idea, asking his 15,000 followers: “Do you have nicknames for your neighbours?” He admitted: “I call mine Poldark because he once cut his grass with no shirt on.” Although some were unpublishable here, we’ve picked out the best of the bunch after the poster was inundated with hilarious replies…
One person began: “The Torch, he’s moved now, probably for the best. There was no DIY job he didn’t manage to set himself on fire [doing]. Great entertainment.” Another said: “We had Dead Dave down our street. Another neighbour had said, ‘Did you know Dave has died?’ But it turned out he hadn’t. But we referred to him as Dead Dave after that.”
A third said: “Next door but one, is Propane Elaine. She has a barbecue nearly every night when she comes home from work. Even in winter, in pouring rain while holding an umbrella.” A fourth said: “We have Noisy Brian because he did a lot of noisy work in his garden before 8am on weekends. We also have Chris Peter who once ate crisps as he walked past our window. And Laps-a-Lot who runs endless laps of our very long road.”
And a fifth added: “We had ‘Thong Man’… his new pleather thong accidentally got delivered to my house and my wife accidentally opened it.”
Back in November, the top 40 most common nicknames given to Brits were revealed – with Big Man, Ginge, and Spud topping the list. Sparky, Chicken, and Sunshine also ranked among the top 10, with Rocky, Smarty, and Nugget other names that ranked highly.
Nicknames based on physical size, or on animals, were among the most popular – as Wee Man, Kiddo, Shorty, Foxy, Spider, and Donkey all appeared on the list. The poll of 2,000 adults also found that over half (53%) feel bestowing a nickname on someone is a particularly British thing to do – with 39% having an alternative moniker that they go by.
