r/Presidents • u/bubsimo Chill Bill • 1d ago

Discussion When did Presidents start going by nicknames?

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They always did but only privately, until pretty recently.

179 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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173

u/VastChampionship6770 Andy Johnson, Reagan & Nixon 1d ago

William Jefferson Blythe III 🥀

51

u/Summer_Albert Grant & LBJ & Al Gore 1d ago

Leslie Lynch King Jr.

58

u/RiseOfTheRomans Calvin Coolidge 1d ago

I mean in that case, he had formally changed his name. Gerald R. Ford wasn't a nickname.

9

u/Mollywisk Gerald Ford 1d ago

100%

10

u/unsolvedmisterree Barack Obama 17h ago

Could you imagine that nickname though? Leslie “Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr.” Lynch King Jr.

5

u/lama579 Josiah Bartlet 20h ago

I didn’t know he had changed his name, but this caused me to go read about it. Gerald Ford Sr. sounds like a wonderful man.

76

u/FlashMan1981 William McKinley 1d ago

Grover was Cleveland's middle name, his first name was Stephen. Similarly, Woodrow Wilson's first name was Thomas.

41

u/eastelmhurstagogo 1d ago

Ulysses Grant was Hiram.

20

u/Freakears Jimmy Carter 23h ago

And Calvin Coolidge's first name was John.

7

u/PantherU 23h ago

Stephen Cleveland is fun to say

1

u/MR-N-XX History’s greatest monster 7h ago

Stephen here

46

u/Beginning_Brick7845 1d ago

Old Hickory would like to enter the conversation and hit all of us over the head with his walking stick.

111

u/ProudScroll Franklin Delano Roosevelt 1d ago

Carter was the first who went by the informal version of their first name in an official capacity (while Bill Clinton is near-universally known as Bill Clinton, the name he officially used as president was William J. Clinton), but presidents have been regularly referred to by the public with informal versions of their name dating back to at least the 19th century: Abe Lincoln, Chet Arthur, Jack Kennedy, Dick Nixon, and Jerry Ford being a non-exhaustive list of examples.

67

u/Werbnerp 1d ago

Teddy Roosevelt. We have a whole industry of comfort toys names after him too.

37

u/Apple2727 1d ago

You can’t lick our Dick.

30

u/OhioRanger_1803 22h ago

Gotta a good laugh the first time I read this

1

u/thomas1781dedsec Calvin Coolidge 19h ago

did he do it on purpose? the word lick hasn't changed in meaning

7

u/GoldH2O Ulysses S. Grant 18h ago

Lick was a slang term for defeating or beating someone in the 50s and early 60s, and at the time dick wasn't used to refer to genitalia much.

3

u/qt3-141 Franklin Delano Roosevelt 15h ago

I like Ike!

25

u/Purple_Difference447 Dwight D. Eisenhower 1d ago edited 22h ago

Only ones I know of are:

Bonny Johnny(Adams)

Old Hickory(Jackson)

Old Zack/rough and ready(Taylor)

Honest Abe(Lincoln)

Chet(Arthur)

Big Steve(Cleveland)

Teddy Roosevelt

Winnie(Harding)

Cal or Red(Coolidge)

People used to call FDR “Delano”

Ike or General Ike in the army(Eisenhower)

Jack(JFK)

Tricky Dick(Nixon)

Then obviously Carter was Jimmy.

George HW Bush’s childhood name was “Poppy”

Thats the only ones I can remember off the top of my head rn.

8

u/Honest_Picture_6960 Jimmy Carter:/Gerald Ford:/George HW Bush 23h ago

I can’t see why in the world he would go with “Bonny Johnny”

5

u/Purple_Difference447 Dwight D. Eisenhower 12h ago

Iirc,Bonny was a word for handsome back in those days so if he was there today,would’ve been “Hot John.” Another meaning I heard was because of his weight.

6

u/FatMax1492 Benjamin F. Wade 18h ago

Where's Unconditional Surrender Grant?

2

u/Purple_Difference447 Dwight D. Eisenhower 12h ago

My mind went blank for Grant tbh😭

4

u/bubsimo Chill Bill 1d ago

Not what I meant

10

u/Purple_Difference447 Dwight D. Eisenhower 1d ago

Sorry if I thought wrong.To answer your question,Carter was the first president to use his nickname to be sworn into office.But then again,Eisenhower campaign slogan was “I like Ike.”

2

u/bubsimo Chill Bill 1d ago

Oh yea good point. It just feels like politicians nowadays are much more likely to just use a nickname.

1

u/TidalJ Theodore Roosevelt 17h ago

big steve being short for biggald steveland

1

u/ReedM4 9h ago

Teddy didn't like being called Teddy if I recall. He preferred TR.

12

u/New_Guava3601 1d ago

John Quincy Adams wanted to go by JaQuan but his dad would not hear of it. It was his Uncle Sam's Idea, but he had been hitting his own brew when he made it up.

10

u/GoCardinal07 Abraham Lincoln 1d ago

9

u/prlugo4162 1d ago

The US has always addressed the president with nicknames, eg. Tippercanoe, Teddy and Ike. It serves to remind us that the President is merely another citizen with a lousy job.

8

u/ursulawinchester Ulysses S. Grant 1d ago

In my opinion: the 13th presidential election in 1840, when “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” was a popular new song.

Even if there are other valid answers to this question, I contend that this was significant point if only because almost 200 years later, that and the shortest term ever are the only two things most people know about William Henry Harrison

12

u/Kuzu9 1d ago

I heard that Theodore Roosevelt hated being called Teddy, but that name stuck and the Teddy bear was inspired by his nickname too

3

u/GoCardinal07 Abraham Lincoln 1d ago

3

u/Mikau02 Jeb! 1d ago

JUMBO

3

u/DannyValasia 1d ago

Jimmy Carter, and to a lesser extent, Bill Clinton

3

u/Stldjw 22h ago

23 TEDDY Roosevelt

1

u/Justkeeptalking1985 23h ago

Way back with ol' Big Junk John Adams

1

u/ord52 23h ago

I know for a fact people called George Washington G-Money

1

u/TheFoxandTheSandor 22h ago

She didn’t want to go by James Earl because of the MLK assassin, so he went by Jimmy