# did Hitler have a nickname?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 17, 2002, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315 "2002-08-17T07:38:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Indy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indy)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/1 "2002-08-17T07:38:14Z")
I realize that this question shows that I have far too much free time, but me and my pal Action Roberts are wondering about nicknames of despots and dictators. Did Hitler have a nickname? Like “Hits” or something that his pals called him during Tuesday night poker? Stalin got “Uncle Joe” from the English speakers, but did he have a name like “lefty” or “dutch” (ok, probably not “dutch”) among his own folk? Rather an odd question, but everyone I know has, at some point in his or her life, and no matter how temporarily, picked up a nickname, so what about the big fellas in, say, the Nazi game?
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### Author:  [@Ell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ell)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/2 "2002-08-17T08:04:24Z")
Apparently Hitler’s nickname was “Wolf”.
He was also refered to as The Fuhrer but that is more of a title than a nickname.
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### Author:  [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/3 "2002-08-17T11:41:48Z")
Field Marshal General Erwin Rommel was known as “The Desert Fox”.
A bit of googling “nazi nickname” turns up these gems:
SS Captain Klaus Barbie earned the nickname “Butcher of Lyon”.
Ante Pavelic was the original 'Butcher of the Balkans."
Christian Wirth, a notorious brute with the nickname ‘the savage Christian.’
Hans Frank earned the nickname the “Jew Butcher of Cracow.”
General Reinhard Heydrich was known as “The Hangman”.
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### Author:  [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/4 "2002-08-17T12:28:51Z")
I once heard that Hitler had the nickname of “Killjoy”. I wonder why…
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/5 "2002-08-17T12:48:31Z")
“Aldi” was a childhod nickname.
It is mentioned someplace in (Chapter 10) of Smith’s The Dark Summer, not the most authoritative source, I know.
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### Author:  [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/6 "2002-08-17T13:12:30Z")
From “Top 59 Mistakes Made by Adolf Hitler” :
1. Changed name from highly catchy ‘Schickelgruber’ to boring ‘Hitler’
so it looks like Hitler is a nickname
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### Author:  [@Kantalooppi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantalooppi)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/7 "2002-08-17T14:10:13Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Stalin got “Uncle Joe” from the English speakers, but did he have a name like “lefty” or “dutch” (ok, probably not “dutch”) among his own folk?
Well, “Stalin”. His real name was Josef Djugashvili, after all, Stalin being a nickname. He also had his earlier activist nick, Koba.
For some reason, Finns often (ironically) call Stalin “Isä Aurinkoinen” (“Father Sunny”).
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/8 "2002-08-17T14:19:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Shade \*
> \*\*From “Top 59 Mistakes Made by Adolf Hitler” :
>
> 1. Changed name from highly catchy ‘Schickelgruber’ to boring ‘Hitler’
>
> so it looks like Hitler is a nickname \*\*
No. Here’s what happened. Adolf Hitler’s grandmother had the last name Schickelgruber. She fell in love with this guy named Johann Heidler, who was this Czech German, and she had a baby out of wedlock with him (probably, anyway. The identity of the baby’s father is sort of in doubt), who she named Alois Schicklelgruber. Then, she and Heidler got married. When Alois Schickelgruber grew up, he changed his last name from Schickelgruber to Hitler, which is a variant of the name Heidler. Alois then would go on to father Adolf So, Adolf Hitler was always named Adolf Hitler. It was Alois who changed his name.
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### Author:  [@regnad\_kcin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/regnad_kcin)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/9 "2002-08-17T14:32:05Z")
Wasnt it “Hiedler”, not “Heidler”?
The pronunciation would be much closer to “Hitler”.
I think in those days spelling wasnt quite so strict, anyway.
At least not like today! 🙂
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### Author:  [@regnad\_kcin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/regnad_kcin)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/10 "2002-08-17T14:38:10Z")
Wasnt it “Hiedler”, not “Heidler”?
The pronunciation would be much closer to “Hitler”.
Upon searching, it seems our esteemed leader concurs:
[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_325b.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_325b.html)
RK
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### Author:  [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/11 "2002-08-17T15:20:08Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Kantalooppi \*
> \*\*Well, “Stalin”. His real name was Josef Djugashvili, after all, Stalin being a nickname. He also had his earlier activist nick, Koba.
>
> For some reason, Finns often (ironically) call Stalin “Isä Aurinkoinen” (“Father Sunny”).\*\*
I was reading in some old 1940 era magazines that Stalin’s acquaintences (I hesitate to say friends) called him “The Boss” or just “Boss”.
Back to the OP though (sort of) - It does make one wonder how history would have been different if while Hitler was a struggling artist someone would have given him the nickname of “Skippy”.
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### Author:  [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/12 "2002-08-17T15:44:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by regnad kcin \*
> \*\*Wasnt it “Hiedler”, not “Heidler”?
>
> The pronunciation would be much closer to “Hitler”.
>
> Upon searching, it seems our esteemed leader concurs:
>
> [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_325b.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_325b.html)
>
> RK \*\*
I think that Germans pronounce the second vowel of the “i and e” combination. So “Hiedler” would be “Heedlehr” and “Heidler” would be “Heyedlehr.” Take your pick.
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### Author:  [@Indy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indy)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/13 "2002-08-17T16:32:50Z")
“Skippy” Hitler? Well, it would have been a different world. Didn’t know Stalin was “the Boss”. Springsteen would be so proud. That’s why I started this thread, for info like that. But I meant nicknames among friends. I can’t picture Hans Frank’s friends saying “Hey, let’s have a party, we’ll invite Schultz, and Schmidt, and the Jew butcher of Cracow…”
What about Pol Pot?
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/14 "2002-08-17T17:07:07Z")
It’s not exactly a nickname, but his staff took to referring to him privately as “Der Teppenfrescher”, or “the carpet chewer”. Apparently when he got really, really mad he would fall to the floor and gnaw on the rug.
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### Author:  [@Osip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osip)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/15 "2002-08-17T18:17:22Z")
I cannot recall where but I have heard Hitler called “the little corporal”
On Stalin
“Born Jospeh Djungashvilli, Aka Ryaboi or ‘Pockmark’, aka Koba, aka Zakhar Melinkyants, aka Nisharadze, aka Joseph Stalin.”\*
If I remember correctly Stalin means “steel” in russian.
Oh and for a side note Lenin’s wife was nicknamed ‘the fish’
- found on page 55 THE RUSSIAN CENTURY copywright 1994 UK\* found on page 55 THE RUSSIAN CENTURY copywright 1994 UK
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### Author:  [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/16 "2002-08-17T19:18:05Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Osip \*
> \*\*Oh and for a side note Lenin’s wife was nicknamed ‘the fish’
> \*\*
I don’t even wanna know…
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/17 "2002-08-17T22:09:16Z")
**Spit** -look up a picture of Nadezha Krupskaya (AKA Mrs. Lenin), and you’ll see why.
Don’t forget Mussolini was “Il Duce” . What was up with that?
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### Author:  [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/18 "2002-08-17T22:34:32Z")
Ach, dear old Dolfy! What a character he was! What times we had together in Vienna, him and I! The madcap schemes he would come up with over the strudels! For some reason, I know not why, he hated shoes, he would often insist that shoes were a menace to the world, that we must rid ourselves of the shoes. I forbore to point out that, despite his arguments, he himself always wore them! Still, what a card! I wonder what became of him?
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/19 "2002-08-17T22:54:59Z")
> [@](#):
>
> It’s not exactly a nickname, but his staff took to referring to him privately as “Der Teppenfrescher”, or “the carpet chewer”. Apparently when he got really, really mad he would fall to the floor and gnaw on the rug.
I believe that’s a UL. I’ve read that what was actually reported was that Hitler was “carpet pacer” not “carpet chewer” (apparently the two terms are almost identical in the original German). For propaganda reasons, the mistranslated version was spread. Hitler may have been nuts but he was no rug-muncher.
> [@](#):
>
> If I remember correctly Stalin means “steel” in russian.
Yes, and one of Stalin’s top henchmen was Molotov whose name means “Hammer”. So you had “Steel Man” and his trusty sidekick “The Hammer” - mild-mannered Bolsheviks by day, Proletariot Heroes of the Masses by Night.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2002, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-hitler-have-a-nickname/124315/20 "2002-08-17T23:15:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \*
> \*\*Don’t forget Mussolini was “Il Duce” . What was up with that? \*\*
Well, my Italian is almost non-existent, but I believe it’s Italian for “The Leader.” In other words, same meaning and fascist symbolism as “Der Fürher.”
It’s derived from the same Latin roots as “duke.” “Dux” and “ducis” originally meant a war-leader, from whence it became a feudal title of nobility.
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