# Educate me: Weird US State Nicknames (c. 1845) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 30, 2022, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-weird-us-state-nicknames-c-1845/974025 "2022-10-30T16:26:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-weird-us-state-nicknames-c-1845/974025/1 "2022-10-30T16:26:50Z")
I am reading a list of US State nicknames _from the 19th Century_. It’s a list supposedly collected in 1885 by Whitman and probably originally from a May 1845 article in the _Broadway Journal_. Many of the nicknames would surprise few. Indiana Hoosiers. Vermont Green Mountain Boys. Iowa Hawkeyes. They are still used, to some degree. But what of these nicknames? Educate me. Alabama Lizards Connecticut Wooden Nutmegs Florida Fly Up The Creeks Illinois Suckers Maryland Claw Thumpers Mississippi Tad Poles Missouri Pukes New Jersey Clam Catchers Oregon Hard Cases Pennsylvania Logher Heads South Carolina Weasels Well? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-weird-us-state-nicknames-c-1845/974025/2 "2022-10-30T16:30:58Z")
Of course, a few of these words have taken on different meanings over the sesquicentennial… ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-weird-us-state-nicknames-c-1845/974025/3 "2022-10-30T16:32:15Z")
More than I wanted to know about wooden nutmegs: > **[Why Early America Was Obsessed With Wooden Nutmegs](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/94734/why-early-america-was-obsessed-wooden-nutmegs)** > > Two hundred years ago, crafting fake spices out of wood was a popular pastime—or so the legends would have you believe. TL;DR Hucksters, particularly “Yankee” hucksters supposedly cheated people by selling them fake nutmeg and Connecticut took that as sort of a badge of pride. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-weird-us-state-nicknames-c-1845/974025/4 "2022-10-30T16:41:57Z")
Maybe that article also explains why King Arthur’s Court was not visited by, say, a Yankee from Yellowstone? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-weird-us-state-nicknames-c-1845/974025/5 "2022-10-30T17:16:52Z")
What did Suckers and Pukes even mean in 1850? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-weird-us-state-nicknames-c-1845/974025/6 "2022-10-30T17:41:12Z")
In Wisconsin the less traditional nicknames include the Wiscos, the Wisconsonians, the Sconnies, the Cheeseheads, 3rd class on the 3rd coast. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-weird-us-state-nicknames-c-1845/974025/7 "2022-10-30T17:45:01Z")
Connecticut is _still_ called the Nutmeg State (though more often it’s called the Constitution State). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-weird-us-state-nicknames-c-1845/974025/8 "2022-10-30T18:17:49Z")
The terms date back apparently to an [1835 article](https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=puke). > It is well known, that the inhabitants of the several western States are called by certain nicknames. Those of Michigan are called wolverines; of Indiana, hooshers; of Illinois, suckers; of Ohio, buckeyes; of Kentucky, corn-crackers; of Missouri pukes, &c. To call a person by his right nickname, is always taken in good part, and gives no offence; but nothing is more offensive than to mis-nickname—that is, were you to call a hoosher a wolverine, his blood would be up in a moment, and he would immediately show fight. [A.A. Parker, “Trip to the West and Texas,” Concord, N.H., 1835] I searched back to 1830 and didn’t find a better article, or any at all, although also in 1835 an article called the Missourians “pewks.” It also varies the spelling of other terms from the above. That testifies to the terms’ newness. > Western Names - The Ohioan is a “Buckeye;” an Indianian a “Hoosier;” an Illinoisan a “Sucker;” a Missourian a “Pewk;” a Kentuckian a “Corncracker;” and a Michiganian a “Wolverene.” “Sucker” is the name for a common freshwater fresh and is especially prevalant in [the Ozarks in Missouri](https://mdc.mo.gov/fishing/species/suckers). “Puke” sounds somewhat similar to “pike” and pike are also a very common Midwestern freshwater fish. Given the other food/animal names, I wouldn’t be surprised if these also fell into that category. I can’t find anything close to confirmation, though. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-weird-us-state-nicknames-c-1845/974025/9 "2022-10-30T21:51:27Z")
Minnesota became known as the [Gopher State](https://www.tptoriginals.org/who-made-minnesota-the-gopher-state/) due to a political cartoon. Mind you, they labelled the thirteen striped ground squirrel a gopher, which it is not but the nickname stuck so well that the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities campuses, anyway) became the Golden Gophers. We do have gophers/prairie dogs, but that’s not what is depicted in the original cartoon. We tend to call our state Minnesnowta, for obvious reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2022, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-weird-us-state-nicknames-c-1845/974025/10 "2022-10-31T21:56:24Z")
I am struck by how many of these seem to refer to locally available seafood. This seems kind of odd in itself. Are there other countries where people from different states or seneschals or sectors are also largely named after seafood? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2022, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-weird-us-state-nicknames-c-1845/974025/11 "2022-10-31T23:02:06Z")
The funny thing about calling Ohioans “Buckeyes” is that the Ohio buckeye tree’s natural range is confined almost entirely to Kentucky: It’s named for the river, not the state. We do get some of the related horse chestnuts here, but even they aren’t all that common: I can tell you where two specific horse chestnut trees are, but I wouldn’t even have to search to find an oak or maple.