# Policeman's Hat **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 7, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387 "2003-02-07T03:58:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/1 "2003-02-07T03:58:09Z")
What is the traditional name for the hard round hats that the police wear in the UK? ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/2 "2003-02-07T04:06:48Z")
It’s called a bobby. ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/3 "2003-02-07T04:20:07Z")
Bobbys helmet, I believe? ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/4 "2003-02-07T04:23:40Z")
Pith helmet. Or “tit”, as in: WARLOCK: No, it’s not, man, we’ve got plenty more inside. Come in, take the tit off your head. [Warlock opens the door and Neil enters the house. Warlock leads Neil into the party as Neil gets ready with his truncheon.] Come on in, man. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2003, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/5 "2003-02-07T20:56:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Reeder \* > \*\*It’s called a bobby. \*\* No, that’s a policeman. A bit old fashioned these days, it tends to be used by elderly American tourists who think that’s what we still call them. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Desmostylus \* > \*\*Pith helmet. \*\* Nope. There are several styles of pith helmet, but a policeman’s helmet isn’t one of them. You were closer with “tit”, but not in polite company please. They’re called –_drumroll_– [policeman’s helmets](http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199900/cmhansrd/vo991221/text/91221w10.htm), so **samarm** was closest. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/6 "2003-02-08T06:06:07Z")
My brother - who originally asked the question - was convinced that the name was weird and not ‘policeman’s helmet’ ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/7 "2003-02-08T06:14:57Z")
Well…y’all, I just emailed Scotland Yard with this very question. Yes they do have an email addy for trivial matters. Will report back if I get an answer. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/8 "2003-02-09T00:10:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Desmostylus \* > Pith helmet. While superficially similar, no Brit would refer to a policeman’s helmet as a “Pith helmet”. The latter is strictly tropical gear - though it’s a damn good GD question why that’s a “Pith” helmet. In everyday life, it’s just a “police helmet” or a “policeman’s helmet”. What the tat vendors, who sell plastic versions to tourists, call it I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/9 "2003-02-09T01:17:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bonzer \* > \*\*The latter is strictly tropical gear - though it’s a damn good GD question why that’s a “Pith” helmet. \*\* Hardly any need to debate it – more a GQ. Anyway, according to [this site](http://www.villagehatshop.com/pith_helmet.html) they’re called pith helmets because they’re made using lightweight pith from certain tropical plant stems, or cork if available, trapped between rigid membranes inside and out. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/10 "2003-02-09T01:28:09Z")
F\*\*k, GQ rather than GD. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/11 "2003-02-09T01:33:35Z")
Just for the record, the [New South Wales police](http://www.policensw.com/info/history/h6.html) _did_ refer to theirs as a “pith helmet”. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/12 "2003-02-09T02:33:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Desmostylus \* > Just for the record, the [New South Wales police](http://www.policensw.com/info/history/h6.html) _did_ refer to theirs as a “pith helmet”. That’s because they were part of tropical military dress. If you click on the link I posted and look at the examples there, the fourth one down is a white pith helmet like the ones mentioned in your link. The same things were worn by British officers in Africa, India and other tropical locations, but not by coppers back home in Blighty. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/13 "2003-02-09T06:54:32Z")
My vote’s in for [“bobby helmet”](http://www.foximas.com/russian/original-british-phone-booth.htm) (scroll down the page a bit.) ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/14 "2003-02-09T12:16:03Z")
Sometimes contemptuously and insultingly referred to as a Noddy Hat- why I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/15 "2003-02-09T12:43:08Z")
It’s also only used by the police force in England & Wales. Not in Scotland or Northern Ireland (AFAIK). Why? Because it’s ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/16 "2003-02-09T13:42:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Futile Gesture \* > \*\*It’s also only used by the police force in England & Wales. Not in Scotland or Northern Ireland (AFAIK). > > Why? Because it’s ridiculous. \*\* Also they are not used in England and Wales by officers who spend most of their time driving cars because there is not enough headroom in the vehicles. ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/17 "2003-02-09T16:27:07Z")
Why not in Scotland and Northen Ireland, I don’t know. But I do know that the dress uniform of at least one English regiment (?Royal Anglian) has an exact replica of the tit-hat, as does (IIRC) one of the Gibraltar regiments. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/18 "2003-02-09T16:43:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ice Wolf \* > \*\*My vote’s in for [“bobby helmet”](http://www.foximas.com/russian/original-british-phone-booth.htm) (scroll down the page a bit.) \*\* That site calls a truncheon a “nightstick” though, not to mentional all that “old chap”; “jolly good time”; “looks smashing” palaver :rolleyes:. I reckon it’s up the boohai. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/19 "2003-02-09T16:49:28Z")
Just to pointout that **policeman’s helmet** means something quite, _quite_ different in British Schoolboy English… ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387/20 "2003-02-09T16:53:47Z")
Toodly pip, old fruit, I say, the correct name for this headgear is derived from the “solar topee”, and is pronounced “are sole”. Go up to any policeman in London and ask to see his “are sole” and I’m sure he’ll be only too happy to oblige. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/policemans-hat/153387.md?page=2)