Didn’t quite know where to look for this. The first hat is commonly called a beanie around here, it’s a tight-fitting knit hat that you would wear while skiing. I know it’s not a beanie, but is there a better name for it than “knit hat?”
The second hat is called a scally cap. It looks like a newsboy-type hat. Problem is, I can’t seem to find out if this is a real word, if it’s actually what the hat is called, and what the heck it means. So far my research suggests this might be a derogatory British term, maybe that’s where the name for the hat comes from. Perhaps it’s popular among football hooligans or something, and that’s where the name comes from? I also saw something that suggested it was an Irish trend that spread elsewhere in the eighties, but I don’t recall seeing these back then, so I don’t know.
I don’t really know why I care, but it just bothers me that I don’t know.
Google gets 1,380 hits for scally caps, including merchandise sites, so it looks like a reasonably widespread term. They also seem to be called “newsboy caps.”
Interestingly, this site, calling itself Scally Central includes several links to stories in which the headgear is called a “baseball cap.” Aside from the plaid, the shape of the caps shown are definitely those of what I would (in the U.S.) call a baseball cap.
I’m not sure what we would call one made of plaid flannel–perhaps a hunter’s cap? (Neither flannel nor plaid are associated with any baseball images of mine.)
I was hoping for some confirmation that “scally” was a commonly used term. Since none of you have heard of it, and it doesn’t seem to exist outside skinhead subculture, I just want to know where it came from and if it’s the correct term for the hat or if it’s slang. Even Kangol, one of the manufacturers of these hats, just calls them 504s. Scally apparently has Irish roots, so if there are any Irish dopers out there, what do you call these hats?
Scally is plenty common in UK English; it represents some sort of British equivalent of “White Trash”. I’m sure someone can come and explain exactly what a “scally” is and how it differs from a “chav” and the various other British slang terms for uncivilized folk.