# Question for Southerners about Knitted Caps **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 21, 2004, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469 "2004-10-21T19:27:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/1 "2004-10-21T19:27:45Z")
What do you call [this](http://www.epicti.com/TOQUE.jpg) and have you ever heard it referred to as a taboggin? I was born and raised in the Chattanooga, TN area and until the past year, have always called them that. Was it just something me and my family did or is it more widespread? Judging from some friends’ reactions, specifically \*\*LaurAnge \*\*and **Gr8Kat** , I’m some sort of deviant freak which, I suppose, isn’t all that different from others’ reactions to finding out I’m Southern anyway but that’s a different post altogether. Thanks in advance for any replies. ---
**Author:** ![TitoBenito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2acd7d/32.png) [@TitoBenito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TitoBenito)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/2 "2004-10-21T21:05:31Z")
I use to work in the clothing section of a sports store in Austin and one day these guys and their girlfriends come up to me and ask where the taboggins were. I have no idea what a toboggin is either growing up in a place that almost never snows but I know its something like a sled perhaps a kind of sled. So I told them we didn’t sell sleds. They looked at me like I was crazy. One of their girlfriends finally explained that it was a word her small town east Texas boyfriend used for a knit cap or beany as it is more popularly known in Austin. So to answer you question, its called a taboggin in places in rural East Texas as well. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/3 "2004-10-21T21:09:34Z")
Savannah native here. When I was in school (70’s), we called them “skullies”. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/4 "2004-10-21T21:10:43Z")
It’s kinda spotty, but I heard them called “toboggans” as far back as the 1960s. Not any earlier, though, as I had not yet been born. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/5 "2004-10-21T21:53:43Z")
> [@TitoBenito](#): > > \*ts called a taboggin in places in rural East Texas as well. Yep. I’m from Texarkana, which is on the border of Texas and Arkansas about 70 miles north of Sheveport, La. That’s what we called it there. ---
**Author:** ![mike1dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mike1dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mike1dog)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/6 "2004-10-21T23:34:03Z")
From Mississippi here. Always called them tobbogins. My mother was from Tennessee, and my father from Alabama. ---
**Author:** ![c\_carol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@c\_carol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_carol)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/7 "2004-10-21T23:46:06Z")
It’s a toboggan in North Carolina. ---
**Author:** ![Flipstrip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f6c823/32.png) [@Flipstrip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flipstrip)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/8 "2004-10-21T23:51:12Z")
It was called a toboggan in AR, too. At least in the Northwestern part, where I’m from. ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/9 "2004-10-22T00:09:53Z")
I’ve lived in TN my whole life and that ain’t no toboggan. A toboggan is loooooooooooong. I had one that went all the way down my back. I haven’t seen one in ages though. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/10 "2004-10-22T04:05:36Z")
In the swamps of South East Gulf Coast Texas, we called them… Tim. Actually, we called them stocking caps. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/11 "2004-10-22T04:34:38Z")
I grew up in various places along the Jacksonville-Atlanta axis. We called them stocking caps, or just “winter hats.” I’ve heard them called toboggans by only one person; he was from Knoxville, I think. Somewhere in East TN, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/12 "2004-10-22T05:00:05Z")
I’ve only known them as “sock caps” in the midwest. Taboggans? I’d be looking for a sled, too. ---
**Author:** ![Sharky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Sharky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sharky)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/13 "2004-10-22T05:04:40Z")
In North Georgia we called them sock hats. Around boats I’ve heard them called watch caps. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/14 "2004-10-22T06:18:57Z")
I’m aware they’re called toboggans, but I think that’s from when I lived in Rhode Island or Virginia. [hijack] It reminds me of a story of my youth, though – they were giving me an IQ test when I was about six, and one of the words I had to match to a picture was “toboggan”. I lived in Florida. I had no freaking clue what that thing was. I also remember the game where the teacher would put various things onto an overhead projector (is that what those things are called? with the mirror and the lens on the weird arm and the lit glass plate you put things on) and have us identify them by their silhouette. The one that really threw me was just round. Just a circle. Apparently it was a coaster. I had never used a coaster. I would set my drink down on the dining room table on the placemat 'cause that’s what we had. It didn’t go anywhere else. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/15 "2004-10-22T07:14:17Z")
here in Miss. we call 'em toboggans, too. Although, usually, the shorter 'boggan. As in : “Hey Maw! You seen my 'boggan?” YMMV ---
**Author:** ![Poonther](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Poonther](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poonther)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/16 "2004-10-22T13:36:16Z")
I grew up in Alabama and have relatives all over the state and we always called them taboggins. We never got them confused with the sleds because being that far south very few people owned sleds. When I went to grad. school in Ohio, people thought I was a freak for using that term for a winter cap. Here in Tallahassee I rarely hear them called taboggins and if I do hear that word, I always assume the speaker grew up in the deep South. ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/17 "2004-10-22T14:30:23Z")
When I was living in the south for a couple of years (Raleigh, NC), I heard them called ‘toboggans’, too. I thought it was odd. Being from NY, just south of the Canadian border, I’ve always referred to it as a ‘touque’. People in Raleigh looked at me like I had 3 heads when I said that. But so does my husband and he grew up in the Albany area. I didn’t realize it was a Canadian thing until I moved downstate. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/18 "2004-10-22T14:50:09Z")
Growing up in the 70s-80s in Abilene, West Texas, I always heard them called toboggans. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/19 "2004-10-22T15:12:02Z")
Upstate SC, yes toboggan. No mention of “hat” here though: [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=toboggan](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=toboggan) ---
**Author:** ![smartini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@smartini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smartini)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469/20 "2004-10-22T15:12:34Z")
I’ve lived in the south most of my life. I call them knit caps or stocking caps. I would understand what they meant if someone referred to it as a tobbogan but would probably think that person had lived in the north for a period of time – probably because we don’t get to use our tobbogans here very often – on our heads or on our hills. 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-southerners-about-knitted-caps/270469.md?page=2)