# Royal Nicknames... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 17, 2006, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372 "2006-01-17T16:56:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [January 18, 2006, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372/21 "2006-01-18T18:54:30Z")
My favourite amongst the Polish kings is a toss-up between **Władysław the Elbow-high** and **Władysław Spindleshanks**. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372/22 "2006-01-18T19:23:06Z")
I give you Eric II, King of Denmark. “He was known as Eric the Memorable…but no one remembers why.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372/23 "2006-01-18T20:53:29Z")
> [@orionzpear](#): > > Please do add any other… Bruno the Questionable. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372/24 "2006-01-18T20:57:22Z")
Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy (a Viking leader who conquered and colonized that region of northwestern France) was known as “Hrolf the Ganger” (“Walker”) because he was too tall to ride a horse (no stirrups then, and his feet would drag). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372/25 "2006-01-18T20:58:53Z")
There was also a Viking leader called “Ivar the Boneless.” There are several theories as to why. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivar\_the\_Boneless](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivar_the_Boneless) ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372/26 "2006-01-18T23:17:35Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Queen Victoria’s son, Edward VII was known informally as “Edward the Caressor” for his numerous affairs. “Edward the Caresser” is a play on “Edward the Confessor”, who was king of England from 1042-1066. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372/27 "2006-01-19T00:09:17Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Because he used to impale his enemies on stakes. He especially liked to shove stakes up one of the lower orifices (N.B., he impaled women, too) in such a way so that it took them hours to die. > > BTW, his father was Vlad Dracul (“Dracul” for “dragon”), and his son, Vlad Tepes, was named “Dracula,” which means “son of Dracul.” I know that, I was just offering him up as a suggestion. > [@Eleanor of Aquitaine](#): > > “Edward the Caresser” is a play on “Edward the Confessor”, who was king of England from 1042-1066. Exactly, which makes it even better. Alexander II of Russia was known as the Tsar-Liberator for his ending of serfdom. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372/28 "2006-01-19T01:11:54Z")
_coughs_ [Best Medieval Nicknames EVER!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=303985&highlight=medieval) ---
**Author:** ![ryobserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372/29 "2006-01-19T23:40:11Z")
Back to the OP… Ivan “the Terrible” is the common English translation of Ivan Grozny, his Russian name. “Grozny” has connotations of “awesome” as well as “awful”, as does “terrible” in phrases like “a terrible responsibility” or “the terrible Day of Judgement”. Ivan was a successful war leader who expanded Russian territory and was the first Russian ruler to call himself Tsar, among other accomplishments that made him terrible in the grand sense; but he was certainly terrible in the more common sense, too. He did, as the OP mentions, kill his son in a fit of rage; more seriously, he created the first of Russia’s many secret police, the oprichniki, and conducted one of the early reigns of terror against class enemies (in his case, the boyars). My favorite royal nicknames: Henry VI of Castile, or Henry the Impotent. He was. Apparently the poor man was born with malformed genitals. Ivar the Boneless, already mentioned. A Viking ruler in England was called Eric Bloodaxe, but I don’t know if that was a nickname or his actual name. Two sultans of Turkey: Selim I was called Selim the Grim, because he was. He was a competent ruler and war leader, but he was given to arbitrary executions and inagurated what became an Ottoman tradition of offing all his male relatives to avoid competition for the throne. Later came Selim II, Selim the Drunkard, or for lovers of obsolete alliteration, Selim the Sot. ---
**Author:** ![Grey\_Mauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@Grey\_Mauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey_Mauser)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372/30 "2006-01-20T00:25:29Z")
> [@orionzpear](#): > > Thanks…and Please do add any other… From Ireland - Conn of the Hundred Battles, and Niall of the Nine Hostages. Niall, by the way, may now have as many as three million descendants, and one study suggests that 2% of the men in New York are related to him. [See here](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10892117/from/ET/) ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372/31 "2006-01-20T09:12:24Z")
> [@ryobserver](#): > > A Viking ruler in England was called Eric Bloodaxe, but I don’t know if that was a nickname or his actual name. Nickname. [Eric Bloodaxe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Bloodaxe) killed four of his own brothers, and was only a ruler in England after he’d been thrown out of Norway for being a nasty king. He was replaced with his brother Haakon, who was nicknamed Aðalsteinsfóstri because he was fostered by English king Athelstan, and later Haakon the Good. At least according to Snorre. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372/32 "2006-01-20T12:29:18Z")
Edmund II “Ironsides” ---
**Author:** ![orionzpear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@orionzpear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orionzpear)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372/33 "2006-01-20T17:45:58Z")
To add: Harold I of Denmark (Bluetooth)… wonder why he was called that… but apparently the bluetooh symbol for wireless connectivity is from the runes for H and B… ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372/34 "2006-01-20T18:39:18Z")
> [@Grey Mauser](#): > > From Ireland - Conn of the Hundred Battles, and Niall of the Nine Hostages. > > Niall, by the way, may now have as many as three million descendants, and one study suggests that 2% of the men in New York are related to him. [See here](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10892117/from/ET/) Not exactly. That’s overstating the data a bit to suggest that everyone with that Y haplotype descends from Niall. All that haplotype shows is a descent from Niall’s male kin-group, which even in his own time could’ve been hundreds or thousands of people. You could be descended from Niall, or his brother, or his third cousin-five-times-removed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/royal-nicknames/340372.md?page=1)