# What's your normal name for a Flat Cap? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 16, 2016, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176 "2016-03-16T17:00:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/1 "2016-03-16T17:00:52Z")
There must be dozens of names for the [Flat Cap](https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0LEV2CykOlWM1QAfV1XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE0aGgwa3JwBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjE1NjNfMQRzZWMDcGl2cw--?p=flat+cap&fr=yfp-t-201&fr2=piv-web) so which one is your usual one? ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/2 "2016-03-16T17:04:03Z")
Er, what’s wrong with ‘flat cap’? I can’t off hand think of any other words for it. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/3 "2016-03-16T17:04:24Z")
My gf brought me one back from Ireland. I look great in it. I call it my Irish cap. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/4 "2016-03-16T17:09:17Z")
Flat cap. Unless it has a pom-pom on the top. Then it is a tam. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/5 "2016-03-16T17:12:21Z")
That’s usually a “newsboy”; occasionally it’s a “golf cap.” ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/6 "2016-03-16T17:13:39Z")
Salt and Pepper Cap, though that really refers to ones with a particular fabric pattern, it’s the name in my head for the style in general. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/7 "2016-03-16T17:13:45Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Er, what’s wrong with ‘flat cap’? > > I can’t off hand think of any other words for it. Neat you should ask, because it was only the other day that I first saw [Flat Cap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_cap) referred to as such. Of the names in that article, I think I would have used driving cap or Newsboy cap to distinguish the style, although I had always heard snap-brim before that other day. Since I educated myself on the topic, I wondered how many others have their own names for such headgear. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/8 "2016-03-16T17:15:13Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Flat cap. > > Unless it has a pom-pom on the top. Then it is a tam. For my own usage, a tam without a pom-pom is a beret. No brim. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/9 "2016-03-16T17:17:03Z")
I always knew it as a driving cap. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/10 "2016-03-16T17:19:22Z")
I’ve always known it as a newsboy. I knew instinctively which style you meant with the term “flat cap” though, without ever having heard it used. ---
**Author:** ![Timchik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@Timchik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timchik)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/11 "2016-03-16T17:24:17Z")
I like the Russian term for them - [aerodrome](https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1507&bih=799&q=%D0%B0&oq=%D0%B0&gs_l=img.3..0l10.3719.6450.0.7127.6.4.2.0.0.0.174.458.1j3.4.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..0.6.464.cejFut6xeTw#hl=en&tbm=isch&q=%D0%BA%D0%B5%D0%BF%D0%BA%D0%B0+%D0%B0%D1%8D%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BC) [кепка аэродром]. Stereotypically worn by Georgians or Azerbaijanis. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/12 "2016-03-16T17:27:03Z")
> [@Timchik](#): > > I like the Russian term for them - [aerodrome](https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1507&bih=799&q=%D0%B0&oq=%D0%B0&gs_l=img.3..0l10.3719.6450.0.7127.6.4.2.0.0.0.174.458.1j3.4.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..0.6.464.cejFut6xeTw#hl=en&tbm=isch&q=%D0%BA%D0%B5%D0%BF%D0%BA%D0%B0+%D0%B0%D1%8D%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BC) [кепка аэродром]. Stereotypically worn by Georgians or Azerbaijanis. Damn if there aren’t some extreme examples there! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/13 "2016-03-16T17:28:28Z")
Flat cap is a generic term. It could be a [newsboy cap](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=newsboy%20cap&tbs=imgo:1), a [driving cap](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=driving%20cap&tbs=imgo:1) (golf cap), a [floppy baseball cap](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=early%20baseball%20cap&tbs=imgo:1), or one of those new kinds that are like a baseball cap but the cap part is connected to the brim to make that [duckbill look](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=ivy%20pub%20cap&tbs=imgo:1). ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/14 "2016-03-16T17:45:25Z")
Scally cap. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/15 "2016-03-16T17:52:00Z")
My father called them mugger caps. My wife bought me one a few years ago, I referred to it as a mugger cap, and got a weird look. I looked up hats on Wikipedia and found them referred to as flat caps, and that is how I refer to them now. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/16 "2016-03-16T17:52:18Z")
Driving cap for silly gits. ---
**Author:** ![Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emtar_KronJonDerSohn)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/17 "2016-03-16T17:57:14Z")
Kangol ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/18 "2016-03-16T17:58:20Z")
I would have called it a newsboy or driving cap. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/19 "2016-03-16T18:24:51Z")
In the 70’s I worked with a middle-aged Irishman who had emigrated to the US in his 20’s. He sometimes wore one of those hats, and told me they were called “caps.” ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/20 "2016-03-16T18:32:56Z")
Bocher hittel, or boys’ everyday hat, in Yiddish. A lot of boys wore those kind of hats at the Jewish schools, but had nicer hats for Shabbes, and then on their Bar Mitzvah, they’d get a wide-brimmed, sort of fedora-type hat like the men wore, and it was a big deal to have it, because it showed everyone you were a Bar Mitzvah. Some adult men wore Bocher hittles as everyday hats, but they were usually men in their late 20s or early 30s. Young enough not to feel silly in one, but old enough that they didn’t feel the need to show off their Bar Mitzvah hat. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176.md?page=2)