# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/21 "2016-03-16T18:53:11Z")
Growing up, I thought they were called “roadster caps”, which may have just been something my older brothers came up with. Or maybe they somehow got to roadster from driving cap. Anyway, a couple years ago when I wanted to buy one, I looked online and learned they were called “flat caps”, so that’s what I think of them as now. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/22 "2016-03-16T19:15:25Z")
Driving cap. ---
**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, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/23 "2016-03-16T19:17:01Z")
> [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](#): > > Kangol Heh, I put mine on backwards and recite Samuel L Jackson’s **Pulp Fiction** soliloquy sometimes. Scares babies. ETA: “soliloquy” is probably the wrong word. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/24 "2016-03-16T20:06:15Z")
[It’s a cheesecutter, of course.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_cap) What else would you call it? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/25 "2016-03-16T20:38:39Z")
Newsboy, Kangol, etc. are a different shape than a flat cap, which is what I call the style associated with rural Ireland and England. The flat cap is more _ahem_ flat while the newsboy is bulgy. And the flat never has a button. Kangol is officially of course a brand who makes many different types of hat, but generically it’s the [Sam Jackson special](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangol#/media/File:Samuel_L_Jackson_at_San_Diego_ComicCon_2008.jpg). ---
**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, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/26 "2016-03-16T21:03:01Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Kangol is officially of course a brand who makes many different types of hat, but generically it’s the [Sam Jackson special](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangol#/media/File:Samuel_L_Jackson_at_San_Diego_ComicCon_2008.jpg). Really? When I hear “kangol” as a generic term for a hat, I think 80s rapper headgear like [this](http://www.xxlmag.com/files/2014/01/LLCoolJ.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/27 "2016-03-16T21:08:05Z")
Page boy. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/28 "2016-03-16T21:52:42Z")
I always called it a “go-fast cap”. Bearded older men driving MG convertibles like to wear them. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/29 "2016-03-16T22:13:46Z")
Flat cap. I don’t have one as they don’t suit me. Peers of my late-teenage children seem to have started referring to a particular style of straight-sided, deep baseball cap (like [this](http://g04.a.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1UUq6KFXXXXbOXXXXq6xXFXXXB/6pcs-NEW-NEW2014-Men-Rapper-Snapback-font-b-Hats-b-font-font-b-COOL-b-font.jpg)) as ‘flat caps’, but this is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/30 "2016-03-16T23:27:48Z")
newsboy ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/31 "2016-03-16T23:43:22Z")
Golf cap. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/32 "2016-03-16T23:55:02Z")
A newsboy is bigger and floppier than a flat cap. I just bought a flat cap for my son and the hatter showed me the different styles of similar hats. I had always called a flat cap a driving cap. Those duckbills are what I always called gangsta hats. Only the bill is flat, so they should call them flat bills, not flat caps. I’ll mention that to the next gangsta I see. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/33 "2016-03-16T23:55:59Z")
I’ve heard it called driving cap. I’ve never heard the term flat cap until now, although that name does seem to fit it really well. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/34 "2016-03-17T00:21:11Z")
A flat cap. I like mine. Last year when I first wore it I took my tween kids to grab some fast food and they suddenly decided to put on fake British accents and act like we were from the UK. The woman behind the counter smiled and asked if I was British, at which point I had to tell them to knock it off–they really were quite convincing. So the rest of the day they put on the act wherever we went in public. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/35 "2016-03-17T00:42:32Z")
Brit cap or sometimes sports car cap. In my clan, most of us don’t wear anything like that except at the wheel of a MG-B or Bug-eyed Sprite. _Maybe_ a Triumph. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/36 "2016-03-17T00:45:31Z")
Hat. I don’t think I know a single person that wears hats, so on the off chance that I need to use it as a distinguishing characteristic, “hat” is good enough. ---
**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 17, 2016, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/37 "2016-03-17T00:48:43Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Heh, I put mine on backwards and recite Samuel L Jackson’s **Pulp Fiction** soliloquy sometimes. Scares babies. > > ETA: “soliloquy” is probably the wrong word. I prefer to dilly, dally, run through an alley, and bump into my old girl Sally from the Valley. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/38 "2016-03-17T00:53:50Z")
I’ve only ever seen them in tweed… and they were called tweed caps by the people talking about them then. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/39 "2016-03-17T02:32:03Z")
British Cab Driver Hat. My father has taken to wearing one every waking moment at age 55, for reasons known only to him. Good to learn some of the actual parlance, but I doubt I’ll change it up. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2016, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176/40 "2016-03-17T04:39:05Z")
I’m a bit embarrassed to say that I totally misread the OP and was getting ready to post: Cat door. Then I clicked the link and briefly thought “cat flap is a weird name for a hat”. :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-normal-name-for-a-flat-cap/749176.md?page=3)