Was in Deadwood and of course everything is about Wild Bill Hickok but his name was JAMES—shouldnt it have been ‘Wild Jim’? WHy did they call him WIld BILL? Nobody in Deadwood could tell us this!
Probably for the same reason Marian Morrison went by “John Wayne” or Archibald Leach chose “Cary Grant” - it sounded better than the alternative.
(I don’t think many people would have gone to see a Wild West show featuring “Jumping Jimmy” or something similar).
I also think the name came about from articles/stories that were written about him and his (fictional?) exploits.
critter42
Although no one knows for sure, conjecture is that James Butler Hickok went by “William” when he first left Illinois for Kansas. Another possibility is that early in his career, after backing down a hostile mob by himself, that one woman shouted out, “Good for you, Wild Bill!” mistaking him for another man.
A good biography of Hickok is by Joseph Rosa.
Some sources say that Hickok’s nickname was originally “Duck Bill”, a reference to the unpleasant way his upper lip stuck out, but few people had the nerve to use the name in front of him.
According to some historians, Hickok once shot a boy dead while his brother watched merely for having said “Hello, Mr. Duck Bill”. Years later Hickok and the boy’s brother met again. He was Tom McCall, the man who shot Hickok to death while he was playing poker in a saloon.