Let’s hear it for author David Winder for putting together a list of the top 50 most interesting high school nicknames.
Of course, a school in California gets the No. 1 ranking. Life Academy of Health and Biosciences in Oakland has the Biohazards as their nickname.
Here’s his selections:
50. Poets (Dunbar HS – Baltimore)
49. Burrs (West Catholic Preparatory HS – Philadelphia)
48. Flying Flucos (Fluvanna County HS – Palmyra, Va.)
47. Shiretowners (Houlton HS – Houlton, Maine)
46. Amaguqs (Nunamiut School – Anaktuvuk Pass, Ark.)
45. Syrupmakers (Cairo HS – Cairo, Ga.)
44. Achaeans (Herron HS – Indianapolis, Ind.)
43. Vulcans (Vassar HS – Vassar, Miss.)
42. Spongers (Tarpon Springs HS – Tarpon Springs, Fla.)
41. Fourteeners (Lake City Community School – Lake City, Colo.)
40. Lava Bears (Bend HS – Bend, Ore.)
39. Ceramics (Crooksville HS – Crooksville, Ohio)
38. Mean Moose (Alamosa HS – Alamosa, Colo.)
37. Blizzards (Winters HS – Winters, Texas)
36. Dots (Poca HS – Poca, W.V.)
35. Earwigs (Dunn School – Los Olivos, Calif.)
34. Goblins (Harrison HS – Harrison, Ark.)
33. Cutthroats (Community HS – Sun Valley, Idaho)
32. Hoboes (Laurel Hill School – Laurel Hill, Fla.)
31. Cornjerkers (Hoopeston HS – Hoopeston, Ill.)
30. Lab Rats (Roanoke Valley Governor’s School – Roanoke, Va.)
29. Conchs (Key West HS – Key West, Fla.)
28. Pugs (Paoli HS – Paoli, Okla.)
27. Vineyarders (Martha’s Vineyard Regional HS – Oak Bluffs, Mass.)
26. Awesome Blossoms (Blooming Prairie HS – Blooming Prairie, Minn.)
25. Alices (Lincoln HS – Vincennes, Ind.): A popular theory for how the Lincoln Alices got their name is that it comes from the novel Alice of Old Vincennes, which features an orphan in the French outpost of Vincennes, Indiana (yes, the same town) during the Revolutionary War. Fun Fact: Alice of Old Vincennes was a bestseller in 1900 and 1901.
24. Sir Bills (Johnstown HS – Johnstown, N.Y.): They are named after the city’s founder, Sir William Johnson.
23. Barbs (DeKalb HS – DeKalb, Ill.):
Illinois farmer Joseph Glidden received a patent in 1874 for creating the first commercially successful barbed wire, which the local high school eventually adopted.
22. Amazons (Madeira HS – Cincinnati, Ohio): The Madeira Amazons materialized after a group of boys started calling the girls’ basketball team derogatory names and trashed their locker room. A coach liked what one of the words represented (powerful women warriors in Greek mythology) and had the sobriquet of the girls’ teams changed from the Mustangs.
21. Battling Bathers (Mount Clemens HS – Mount Clemens, Miss.): The Battling Bathers were named after the nearby mineral baths.
20: Boundaries, Curious, and Odd Animals (Borderites Blaine HS – Blaine, Wash.): The Borderites are located next to the Canadian border at the most westernmost point of the contiguous U.S.
19. Zizzers (West Plains HS – West Plains, Mo.): The West Plains Zizzers got their name in 1908 when a faculty member was so impressed with a class booklet that they exclaimed, “Oh, what a Zizzer!”
18. Winged Beavers (Avon Old Farms School – Avon, Conn.): The founder of Avon Old Farms adored beavers. But she wanted the school’s nickname to pop and something like Silver Beavers or Fighting Beavers apparently wasn’t good enough. In the end she gave her favorite rodents some feathers.
17. Spoofhounds (Maryville HS – Maryville, Mo.): The Maryville Spoofhounds are the result of a motivational insult. The Maryville coach chose “spoofhounds” after the ugly, plaster of Paris dog from a recent carnival. The players took a liking to the name, and the rest is history.
16. Ugly Eagles (Clayton Valley Charter – Concord, Calif.):
A football coach grew tired of his players’ long hair and unkempt look and gave the team a new nickname.
15. Kewpies (Hickman HS – Columbia, Mo.): The Hickman Kewpies are named after a naked, smiling baby who was a favorite in a comic strip and later dolls and figurines. The name caught on in 1969 when an announcer said that even though the Hickman football team was losing, they were “smiling like a bunch of Kewpies.”
14. Noises (Hale-Ray HS – Moodus, Conn.): The Hale-Ray Noises get their name from the nearby area, which the Algonquians called Machimoodus, meaning “the place of bad noises.” Geologists have determined the sounds are from shifting tectonic plates, creating underground rumblings that are amplified by the topography.
13. Obezags (Key School – Annapolis, Md.): Key School students in the late 1960s looked around their campus, saw three gazebos, and thought the reverse – Obezags – was a perfect nickname.
12. Peglegs (Stuyvesant HS – New York, N.Y.) The Peglegs are named after Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Director-General of New Netherland before the English seized the colony and renamed it New York in 1664. Stuyvesant was known as “Peg Leg Pete,” after losing his leg below the knee during a battle on St. Martin in 1644.
11. Dateliners Diomede School – Diomede, Ark.): The Dateliners are located about a mile from the International Date Line in the middle of the Bering Strait.
10. Bubblers (Boiling Springs HS – Boiling Springs, Penn.): Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania, sits on a network of springs that due to a hydrogeological phenomenon, causes water to bubble to the surface, making it look like it is boiling. The Bubblers are named after The Bubble, the largest spring.
9. Buff ’n Blue (Punahou School – Honolulu, Hawaii): The colors of Waikiki Beach.
8. Cutters (Fair Lawn HS – Fair Lawn, N.J.): The Cutters are a result of a few star football players cutting class to see a double feature in 1943. The players were caught, resulting in the coach benching them for an upcoming game. But at halftime the opposition held a 12-0 lead, so the coach changed his mind. With the movie aficionados apparently learning their lesson after two quarters, Fair Lawn rallied for a 13-12 win – one of the cutters scored two touchdowns and the extra point. Afterward, students demanded the school adopt the Cutters nickname because those players had won the game. The administration agreed.
7. Hodags (Rhinelander HS – Rhinelander, Wisc.): In 1896, a local lumberjack near a small town in northeastern Wisconsin told of a bizarre green monster roaming the nearby woods. It was called a hodag, and he even had a picture of it. He would later admit it was all a hoax, but not before the area became Hodag Country.
6. Hippos (Hutto HS – Hutto, Texas): Local legends abound about how the Hippos got their name. The most popular involves a hippo escaping from a traveling circus and finding its way to a nearby creek. The hippo liked it there, so it took a while to extract the animal from the muddy waters to the delight of the locals.
5. Jug Rox (Shoals HS – Shoals, Ind.): The Jug Rox are named after Jug Rock, a 60-foot-high, free-standing rock formation that resembles a jug. Jug Rock is the largest free-standing table rock east of the Mississippi River.
4. Feet (The Webb School – Bell Buckle, Tenn.): The Feet became the official nickname in 1974. There is no consensus as to why it was chosen.
3. Caxys (Lake Forest Academy – Lake Forest, Ill.): Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes’ comedy The Frogs inspired the Caxys nickname. The political satire was a big hit at the school, which led students to use the call of the Frog chorus, “Caxys, co-ax, co-ax, co-ax,” to cheer on their classmates. The school says that caxys is ancient Greek for ribbit, or the sound a frog makes.
2. Criminals (Yuma HS – Yuma, Ariz.): A fire forced Yuma High School to hold classes in an abandoned prison (1910-1912). This led to rival Phoenix Union players calling them criminals and making accusations of cheating during a 1913 football game. Eventually, Yuma students leaned into the Criminals moniker, and it became the school’s official nickname in 1917.
1. Biohazards (Life Academy of Health and Biosciences – Oakland, Calif.): The Biohazards are named after biological substances that threaten to human health – the only nickname that includes medical waste, viruses, and micro-organisms.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.