The Semantics of Nicknames of the American Presidents

Abstract

Nicknames as optional and transient terms of address and reference can provide insights into social relationships, culture and language (De Klerk and Bosch 1997:101). The nickname captures a characteristic of a person if it seems relevant to the name-giver. When an additional name is given to a political leader of the country it means that the reason for naming is considered to be important in the public opinion. The study of "official" or "public" nicknames of American presidents can reveal cultural assumptions and stereotypes of the country's political leader existing in the American society. This study is focused on the recorded public nicknames of the American presidents, which were collected from onomastic dictionaries, reference literature on American presidents, and the Internet. The data constituted the approximate amount of 430 nicknames for 43 presidents.