England's Odd Demonyms

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SOURCES & FURTHER READING

[NameExplain]

What are people from your city known as?

[DarwinskiYT]

I’ve never heard a single soul refer to Birmingham as “beloved on the world stage”

[Benwut]

Wierdest demonym was what we locals called people in our tiny town in tunisia, Dehiba, which we'd call ourselves "Min Anakin" (meaning "of anakin") as an adjective. Reason being, Dehiba is in the Tataouine Governorate of tunisia, so we made a pun in the 1990s in reference to the planet the star wars character Anakin was born on

[Escapee]

Surely the best derogatory name that's been embraced by the locals are the "Monkey-Hangers" of Hartlepool?

[JesmondBeeBee]

I'm a Mackem, born in Sunderland, which is where my dad is from, but I'm also half Sand Dancer - the denonym for the nearby South Shields.

[ianallan]

I’m a Geordie. A lot of years ago I worked with the British Army in the extreme south of England. Those rascally squaddies called all northeners “ganyams”. When I asked why, I was told that it all depends on homesickness and weekend leave. “It’s Friday and I’m gannin hyem”. (It’s Friday and I’m going home)

[lordsleepyhead]

I like how Nottingham apparently comes from a local king Snot and everybody collectively decided to forget that and people from Nottingham are not called Snots

[craigmacmillan]

Wiltshiremen are referred to as 'Moonrakers' from a smuggler story that shows them in good (moon)light

[jimdale]

Yes. I'm a 65 year old Australian. Brumby is a word my father used. He was born in a remote rural area of Victoria in 1903.

[phipli]

You have accidentally overlooked that people in Birmingham and the surrounding area call Birmingham "Brum". It hasn't fallen out of use. Brummie is a person from Brum... It isn't much of a leap given the abbreviated form of the old name for the town / city hasn't fallen out of use.

[gingersperg]

Wools are from wirral, the peninsula dividing Liverpool from Wales, surrounded by the mersey and dee.

[jamessadler]

Another you missed is Loiner for those from Leeds.

[stalfithrildi]

Sheffielders are called Deedars by other Tykes (Yorkshire people) because instead of saying "thee and thou" we said "dee and daa".

[jo]

I'm from Macclesfield, and we're called Maxonians.

[rikrikonius]

"You all know what a demonyn is, right?"
Uh, yeah. It's what you call an evil mystical entity, innit?

[iallso]

Love how your photo of Newcastle shows more of Gateshead than it does Newcastle.

[nicholasholt]

Ones from around the north east include Sanddancer for South Shields and Smoggie for Teesside

[AWSMcube]

I'm near a Manchester in the US, I was a bit surprised to see that the demonym is Mancunian. It comes from an older Latin word, Mancunium, of uncertain etymology, from the city's Roman days (in 79 AD).

[amandable]

Also living in Plymouth, I think the Janner name is more about the accent. A regional Devonian accent (farmer accent closer to a Somerset or Bristolian accent) and Plymouth accent (Jannarrrr) do sound different. Different again to a Cornish accent as well. One thing that unites them all is overpronouncing Rs.

[SamButler]

Worth noting that the egg part of the possible "cockney" origin story is because the Middle English word was ey. Which is funny because the Old English word was ǣg, we lost the G and then found it again later