There are some nicknames that can follow celebrities for decades, and for some of them, it feels a little weird to use their real names now.
The job title that wouldn’t leave
‘The Boss’ was a title that singer Bruce Springsteen picked up long before stadium tours were in the picture. He used to be part of a band, and he was the guy who collected the money after gigs. He’d then divide it among the musicians.Â
It was thanks to this job that he got the nickname, ‘The Boss.’ Funnily enough, though, Springsteen said he’s never especially liked it, but that doesn’t seem to matter. He had that nickname when he released Born to Run, and it’s stuck around ever since.
A song became the name
The strangest part of Billy Joel’s most famous nickname is its origins. He was struggling as a musician and began playing piano at the Executive Room in Los Angeles in 1972. He played under the name Bill Martin. Soon enough, he became ‘Piano Man.’
The name stuck, and he released an album with the same title the next year. The song became one of his signature numbers, and the title ‘Piano Man’ almost became a second name for him. It’s kind of odd, really, because a lot of his songs sound nothing like a lounge-bar singalong.
She named the record first
Bette Midler more or less gave herself a nickname. She released her debut album in 1972, and it was called The Divine Miss M. Let’s be honest, it’s a theatrical title, even by Bette Midler standards. But it seemed that the name worked.Â
The record pushed her into national fame, and she won a Grammy for Best New Artist. Midler went on to sing, act, do comedy, headline concerts, and appear on Broadway. Yet through all that, ‘The Divine Miss M’ hung around, and she even still uses it officially.
A slow clap did it
Musician Eric Clapton’s nickname is pretty ironic. He’s called ‘Slowhand,’ despite the fact that he’s really not known for playing slowly. Even so, the nickname dates back to his Yardbirds period, when he would sometimes break a guitar string onstage and replace it.
The audience would give him a slow handclap while he did it. Clapton’s manager, Giorgio Gomelsky, turned the ritual into a nickname, and somehow it survived practically everything. Clapton even named his 1977 album Slowhand. It was that popular.
Sacramento met the Terminator
It wasn’t hard for Arnold Schwarzenegger to get a political nickname. He’d already played the Terminator, after all, and then he ran for governor of California in 2003. His nickname ‘The Governator’ practically made itself, and newspapers used it during the recall election.
Television outlets did so, too. The name followed him through two terms in Sacramento. He has played plenty of other roles, sure, but none of them have given political reporters such an easy pun. You’ll still see people use the nickname now, even years after leaving office.
One song kept orbiting
Elton John’s nickname popped up later on in his career. He wrote a song called ‘Rocket Man’ in 1972 with Bernie Taupin, and the track reached No. 6 in the U.S. It soon became one of his most famous songs, and that’s why the title kept coming back.
He named his 2019 biopic Rocketman, and a lot of his own official material has leaned into the connection. John might have a catalog full of enormous hits, but still, it’s this song that became the label for him, apparently.
His first name lost
You might not recognize the name Earvin Johnson, but you’ll definitely know his nickname. He’s often called Magic Johnson. The nickname started when, at age 15, he put up 36 points, 18 rebounds, and 16 assists in a high school basketball game.
Lansing sportswriter Fred Stabley Jr. called him ‘Magic,’ and the name hung around. He went on to Michigan State, and then the Los Angeles Lakers, where he won five NBA championships. The nickname never quite went away.
Britain shortened it
Paul McCartney uses ‘Sir Paul’ when it’s a formal occasion. Every other time, he’s known as ‘Macca.’ The name is nothing more than a shortened version of McCartney, yet it’s followed him through Beatles reunions and Wings memories.
He’s even spoken about it on his website. Yes, the singer mentioned that photographers sometimes shout, ‘Oi, Macca’ at him. It’s not exactly clear where the nickname started. Either way, it’s one of those British nicknames that stuck so hard it became public property.
One role never clocked out
Henry Winkler’s name is a little strange. The actor has played plenty of characters since Happy Days, including roles that won him an Emmy. Yet people still call him ‘The Fonz’ because of his role as Arthur Fonzarelli.
Technically, it’s the sitcom character who has the nickname, but it somehow managed to pass on to Winkler, too. Fonzie became wildly popular, and practically every part of the character followed Winkler into real life. People imitate Fonzarelli’s thumbs-up pose and ‘Ayy’ catchphrase around Winkler all the time.
2,632 games later
Cal Ripken Jr. didn’t get his nickname because of marketing. No, he started getting called ‘The Iron Man’ just because he showed up. The Baltimore Orioles star played in 2,632 consecutive games from May 30, 1982, through September 1998.Â
He passed Lou Gehrig’s previous record of 2,130 straight appearances on September 6, 1995. That streak became the thing everyone associated Ripken with. The fact that he was also a 19-time All-Star and two-time American League MVP didn’t seem to matter. He was persistent, nothing more, nothing less.
It started at a pinball machine
There was a time before Dennis Rodman showed up with multicolored hair and rebounding titles. He was already ‘The Worm’ by that point. The story started in his childhood, when people made jokes about the way he wriggled and twisted while playing pinball.Â
He later became one of the NBA’s most recognizable defenders and rebounders. The nickname managed to make it through all of that. No amount of tattoos or different hairstyles seems to change that fact.
The school mascot helped
Jack Nicklaus’s nickname ‘The Golden Bear’ started pretty early. It began when Australian sportswriter Don Lawrence compared the young golfer to a big, cuddly golden bear. Nicklaus attended Upper Arlington High School in Ohio, and its teams were called the Golden Bears.
Put those together, and you have ‘The Golden Bear.’ Nicklaus actually adopted the nickname during his early professional years. Then he started using it on clothing and golf businesses, along with his familiar bear logo.Â
The name arrived before Pittsburgh
You might think that ‘Mean Joe’ was a nickname that came after Joe Greene joined the Steelers. You’d be wrong. The football star already had it at North Texas State, long before Pittsburgh took him fourth overall in the 1969 NFL Draft.Â
It was then that Greene became one of the biggest names on the Steel Curtain defense. He got four Super Bowl rings. Soon after came the Coca-Cola commercial where he got called ‘Mean Joe,’ and apparently, Greene didn’t like people assuming the nickname described his personality. He was far from mean.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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