I don’t think any other article of clothing causes so much confusion or has so many names. I’d guess the official name is “tuque“, but we always called it a “beanie”, “skullcap”, or “tossle cap”.
What do you call this kind of hat?
Wikipedia lists all these alternatives under the tuque entry…
- knit hat
- knit cap
- sock cap
- stocking cap
- watch cap
- skull cap
- skully
- snow hat
- snow cap
- ski cap
- tossle cap
- woolly hat
- chook
- beanie
- toboggan
I had a friend on Facebook recently call it a “snooki”. How many nicknames is Wikipedia missing? I was always annoyed by calling it a “toboggan”… isn’t that a sled?
At any rate, what do you call it?
World (and Lunar) Domination 
I’ve always referred to them as beanies.
I don’t understand the need for 20+ names for them…
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Exactly! How did all these different regional names pop up? Was the 1st name just not recognized?
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I grew up with “stocking cap” but now I use tuque (or toque?) because I’m a poser wannabe Canadian. I’ve heard tousel cap (maybe from “tassle?”) and toboggan cap too (on M*A*S*H it’s Major Winchester’s Christmas gift from home).
I always thought a beanie was more like a yamulke, though. Like a propeller beanie.
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Come on, no one wants to be Canadian… do they? A Toboggan is a a sled. How did it come to also be the hat? That’s like calling a bicycle helmet a bicycle.
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I’ve always called them stocking caps, tossle caps, or winter caps. To me, a “beanie” was always the propeller version of this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beanie
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Yeah, beanie does bring to mind those little cartoonish propeller hats… but if you said “nice beanie” I’d know what you meant.
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Even growing up close to the Canadian border, I’ve never heard of half of these, or atleast never paid attention. I assumed everyone called them beanies. I thought a stocking cap was what Scrooge wore with his Jammies.
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We called them tossle or tossel caps when I was little… but I came to cal them a skullcap or beanie as I got older.
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…good point on the scrooge/jammies though.
Seems all the names for this kind of hat are taken from other kinds of hats… or a sled.
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“Stocking hat” or “Knit hat”. Caps are billed baseball caps IMHO. I’m from Virginia, but parents were from Missouri & Florida, so I’m not sure which regionalism applies.
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Well, I live in Pittsburgh… and I’ve heard all of these words used. It’s almost a hat without a name or a region.
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These FB threads are both full of comments too…
http://www.facebook.com/AiXeLsyD13/posts/487568293996
http://www.facebook.com/AiXeLsyD13/posts/193599250654322
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I may have to learn to knit, so I can make myself one of these: R2-D2 Hat.
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SNOOKIE! Maybe I’m just crazy but everyone I knew in high school called them that. So I do too. Such a lemming, I know.
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Yeah, Dave Worst was saying on Facebook that that’s what Sara(h?) calls it, and she’s a Somersetian too.
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