This is a list of nicknames of regiments of the British Army. Many nicknames were used by successor regiments (following renaming or amalgamation).

0

  • The 0.7 Hussars – 14th/20th King's Hussars (humorous simplification of regimental title)

1

  • 1st Invalids – 41st (Welsh) Regiment of Foot later The Welsh Regiment (humorous allusion to Bolton Wanderers F.C.)
  • The Aiglers – 87th Foot (captured a French Imperial Eagle (aigle) at the Battle of Barrosa)
  • The Albert Lesters – Prince Albert's Own Leicestershire Yeomanry, also known as "God's Own" in the 3rd Cavalry Division during the Great War (reference to the lack of KIA until 13 May 1915 – having landed in France since early November 1914).
  • Ally Sloper's Cavalry – Army Service Corps (humorous back-acronym; Ally Sloper was a popular pre-WWI cartoon character drawn by W.F. Thomas in a weekly comic strip; in contemporary slang an 'Alley Sloper' was a rent-dodger, who 'sloped off down the alley' when the rent-collector called)
  • Andy Capp's Commandos – Army Catering Corps, named after the famous newspaper cartoon character Andy Capp
  • The Angle-irons – Royal Anglian Regiment (humorous malapropism)
  • The Armoured Chavalry – Royal Tank Regiment
  • The Armoured Farmers – 3rd Royal Tank Regiment (raised in the West Country)
  • The Assaye Regiment – 74th (Highland) Regiment of Foot (awarded a special Regimental Colour for service at the Battle of Assaye)

B

  • The Back Numbers (also The Back Badgers) – Gloucestershire Regiment (the last regiment to give up the queue or pigtail, retained the ribbons on the back of the collar)
  • Bakers Light Bobs – 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own)
  • The Balsall Heath Artillery – 3rd South Midland Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (from their headquarters at Stoney Lane, Balsall Heath)
  • The Bangalore Gallopers – 13th Hussars
  • The Beavers – 100th (Prince of Wales's Royal Canadian) Regiment of Foot later 1st Battalion Leinster Regiment
  • The Black Horse – 7th (The Princess Royal's) Dragoon Guards
  • The Black Knots – North Staffordshire Regiment (from the dark uniforms of the original Rifle regiments and the number of former Greenjacket officers promoted to high rank)
  • Blayney's Bloodhounds – 89th (The Princess Victoria's) Regiment of Foot
  • The Bleeders – Somerset Light Infantry
  • The Bloody Eleventh – 11th (The North Devonshire) Regiment of Foot, later The Devonshire Regiment (from the heavy casualties suffered at the Battle of Salamanca)
  • The Blue Caps – The Royal Dublin Fusiliers
  • The Brass Heads – 109th Foot (from the hackle worn in the beret)
  • The Butchers – 37th Foot
  • Castor Oil Dragoons – Royal Army Medical Corps
  • The Cat and Cabbage – The Royal Hampshire Regiment
  • Cheeses – 1st Life Guards and 2nd Life Guards
  • The Coal Heavers – Grenadier Guards
  • The Commos – Royal Army Service Corps
  • The Death or Glory Boys – 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge's Own) later 17th/21st Lancers, then Queen's Royal Lancers
  • The Doc's – Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (from the regimental badge which, as the 20th Regiment of Foot, carried "XX", twenty in Roman numerals)
  • Douglas's Ecossais – Royal Scots
  • The Drop-short Rifles – Royal Regiment of Artillery
  • The Dubsters – a composite of 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers and 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers (formed between 30 April and 19 May 1915 after both battalions suffered heavy casualties)
  • The Duke's (or The Duke's Own) – 1st Royal Lancashire Militia (The Duke of Lancaster's Own) (especially after they were linked to the King's Own)
  • The Duke of Boots – Duke of Wellington's Regiment
  • The Duke's Canaries – Edinburgh (County and City) Militia (commanded by Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, from their yellow facings)
  • The Dumpies – 19th Royal Hussars (Queen Alexandra's Own),)

E

  • The Eagle-Takers – 87th Foot
  • The Edinburgh Regiment – 46th Foot)
  • Eliott's Light Horse – 15th The King's Hussars (from an incident during the Battle of Vitoria during the Peninsular War, when the regiment captured a silver chamberpot belonging to Joseph Bonaparte, brother of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte)
  • England's Northern Cavalry – The Light Dragoons
  • The English Jocks – 2nd Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment (in 1914–16 they were the only English Battalion in 81st Brigade, which otherwise consisted of up to five Scottish battalions)
  • The Evergreens – 13th Hussars
  • Faugh-a-Ballagh Boys, or The Faughs – 87th (Royal Irish Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot later 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers (from their Gaelic war cry 'Faugh a Ballagh' ('Clear the Way') during the Peninsular War).
  • First of Track 1st Royal Tank Regiment (humorous from the infantry's history being named xth of Foot)
  • Fitch's Grenadiers – The Royal Irish Rifles
  • Lord Adam Gordon's Life Guards – 3rd Hussars
  • The Green Gunners – Princess Beatrice's (Isle of Wight) Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery, whose officers continued to wear the Rifle green uniform of the Isle of Wight Rifles after they were converted from infantry to coast artillery
  • The Green Horse – 5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) Dragoon Guards

H

  • The Halls and Balls Light Infantry – 6th Battalion, London Regiment (City of London Rifles)
  • The Hampshire Tigers – Royal Hampshire Regiment
  • The Heavy Gunners – Royal Garrison Artillery (humorous back-acronym)
  • The Heroes of Talavera – 47th Foot
  • The Hexham Butchers – North York Militia – (ordered to fire on anti-militia rioters who attacked them at Hexham in 1761)
  • The Hindoostan Regiment – 76th Foot
  • The Hull Tradesmen – 11th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment
  • The Isle of Wight Gurkhas – Princess Beatrice's Isle of Wight rifles, 8th Battalion Hampshire Regiment (due to the reputed small stature of its members and similarities in drill and uniform to Gurkha regiments.)
  • The Isle of Wight Rifles – 9 (Princess Beatrice's) Platoon, C (Duke of Connaught's) Company, 6th/7th Battalion Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (disbanded 1998) (due to the platoon's continued lineage from Princess Beatrice's Isle of Wight rifles, 8th Hampshire Regiment and their location on the Isle of Wight.)

J

  • Jacks – Military Police during WWI
  • The Judaeans – 38th–42nd Battalions Royal Fusiliers (the battalions formed the Jewish Brigade)
  • Knapp's Nippers – 12th (Service) Battalion, East Surrey Regiment (Bermondsey), after their commanding officer
  • The Kokky-Olly Birds – The King's Own Scottish Borderers
  • The Lambs – 102nd Foot
  • The Light Bobs – Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry later The Light Infantry
  • The Lilywhites – 13th/18th Royal Hussars (QMO)

:: – 79th Regiment of Foot (Royal Liverpool Volunteers) 1778–84

  • The Milestones – 1st Foot

N

  • The Namurs – Royal Irish Regiment (from their battle honour of 'Namur' gained in 1695, the first such honour granted to a regiment of the British Army)
  • Nobody's Own – 20th Hussars (for a time, were almost the only British cavalry regiment not to have a prestigious honorary colonel with his or her title in the regimental name)
  • The Norfolk Howards – The Norfolk Regiment
  • The Nottingham Hosiers – 45th (Nottinghamshire) (Sherwood Foresters) Regiment of Foot
  • The Notts and Jocks – Sherwood Foresters (from their previous title, The Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment)
  • The Nulli Secundus Club – The Coldstream Guards
  • The Old Dozen – 12th (The East Suffolk) Regiment of Foot later The Suffolk Regiment
  • The Paschal Lambs
  • The People's Cav Royal Tank Regiment
  • Perthshire Grey Breeks – 2nd Battalion The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)
  • The Piccadilly Peacocks – Westminster Dragoons
  • The Pig and Whistle Light Infantry – Highland Light Infantry
  • The Poachers – 2nd Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment and The Lincolnshire Regiment
  • The Poona Guards – East Yorkshire Regiment
  • The Poultice Wallopers – Royal Army Medical Corps
  • The Printers – 2nd City of London Rifle Volunteers (unit recruited in Fleet Street from the printing works of Eyre & Spottiswoode and Associated Newspapers)
  • The Pull-Throughs – 42nd (East Lancashire) Division (from their divisional number and generally small stature, like the 'Four-by-Two' inches of the flannel pull-through used to clean a rifle).
  • The Pump and Tortoise – 38th (1st Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot later 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment (humorous back-acronym)
  • Queers on Horseback – Queen's Own Hussars (humorous back-acronym)
  • Quick Let's Run – Queen's Lancashire Regiment (humorous back-acronym)
  • The Quill Drivers – Royal Army Pay Corps
  • The Regiment – Special Air Service (Refers to their successes in the field, a sarcastic belief that saying their name will summon them.)
  • The Ribs – 3rd Bn Grenadier Guards. They were the first Infantry to officially serve on board navy ships as Marines
  • Rice Crispy Tasters – Royal Corps of Transport (humorous back-acronym)
  • Rickshaws, Cabs and Taxis – Royal Corps of Transport (humorous back-acronym)
  • The Right of the Line – Royal Horse Artillery
  • The Rollickers – 89th (The Princess Victoria's) Regiment of Foot later 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers – the only British lancer regiment to wear red rather than blue uniforms from 1830 to World War I
  • The Sanguinary Sweeps – King's Royal Rifle Corps
  • The Saucy Pompeys – 56th Foot
  • The Shiny Tenth – 10th Royal Hussars
  • The Shiny Twelfth – 12th (Service) Battalion, East Surrey Regiment (Bermondsey)
  • The Shropshire Gunners – 181st Field Regiment, Royal Artillery – on conversion from a battalion of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry, there was a shortage of RA insignia, so the men were ordered to cut the 'KING'S' and 'L.I.' from their shoulder titles, leaving the word 'Shropshire'
  • The Skilljngers – Carabiniers (6th Dragoon Guards)
  • Strada Reale Highlanders – Gordon Highlanders
  • The Surprisers – 46th (South Devonshire) Regiment of Foot
  • The Sweeps – 95th Rifles later The Rifle Brigade
  • 1st Tangerines – 2nd Foot
  • The Whisky Blenders – 34th Foot

X

  • The XV – 20th Hussars