The Yuckraker

Through extensive research, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Dorothy Klein-Anderson has found that many of our most beloved presidents had nicknames most people never knew about.

“When I say ‘Ike’ or “Tricky Dicky,’ everyone knows about whom I’m talking,” said Klein-Anderson from her home in Princeton, N.J. “But there are some really fascinating monikers I hadn’t heard of until recently.”

Here’s a sampling:

President No. 3 — Thomas “Dark Meat” Jefferson
6 — John Quincy “Q&A” Adams
9 — William Henry “Nah, it’s nice out” Harrison
10 — John “Tippekayak” Tyler
12 — Zachary “It’s not Tyler, dick” Taylor
14 — Franklin “Last Call” Pierce
15 — James “Seacrest” Buchanan
18 — Ulysses “I’m buried there, idiot” Grant
19 — “Ol’ piece of chicken in his beard” Rutherford B. Hayes
22/24 — Grover “Two-fer” Cleveland
23 — Benjamin “Lunchmeat” Harrison
25 — William “What-archy rules?” McKinley
27 — William Howard Taft, “The Gentleman Anorexic”
29 — Warren G. “Teapot Dumb” Harding
30 — Calvin “Chatterbox” Coolidge
32 — Franklin “The Gazelle” Roosevelt
33 — Harry “The Hiroshima Dreama” Truman

Klein-Anderson’s complete findings will be published in The Journal of Presidential Stuff this fall.