A running list of past and present player nicknames for reference purposes. Please let me know what is missing and what the nickname means so it can be added. Special thanks to Midas for inadvertently causing me to start this list just so I could decipher his posts.
PLAYERS
Saad Abdul-Salaam
RJ Allen
Angeliño
Jo Inge Berget
Jeb Brovsky
Alexander Callens
Valentin Castellanos
Mix Diskerud
Justin Haak
Jack Harrison
Héber Araújo dos Santos
Yangel Herrera
Sebastien Ibeagha
Andrew Jacobson
Eirik Johansen
Sean Johnson
Frank Lampard
Jonathan Lewis
Mikey Lopez
Gary Mackay-Steven
Ronald Matarrita
Tommy McNamara
Jesús Medina
Eric Miller
Maxi Moralez
Ebenezer Ofori
Keaton Parks
Andrea Pirlo
Alexander Ring
James Sands
John Saunders
Joe Scally
Khiry Shelton
John Stertzer
Ben Sweat
Ismael Tajouri
Anton Tinnerholm
Juan Pablo Torres
David Villa
Rodney Wallace
Kwame Watson-Siriboe
Chris Wingert
COACHES
Jason Kreis
Domènec Torrent
Patrick Vieira
PLAYERS
Saad Abdul-Salaam
- SAS (his initials)
RJ Allen
- Sitch (based on the character "The Situation" from the TV show Jersey Shore)
Angeliño
- Wine 'em Dine 'em 69 'em (based on his jersey number in 2015)
Jo Inge Berget
- One of "The Vikings" (being from Norway, along with Alex Ring (Finland) and Anton Tinnerholm (Sweden))
- JIB/Jib (acronym of name - mentioned on Episode 152 of Blue City Radio podcast and heard here by Domè at 2:36 mark)
- The Mountain (Berget means mountain in Swedish)
Jeb Brovsky
- Brosky (play on his last name and a synonym for a person you would call "bro")
- The Stache (because of his mustache he had during the 2015 season)
Alexander Callens
- Caliente ("hot" in Spanish)
- 6-Train (after the NYC local subway line as in he "makes all stops"); coined by
Gotham Gator - Ironman (nickname given by club at end of 2017 season using #nycfcironman)
Valentin Castellanos
- Taty (previous nickname)
Mix Diskerud
- Nordic Messi (nickname from Men In Blazers)
Justin Haak
- Cavani (resemblance to Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani; crowd during 2018 preseason game against Atletico San Luis statted chanting "Cavani" every time he had the ball)
Jack Harrison
- BAJ (Big Apple Jack - NYC is often known as the Big Apple)
- Captain Jack (from Pirates of the Caribbean's Captain Jack Sparrow)
- Jack Flash (since he is fast - possibly because of Jumpin Jack Flash song by Rolling Stones or the 1986 movie)
- Boy Wonder (from TV commentary during a game vs the Red Bulls in 2016)
Héber Araújo dos Santos
- Air Bear (play on Héber)
Yangel Herrera
- Daddy Yangkee (play on name with singer Daddy Yankee; coined by Hudson River Blue)
Sebastien Ibeagha
- Seb (Vieira's nickname for him)
Andrew Jacobson
- The Hebrew Hammer (due to his religious background and the 2003 movie of the same name)
Eirik Johansen
- Lurch (likeness to the character from The Addams Family)
Sean Johnson
- SeanJohn (play on his first and last name since it's close to the fashion company by Sean Combs)
- The Milkman
- The Incredible Hulk (the similarity between his green jersey and the green comic book character)
Frank Lampard
- Fat Frank (fans thought he looked fat when he played for West Ham)
- Cookie Burger (from Redmen TV)
Jonathan Lewis
- JLew (abbreviation of his full name in the style of JLo or JLaw)
- Jona/Jonah (abbreviation of his first name)
Mikey Lopez
- Sal ("San Antonio Lopez" because he aspires to USL quality)
Gary Mackay-Steven
- GAZ/GAS (pronounced "gaz"; club tweet)
- GMS (his initials)
Ronald Matarrita
- Mata (shortened last name)
Tommy McNamara
- Triple-U or Ucubed (Useless Unless Unmarked)
- TPFKAU (The Player Formerly Known as Ucubed)
- Tubby Messi (due to his size and his ability to hit curlers)
- McNamullet (play on his name and hte fact he had a mullet when he played for Chivas USA)
- TMac (shortened name)
- Tommy Mac from West Nyack (rhyme based on his name and where he was born)
- McNamaradona (combination of McNamara and Diego Maradona's last names)
- Ned Grabavoy Jr.
Jesús Medina
- Funky Cold (song by Tone Lōc called "Funky Cold Medina" which is described as a love potion)
Eric Miller
- Millsy (nickname from first interview)
Maxi Moralez
- Frasquito (“little flask” or “small jar” - the soccer embodiment of that old Argentine saying: "Good things are always found in small jars." )
- Mighty Mouse (resemblance to the cartoon character)
- MiniMax (he is small but highly effective; a Game Theory strategy)
- Spider-Man (does web-slinging motion after he scores, used by social media team, and his son likes him)
- Little Animal/Animalito (Héber's nickname from Heber Cam Ep. 1)
Ebenezer Ofori
- Scrooge (fictional character from Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' named Ebenezer Scrooge)
- Eben (Vieira's nickname for him; Dome calls him this too)
Keaton Parks
- Big Bird (resemblance to the character on Sesame Street; quoted from Doyle's Q&A article on MLssoccer.com)
Andrea Pirlo
- L'architetto ("the Architect" in Italian because of the way in which he builds plays)
- Il professore ("the professor" or "the teacher" in Italian)
- Il maestro ("the master" in Italian)
- Mozart (a reference to the Austrian composer's prodigious ability).
- Ill Maestro (the negative version of "il maestro")
- Pir-NOOOOOO (the reaction to when Pirlo makes a mistake)
Alexander Ring
- Ringleader (play on his name since he often distributes and dictates the play; stadium announcer started calling the captain this in 2019)
- Precious (what Gollum calls the Ring in the Lord of the Rings)
- One True Ring (Lord of the Rings reference)
- Honey Badger (due to his agressive tackling and keeping on the opposing player's heels)
- Reindeer Butcher (reindeer are from Finland and he butchers the competition)
- One of "The Vikings" (being from Finland, along with Jo Inge Berget (Norway) and Anton Tinnerholm (Sweden))
James Sands
- Sandman (play on his last name either in reference to the mythical creature or the song by Metallica called "Enter Sandman")
- Jimmy (Dome has called him this in interviews, but it depends on whether James likes it)
John Saunders
- Slosh (in reference to him often spilling the ball)
- Punch Out (regularly punched the ball out of the box - also in reference to the 1984 video game)
Joe Scally
- Scallywag (play on his last name meaning "a person who behaves badly")
Khiry Shelton
- Q-Tip (based on his hairstyle in 2015-2016); coined by
Gotham Gator
John Stertzer
- The Candy Boy (because of his good looks)
- Stertz till it hurts (a play on his name)
- Mr 15 Minutes (was quickly subbed in (45') and out (69') of the 2017 USOC match vs the Red Bulls due to his poor performance)
Ben Sweat
- CBA ("Can't Be Arsed")
- No Sweat (play on his last name and the phrase "don't sweat it")
- Sweatinho (adding the Portuguese diminutive suffix "inho", which a fair number of soccer players have as part of their names; nickname brought up in this Tweet)
Ismael Tajouri
- Isi (Vieira's nickname for him)
- Dave (what the players at Chelsea call a player with a difficult name to pronounce)
Anton Tinnerholm
- One of "The Vikings" (being from Sweden, along with Alex Ring (Finland) and Jo Inge Berget (Norway))
- Tinny (a play or abbreviation of his last name)
- TinnerBOOM (used multiple times by the social media team)
Juan Pablo Torres
- JP (his initials)
David Villa
- El Capitan ("The Captain")
- El Guaje (“The Kid” in Asturian)
- Leyenda ("Legend" in Spanish)
- El MVP ("The MVP" in Spanish)
- Supernovilla ("A classification of the brightest, most energetic stars on the pitch" from @DempseyTwo on Twitter and Blue City Radio ep 130)
- Batman (based on the comic book character from Gotham aka NYC)
Rodney Wallace
- Rodfather (play on the movie/book "Godfather")
- RodWall (play on his first and last names; nickname when he played in Portland)
Kwame Watson-Siriboe
- Lord Kwame (a name that stuck after his Wikipedia page incorrectly stated that his actual name was Lord Kwame Watson-Siriboe - relevant forums post)
Chris Wingert
- Wingdings (play on his last name and the name of a font)
- Birthday Boy (Jason Kreis subbed Wingert during a USOC game vs the Cosmos on his birthday just so he could play in front of his family)
COACHES
Jason Kreis
- Jesus Kreis (play on Jesus Christ)
- Kreis the Redeemer (play on Christ the Redeemer which is a statue in Brazil)
Domènec Torrent
- Dome (short for Domènec)
Patrick Vieira
- La grande saucisse ("The Big Sausage" in French)
- Paddy or Old Paddy V (play on his name)
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Lamp (Tifo from 2015 based on scene from Anchorman)
