Nicknames and Women Professional Baseball Players

Abstract

Although women in the general population tend to have fewer nicknames than men, women baseball players in the All-American Girls Baseball League, 1943–1954, were as likely as male baseball players to have public nicknames. This high percentage may be the result of women baseball players taking on the role of nicknamer, since the group in power is more likely to bestow public nicknames and more likely to bestow them on members of their own group. Public nicknames may be a reflection of the power differential between men and women in a given environment.