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Lettuce Explain: The Origins Behind Quirky Food Names

These foods are serious business — even if they do have silly names.

Published June 24, 2025
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God help me, I love a snickerdoodle. Fun to say. Fun to eat. I've been baking them since childhood, and I never paused to wonder why on Earth they'd ever be called that. Then I started thinking about other foods with equally fun names, and wondering about all of it. Once you pull at that first thread, it's hard to stop.

These are foods with fun names that took me far too many years of my life to realize how funny some of them are. Sometimes, the origins of the name are probably entirely legendary. Other times, there's a concrete reason they got that name. Either way, these delicious foods have names that are fun to say. Here's where those names might have come from. 

Bubble & Squeak

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The English have a way of naming some of their dishes that I find utterly charming. Take, for instance, bubble and squeak, which is a traditional dish containing cabbage and potatoes. So why's it called that? It's the sound the ingredients make when they're cooking. 

SPAM

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As a  is hilarious. As a kid who grew up in the '70s eating SPAM casserole, I find it a pretty tasty food. But why SPAM?

Turns out, it's a portmanteau (a mashup of two words) for "spiced ham." The name came about from a contest Hormel ran to name the meat product. 

Spotted Dick

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Oh, England, you've done it again. I LOVE the name of this traditional steamed British pudding (dessert to Americans), made from suet and dried fruits. Looking at spotted dick, the spotted part is easy to understand — it's the fruit studding the pudding. But why dick? It's a 19th-century term for a plain pudding. Nothing nefarious there. 

Dutch Baby

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This souffle-like, eggy pancake has been a family fave here at the Frazier house since our kids were small, and I enjoyed them when I was a kid, too. So naturally, I was surprised when I made a German apple pancake that was essentially a Dutch baby with apples. It turns out that the Dutch baby is actually a variation of a German pancake (it's not Dutch at all), and it was created at a restaurant in Seattle. Wondering where the Dutch part comes from? Probably a mispronunciation of Deutsch, which means German. As to why the baby part? It's hard to say. Perhaps it's because of the food baby that remains in your stomach when you gobble up one of these delicious pancakes. 

Related: 3 Pancake Recipes That Are Flippin' Fantastic

Toad in the Hole

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Oh, UK, you've done it again! This utterly charming dish contains sausages cooked in Yorkshire pudding batter. It has been a British staple since the 1700s.

According to the , the toad in the hole name might have its origins in golf. According to legend, in a golf tournament in Northumberland (where the dish was invented), someone had just sunk a putt when a toad poked its head out of the hole and popped the ball out. Another possible explanation for the name is that the sausages look like toads poking their heads out of holes. Which is it? Nobody knows. 

Devils on Horseback

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This classic appetizer of stuffed dates wrapped in bacon was big on the '70s cocktail party circuit, but it has actually been around since Victorian times, and it's from the land of most charmingly named dishes — England. Like other dishes with fun names, the origins of this one are a little murky, but there are two distinct schools of thought. The first one suggests they're called that because they're hot as the devil when they come out of the oven. The second school of thought is that it's named after Norman invaders, who wore bacon-covered armor to scare their opponents. 

I love the second story, but it sounds a little sus since the Norman invasion was centuries before this appetizer became a thing. I'll let you decide.

Stargazy Pie

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Sure, at first the fish heads poking out of the top of a pie in this traditional Cornish dish may seem a little startling, but they do kind of look like they're gazing up at the stars. For the record, the fish are a type of sardine called pilchards (basically big sardines). And the name comes from their faces pointing towards the heavens. 

GORP

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I grew up hiking the North Cascade Mountains in Washington State, and GORP was a staple in my backpack. It never occurred to me to question its rather odd name — that's just what it was called. According to the , the name of this basic trail mix is an acronym — either for "good ol' raisins and peanuts" or "granola, oats, raisins, and peanuts." Either way, it has helped hikers everywhere keep up their energy when they're on the trail. 

Bangers & Mash

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The UK is back in the house with another banger of a food name: this time bangers and mash. This utterly tasty combo of sausages and mashed potatoes has a fun name. Mash is easy to understand — it's the mashed taters. And the bangers? It's the sound sausages make when they explode while you're cooking them (been there!). 

Goober Peas

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Peanuts. They're peanuts. But this old-timey name gives a nod to the fact that peanuts are actually — like peas — legumes. Why goobers? It's from a Kikongo word, nguba, which means peanut.

Snickerdoodle

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I may be biased, but I think snickerdoodles are the best-tasting cookies on the planet. I'd take them over any other cookie any day of the week. The cookies most likely originated in the US in Dutch-German communities in the late 1800s, leading many to believe the name comes from the Dutch or German languages. It appears that's probably absolute nonsense. Much like that story, the name snickerdoodle is just a light-hearted, fun nonsense word made up to describe the world's most delicious cookies. 

Ladyfingers

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No women's hands are ever harmed in the making of ladyfingers (except, you know, when they accidentally get burned taking these cakes out of the oven). The name comes from what they look like: fingers. 

Pumpernickel

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The origins of the name pumpernickel, a German bread, are somewhat hazy, but there's a fairly likely explanation to be found in the German word for farts. Pumpern means “to break wind,” and Nickel was a name for the devil. So yeah — when you eat delicious pumpernickel, you're eating "devil's farts." So there's that. 

Beaver Tails

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Canada has entered the chat! Nope — these sweet Canadian pastries contain no beaver, but their shape is definitely reminiscent of a beaver's flat tail, which is where their name comes from. 

Fluffernutter

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This is 5-year-old me's dream sandwich! Nutty peanut butter. Sweet marshmallow fluff. Heaven! It's also the source of its name fluffer (marshmallow fluff) and nutter (nutty peanut butter). I defy you to find a more brilliant sandwich.

Serious Foods With Silly Names

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See? Even when food has a fun name, it's all perfectly logical (mostly). No matter what the food is called, though, the best part about it is how fabulous it is to eat. This food is serious business — even if it does have a silly name. 

Lettuce Explain: The Origins Behind Quirky Food Names