The Word For Boobs Around The World

As a lingerie brand, we think about boobs a lot. We pride ourselves on creating the best fitting bras out there, ensuring that you feel comfortable, supported and confident. We know that the key to getting a well-fitting bra is knowing that boobs can come in all sorts of wonderful shapes and sizes - but have you ever thought about all the different names we have for boobs too? 

Whether it’s a cute nickname you give to your own breasts or an unusual term of endearment your partner uses for them - there are so many marvellous words we can use to describe our boobs, and in our line of work we’ve heard them all! 

What’s fascinating is that these boob names can vary greatly across the world, where a whole variety of terms exist that are influenced by different languages and cultures.  

This got us thinking - can we find out all the names for boobs around the world? Our boob experts took up the challenge and, after extensive research, have produced a fascinating map that reveals all the weird and wonderful words the world uses for boobs.

As we can see from the map, the most common names keep it short and sweet, with the word's breasts, boobs and tits being the most popular. With that said, there are some wonderfully cheeky and quirky names too. Comparisons to fruits and different types of food are a go-to for many territories, from cabbages and coconuts to dumplings and even cheese wheels. There’s also a smaller subsection of places that liken breasts to animals in a delightfully eccentric fashion, such as goats, pugs or even little white rabbits!

All this talk about boob slang inspired us to get a sense of how the public feels about nicknames for boobs as well. For example, how do they refer to their own boobs and what words make them cringe and give them the ick? 

When it comes to the most used word to describe boobs, respondents typically stick to the most well-known options, at least initially. Boobs secures a sizeable majority with nearly 70% of those surveyed using this option over tits, which follows in second and boobies which finishes up in third. With that said, further down the top ten is when we start to see livelier nicknames, such as titties, knockers, melons and jugs, which go on to complete the top 10.

“The ick” is a term many of us are familiar with now. It’s that feeling where you shudder a little or your toes curl because something has caused the ultimate cringe factor. We know that boob nicknames can be divisive, so we wanted to find out which boob slang is making us wince.  

It comes as no surprise that within the top 10 of ickiest boob slang, the sillier and more outrageous nicknames make an appearance. At number one, with over 20% of the votes as the most cringe-inducing name, is milk monsters, though following closely in second and third place is spaniel’s ears and honker honkers.  

The theme of animals continues with dogs' ears finishing off the top five. Novelty nicknames dominate the lower half of the top ten with the likes of nunga nungas, bazookas and even ‘the Mitchell brothers’ closing out the top 10 list of boob nicknames that give us the ick the most.

Lastly, it was only right that we see what Gen Z makes of it all, and the results show that their responses differed slightly from other demographics when questioned about the ickiest terms for breasts.  

While there were some similarities (dogs' ears, honker honkers, the Mitchell brothers) there’s plenty of new material here too. For a large majority of Gen Z-ers, nunga nungas is crowned as the boob slang that gives the most ick. Danny Devitos, a nickname in itself for double d’s, is a new entry in third position and references the much beloved, bald-headed American actor. Other words that make an appearance for the first time include juggernauts, pinky and perky and tig ol bitties which rounds off this set of results.

No matter the size, shape or appearance of your breasts, it’s important to remember that they all deserve to be celebrated - whatever you choose to call them. Normalising these terms is a great way of destigmatising any social taboos or shame that you may have surrounding boobs. And remember, boobs need a well-fitting bra that supports them properly, so if you haven’t had a bra fitting for a while - perhaps it’s time to book one in. 

Methodology: 

Online research including Reddit posts that referenced slang for “boobs” + “breasts” in each country’s respective sub-forum were used to formulate the global data. 

The survey was conducted in March 2023, with 2,000 respondents from the UK.