From BoJo to The Blonde Bombshell to Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, the many names of Boris Johnson

As Boris Johnson is taking part in the Covid enquiry and is being questioned by Hugo Keith KC whilst angry protestors are waiting outside, some of you may be wondering why the former Prime Minister decided to use his middle name Boris instead of his first Alexander? 

It is believed that Boris’s family still call him Al (short for Alexander) but although he was called Alexander as a child, it is thought that he ditched the name in favour of his middle name Boris when he joined Eton College in the autumn term of 1977. Although he has never discussed why he dropped Alexander in favour of Boris, many have thought it is because he wanted a more unusual name to stand out from the crowd.

As for the de Pfeffel part of his name (you can of course go onto YouTube to make sure you know the correct pronunciation), Boris Johnson explained where the name came from on The Jonathan Ross Show. “It’s my grandmother,” he said. “We don’t know exactly how it is meant to be pronounced, but that is how my grandmother wanted it pronounced.”

Boris then explained on the show that his grandmother “was basically French, she turned out to be German as well. Her family came from one of those areas that was contested between France and Germany.” Jonathan Ross then moved on to discuss middle names with the other guest on the show, James Corden who confessed his middle name was Kimberley.

Now back to Boris Johnson’s nicknames….

According to Tatler, Boris Johnson’s nicknames are “Bojo, Boris ‘Big Dog’ Johnson, Beano Boris or Boris the Menance (coined by The Private Eye) and The Blonde Bombshell,” whilst Carrie Johnson’s nicknames are “Carrie Antoinette, and Lady Macbeth (both with blatant sexist undertones) and Princess Nut Nuts (which again, Dominic Cummings reportedly coined).”

As if all those nicknames were not enough, The Guardian reported in November that “While giving evidence to the inquiry, Dominic Cummings declared that Boris Johnson was so indecisive and susceptible to outside advice that he would often change direction on his policies without warning. This led to him being given the nickname The Trolley, not only by Cummings, but also by Johnson’s cabinet secretary and director of communications. The nickname stuck so fast that officials would refer to Johnson in texts by simply posting an emoji of a trolley.