Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. tramp) name, signature; thus tip someone one’s monnicker, to tell someone one’s name; thus an important person.

1856		H. Mayhew Great World of London I 6: He will probably add — ‘What is your monekeer (name)?’.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 269: His false petitions were highly esteemed, and he enjoyed the reputation of being a first-rate fist at ‘screeving a fakement,’ though, owing to his forged signatures having been too often detected, he was declared to be ‘a duffer at coopering a monekur’.
1858		Goulburn Herald (NSW) 6 Mar. 4/4: Jackson replied, ‘I will soon put the “manaker” (a slang term for a name, founded upon an inversion of ‘maker’s name’) out of that’.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 63: monekeer, a person’s name or signature.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 312/2: Put a fu monekurs (names) tu it.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 143: ‘What’s your name? and what’s yours?’ said the officer, as he took out his report-book to enter our ‘monikers’.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 14 Sept. n.p.: Moll’s ‘moneker’ was in the [illeg.] a week or two ago for shooting a U.S. cove.
1877		J. Diprose London Life 80: [as cit. 1856].
1879		Macmillan’s Mag. (London) ‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ XL 502: While at the station they asked me what my monarch (name) was.
1881		Newcastle Courant 2 Sept. 6/5: The erstwhile schoolmaster whose ‘nomaker’ amongst his ‘ben culls’ was ‘clever Nat’.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 10: Sally Hicks, who’s got a new monniker, which is Lushing Loo.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Jan. 6/2: [A] certain learned counsel remarked that parsols [sic], now-a-days, so often changed their names, that they were subsequently known by entirely different monikers altogether from those they were known by in former years.
1885		M. Davitt Leaves from a Prison Diary I 151: The great majority of convicts hide their real under assumed names, many of them having a fresh ‘monicker’ (name) each conviction.
1888		Hampshire Teleg. 31 Mar. 11/5: A petition fortified with ‘ream monekurs,’ or genuine signatures, will come to eighteenpence.
1891		Sporting Life 1 Apr. n.p.: Then came [...] ‘The Pocket Knifton’ (whose real moniker did not transpire) [F&H].
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 83: I’d lost one eye, so I go by the monacher of North Eye.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 4 Feb. 5/6: Jackson [...] said his real name was Isaac Norman and he could not understand how he appeared on the charge sheet debited with such a monniker.
1895		Mirror of Life 14 Dec. 10/4: Smith [...] managed to affix his moniker [...] to the document.
1895		J. London ‘’Frisco Kid’s Story’ High School Aegis X 15 Feb. 2–3: W’en did he stray away, an’ wot’s his monica? I mean wot’s his name?
1895		Times 11 Nov. 3/ 5: The van is all right. I have had the monnick taken off [F&H].
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 341: That’s the way she got her monikey – see?
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 74: I promised to forget my friend’s ‘monaker’* in public [*Nickname].
1902		J. London ‘Rods & Gunnels’ Bookman XV (Aug.) 541–44: Chi Slim, as his ‘monica’ denotes, hailed from Chicago.
1903		N.-Y. Trib. 10 May B1: Beggars have their own system of nomenclature. ‘Moneker’ is the underworld term for their names.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 17 Jan. 2/4: ‘What price is Stewart’s mare? ‘Hasn’t she got a monicker?’.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 13 Apr. 6/5: Fancy a prize-fighter with a monniker like Herbert Willoughby St. Aubyn Andrew!
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 91: Charles Marketer is your monnicker, really.
1907		J. London Road 126: ‘Monicas’ are the nom-de-rails that hoboes assume or accept when thrust upon them by their fellows. [...] A favorite device of hoboes is to base their monicas on the localities from which they hail, as: New York Tommy, Pacific Slim, Buffalo Smithy, Canton Tim, Pittsburg Jack.
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 219: Susy’s your monaker?
1907		News & Courier (Charleston, SC) 14 Apr. 18/1: The Greek shinesman felt of the curved knife [...] and looked like he was going to write his monaker on my middle with it.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 6 Feb. 2nd sect. 4/7: His surname, he said, was Chouli, and christian monicker, Patrick.
1911		T.A. Dorgan Silk Hat Harry’s Divorce Suit 21 Aug. [synd. cartoon strip] What’s the Judge’s monnicker, Harry?
1912		Ade Knocking the Neighbors 4: The other claimed the following brief Monicker, to wit: Henry.
1912		Van Loan ‘Loosening Up of Hogan’ Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 140: What is your regular monker?
1912		Truth (Wellington) 6 Apr. 6/2: he failed to account for [...] £1.15s belonging to a type-snatcher with the kingly moniker of Edward Albert Purse.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 134: Emma was her monick.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 59: monacre, monacker [...] A nickname; a professional cognomen.
1914		Wash. Post 11 Nov. Miscellany 3/5: The ‘fastest’ gun [...] was said to have been ‘Mollie Matches,’ and this ‘monacher’, or name, had been acquired by selling matches and at the same time [...] picking pockets.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 306: Long Otto’s his monaker.
1916		J. Lait ‘Canada Kid’ Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 154: They ain’ nothin’ to keep me aroun’ home. I blows for Canada — that’s where my monicker come from.
1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 34: moniker (n.) — (1) Name; (2) signature.
1919		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 10 June 8/2: He was one of the no-names [...] Called him Gentleman Jack [...] and it served as well as any copper-bound monniker.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 112: He became Joseph to the Cruel Knowledge that his swell Moniker [...] was not bringing in any Jack.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 28: Beside the monakers, or road-names, of a hundred hoboes were scratched [...] messages in the hobo code.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 40: I was afraid you might have a monniker which would baffle the annnouncers.
1923		J.C. Goodwin ‘Criminal Sl.’ in Sidelights on Criminal Matters 164: I spotted [...] a bloke whose monarch was Carter, who was at the duff.
1925		Black Mask Aug. III 18: Nellie didn’t have the moniker, The Red Peril, wished on her because she was a disease.
1927		(con. WW1) P. MacDonald Patrol 221: ‘I’m English in spite o’ my Wop monaker’.
1927		(con. 1835–40) P. Herring Bold Bendigo 74: Well, now, that’s demned cool [...] and we’ve got his monicher flashed all over the show.
1927		D. Hammett ‘The Big Knockover’ Story Omnibus (1966) 277: I can’t give you no monickers. You know I would if I knowed ’em.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 101: I was Chicago May. This was the way the London dicks first knew me by my monoger.
1930		(con. 1890) G. Milburn ‘A Convention Song’ Hobo’s Hornbook 26: And now if I remember them, / Here’s their monikas for you.
1930		(con. 1910–20s) D. Mackenzie Hell’s Kitchen 119: Monack ... the name of a person.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Hold ’Em, Yale!’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 147: His monicker, the Gonoph, [...] is Yiddish for thief.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 130: Monica, Monicker, Moniker Or Monniker. – A name, especially of an individual, hence a nickname ; occasionally a signature or a pre-arranged sign marked on a wall or building as a guide.
1933		C. Himes ‘His Last Day’ Coll. Stories (1990) 296: The same Pony Boy who had given him that moniker, Spats, years ago.
1935		C. Drew ‘Zarko Assassin’ in Bulletin 23 Oct. 48/3: ‘[I]f he’s high up in the grapplin’ game ain’t it a bit risky for our gorilla to use his moniker?’.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 50: Eileen, or something, that was the sister’s monick.
1936		Bath Chron. 24 Dec. 11/1: Cherry Blossom’s real ‘monniker’ no one knew, he received his name from the care he bestowed upon his boots.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con xi: Most of the names and ‘monickers’ of confidence men appearing in this book are genuine.
1943		J. Phelan Letters from the Big House 144: ’E says as ’is china bust a two-handful kite, Scotch jug, flutes the bogeys cause the jumper ses the moniker’s bent. Slung ’em the madam, an’ copped.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 5: I gotta introduce ya to me mother. I don’t know ya other monnicker, see?
1953		N. Bentley Third Party Risk (1961) 90: ‘Legs!’ What a monicker, eh?
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 44: ‘The Fag’ [...] would [...] feel the man’s thigh as though his attentions were sexual. From this trick he got this moniker.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 53: Just give us the monickers they’re using.
1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 34: The group has more than lived up to its sinister moniker.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 64: Meaning, whose phizog and monniker was on the head side?
1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 68: He picked up a strong new odor that reminded him of Cuttter’s monicker or the kid, old Brown Pants.
1978		A. Burgess 1985 (1980) 175: All you have to do is shove your moniker down.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 139: The skater’s name was Griswold Weils. He had no moniker of Mr Wheels.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 171: Brucie the Rooster nominated the Walter Pigeon monicker.
1986		J.B. Keane Bodhrán Makers 13: ‘Willie Smiley.’ He repeated the name contemptuously. ‘What a monicker for that big, blubbery, misbegotten bastard!’.
1990		R. Campbell Sweet La-La Land (1999) 134: His name was Houlihan but they called him Hooligan. He didn’t mind. He thought all monikers were compliments.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 199: They even got as far as sticking a monicker on the nag.
1999		Indep. Rev. 26 June 20: Sir Geoffrey Shakerley (an inauspicious monicker for a snapper).
2004		(con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 53/2: The Droog moniker comes from the Anthony Burgess novel, A‘ Clockwork Orange’.
2005		Mad mag. May 45: Somehow convincing the world that your nickname should be ‘The Donald’ instead of more appropriate monikers like ‘The Dickwad’ [or] ‘The Deadbeat’.
2010		K. Richards Life 210: Schneiderman, who also went by the moniker of Acid king.
2011		H. Ellison Introduction in Pulling a Train’ [ebook] My twisted reason for putting such a bad-taste politically-putrescent moniker on a modern paperback.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] ‘Where’d ya get that silly fucken moniker?’.
2015		I. Welsh Decent Ride 21: He is one of the few folk who still refers to him by that old school moniker.
2024		D. Swierczynski California Bear 33: The press may have given him the vaguely insulting moniker of the California Bear.