Currency Nicknames - Popular or Geeky?

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Written by Franky

Currencies are like a bunch of kids in high school, fighting for popularity. Some currencies are geeky and some are perfect candidates for prom king and queen! Each and every currency has a nickname and unlike high school kids none of the currencies get "offended" when you use its nickname!

Why a forex trader needs to know currencies nicknames? Well, simply because if you don't you will have a hard time following news, participate in conversation or understand comments of the other forex traders. Imagine listening to financial commentary and not understanding the main words!

Here is a list of the most common currency nicknames:

currency	abbreviation	nickname
US Dollar	USD	Buck
Euro	EUR	Fiber
British Pound	GBP	Cable
Canadian Dollar	CAD	Loonie
Swiss Franc	CHF	Swissy
Japanese Yen	JPY	Yen
Australian Dollar	AUD	Aussie
New Zealand Dollar	NZD	Kiwi

Like any nickname, currency nicknames have meaning behind them. For example, you might wonder why US Dollar is widely called a Buck. The simple answer to it is that in the late 1700s and early 1800s paper money weren't in use yet. Instead, buckskins were used for trading. At some point the word "buckskins" were shortened to just a "buck".

The nickname for Canadian Dollar – "Loonie" came from the bird on the Canadian coin.

British Pound is called "Cable" and is probably named so because of the Trans-Atlantic cable between US and Britain.

How about Euro? What does Fiber mean? I really don't have a good answer for it. Maybe because it is "easy to digest"? After all, Euro is one of the most traded currencies now-a- days!

And Kiwi for New Zealand dollar has nothing to do with a kiwi fruit! Actually it comes from kiwi – a kind of bird that can't fly which happens to be a national symbol of New Zealand.

Now that you are familiar with currency nicknames you won't look around for help while listening to financial reports and in case you forget you can always come back here and review.