What Do People From Lubbock Call Themselves?
I popped over to Lubbock's subreddit as per my habit to stay in the know. Although I must admit that a lot of r/Lubbock is new-to-Lubbock folks asking for stuff to do and other general questions, sometimes it's more interesting.
One person asked, "what do people from Lubbock call themselves?" They were met with many answers because r/Lubbock has jokes.
The generally accepted demonym, that is, word that identifies a group of people, for a Lubbock person is a Lubbockite. The suffix "-ite" denotes that a noun is associated with a place, system or doctrine -- like the Deadites from Army of Darkness.
We share our suffix with other Texans like Dallasites and Dentonites. I once lived in Spokane, Washington, who are Spokanites. Whole states can be "ites," like Wyomingites, or even whole countries like Israelites.
Additionally, "-ite" is also the suffix used for explosives. I like that we have something in common with dynamite.
There are many other suffixes which denote a group of people. We could have been Lubbockians, Lubbockenes, Lubbockasque, Lubbockaise, etc. Lubbockite is the one people thought sounded best and it stuck. There's not a hard and fast grammar rule on which one to pick.
(FYI: Wes Nessman also went down a rabbit hole about Lubbockites if you'd like to take a deeper dive.)
I find all this pretty interesting, but is the accepted demonym what Lubbockites actually use to refer to themselves? Here's some alternatives courtesy of r/lubbock and some of my friends who were nice enough to give me an answer when asked:
Tumbleweeds, Haboobies, Red Raiders, Dusty dudes, dirt citizens, windonians, windy citizens, dustonians, dustonites, Flubbockians, Blubbockites, Lubbionicles, Land Lubbers, Lubuttocks, Hubicans and flatlanders (my favorite).
There were some other more pejorative terms, but since Lubbock has recently provided me with plenty of shows to attend and things to do I'm feeling generous enough to omit them.
To my fellow Lubbock denizens: whatever you call yourself, say it with pride.
If you're new to Lubbock, here's a really pleasant video on some stuff to do around here: