The Most Popular Thru-Hiker Trail Names
Reading Time: 4 minutes Trail names are a tradition in the long-distance hiking community. They’re essentially nicknames that hikers go by while on the trail – and sometimes off the trail as well.
Generally, but not always, these names are fairly abstract (i.e. not something that would traditionally be someone’s name). Examples are Appa, Indie, Moist, and Mac. Yes, Mac is my trail name. But how I got the name is not a worthwhile story and not the purpose of the article, perhaps another time.
Remembering “that hiker named Cougar Bait” you met at the water source just after the trail passed that weird abandoned cabin is a lot easier than remembering (what could easily be) the fifth John you’ve met in the last week. There are several unwritten rules surrounding trail names and how to get them. But in short, they’re essentially for fun and are not to be taken too seriously.
Collecting the Data
I’ve been collecting hiker trail names as part of the yearly Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail, and John Muir Trail hiker surveys. However, the Pacific Crest Trail Association, the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, and Appalachian Trail Conservancy maintain lists of finishers for each year. These lists include trail names.
With some help from @paulinadao, I compiled lists of everyone listed on each of these three websites. I then combined these lists with the names of thru-hikers who filled out one of my surveys and reported that they did not complete the trail. The result is a collection of nearly 30,000 hikers and over 16,000 unique trail names.
I did my best to strip the data of duplicates – i.e. if the same person hiked a trail more than once (or multiple trails) they are only counted once in the final tally. However, I can only confirm duplicates for hikers who provided their legal names and trail names. It’s possible that someone reported only a trail name to multiple trails and was counted twice.
Please note that every time I refer to the “number of finishers” of a certain trail, it’s based on the data from the above websites. It’s impossible to know how many people failed to report their hikes to the trail organizations and/or how many people got trail names and didn’t complete one of my hiker surveys. All this is to say that this information is supposed to be fun and/or entertaining – not a scientific study of trail names.
Trail Names: Continental Divide Trail
The Continental Divide Trail has the fewest number of finishers, so we’ll start here. Overall, the most popular trail name on the Continental Divide Trail is Ninja.
I only listed the top five most popular trail names on the CDT because these were the only names that appeared more than twice. There is a 37-way tie for sixth place.
| Trail Name | Count |
|---|---|
| Ninja | 4 |
| Joe Dirt | 3 |
| Ranger | 3 |
| Sunshine | 3 |
| Turtle | 3 |
Trail Names: Pacific Crest Trail
The Pacific Crest Trail has nearly ten times the number of finishers as the Continental Divide Trail (but still far fewer than the Appalachian Trail), so we’ll look at the PCT next.
Overall, the most popular trail name on the Pacific Crest Trail is Sunshine (by quite a large margin). This was also one of the second-most-popular trail names on the Continental Divide Trail. Of the top-five most common trail names on the Continental Divide Trail, Sunshine and Ninja both appear in the top ten most common trail names on the PCT.
| Trail Name | Count |
|---|---|
| Sunshine | 20 |
| Lucky | 12 |
| Roadrunner | 12 |
| Happy Feet | 11 |
| Raven | 11 |
| Hummingbird | 9 |
| Ninja | 9 |
| Steady | 9 |
| Stretch | 9 |
| Trooper | 9 |
Trail Names: Appalachian Trail
The Appalachian Trail has, by far, the largest number of finishers among the three trails. It has more than double the number of finishers of the Continental Divide Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail combined. Overall, the most popular trail name on the Appalachian Trail was a tie between Doc and Sunshine.
Sunshine was the most popular trail name on the Pacific Crest Trail whereas Doc does not appear in the top results for the PCT or the CDT. Interestingly, six of the ten most common trail names on the Appalachian Trail start with the letter ‘S’.
| Trail Name | Count |
|---|---|
| Doc | 29 |
| Sunshine | 29 |
| Stretch | 24 |
| Turtle | 23 |
| Rabbit | 20 |
| Strider | 20 |
| Moose | 19 |
| Scout | 18 |
| Sparky | 18 |
| Sherpa | 17 |
Overall Most Popular
Overall, the data contains 26,998 hiker trail names and 16,749 unique trail names.
The following table contains a list of the 572 most-common trail names. At least six different hikers use each of the below trail names. If there is interest in the number of hikers using the remaining 16,117 trail names, I may add this information.
Where does your trail name stand?
| Trail Name | Count |
|---|---|
| Sunshine | 51 |
| Doc | 35 |
| Turtle | 34 |
| Stretch | 33 |
| Rabbit | 27 |
| Lucky | 25 |
| Blue | 24 |
| Moose | 24 |
| Sherpa | 24 |
| Strider | 24 |
| Giggles | 23 |
| Rooster | 23 |
| Scout | 23 |
| Happy Feet | 22 |
| Patches | 22 |
| Sparky | 22 |
| Coach | 21 |
| Mountain Goat | 21 |
| Raven | 21 |
| Roadrunner | 21 |
| Rocket | 21 |
| Jukebox | 20 |
| Smiles | 20 |
| Bigfoot | 19 |
| Bones | 19 |
| Buckeye | 19 |
| Caboose | 19 |
| Caveman | 19 |
| Cricket | 19 |
| Hawkeye | 19 |
| Squirrel | 19 |
| Steady | 19 |
| Achilles | 18 |
| Iceman | 18 |
| Mouse | 18 |
| Red | 18 |
| Shaggy | 18 |
| Willow | 18 |
| Chef | 17 |
| Chief | 17 |
| Grasshopper | 17 |
| Happy | 17 |
| Moses | 17 |
| Navigator | 17 |
| Ninja | 17 |
| Ranger | 17 |
| Smiley | 17 |
| Tumbleweed | 17 |
| Yogi | 17 |
| Coyote | 16 |
| Early Bird | 16 |
| Fish | 16 |
| Hollywood | 16 |
| Pilgrim | 16 |
| Professor | 16 |
| Rocky | 16 |
| Shadow | 16 |
| Solo | 16 |
| Thumper | 16 |
| Turbo | 16 |
| Whistler | 16 |
| Flash | 15 |
| Hummingbird | 15 |
| Moonshine | 15 |
| Otter | 15 |
| Pathfinder | 15 |
| Phoenix | 15 |
| Sticks | 15 |
| Timber | 15 |
| Trooper | 15 |
| Wildflower | 15 |
| Ace | 14 |
| Blaze | 14 |
| Bluebird | 14 |
| Chuckles | 14 |
| Gator | 14 |
| Ghost | 14 |
| Goat | 14 |
| Goose | 14 |
| Indy | 14 |
| Maverick | 14 |
| Peaches | 14 |
| Shepherd | 14 |
| Sprout | 14 |
| Atlas | 13 |
| Disco | 13 |
| Firefly | 13 |
| Gumby | 13 |
| Hawk | 13 |
| Hobbit | 13 |
| Machine | 13 |
| Pacer | 13 |
| Peanut | 13 |
| Pokey | 13 |
| Sage | 13 |
| Scarecrow | 13 |
| Slim | 13 |
| Snickers | 13 |
| Songbird | 13 |
| Tank | 13 |
| Thor | 13 |
| Walkabout | 13 |
| Buttercup | 12 |
| Cookie Monster | 12 |
| Cowboy | 12 |
| Diesel | 12 |
| Fireball | 12 |
| Highlander | 12 |
| Houdini | 12 |
| Macgyver | 12 |
| Moxie | 12 |
| Nemo | 12 |
| Patch | 12 |
| Pickle | 12 |
| Pinky | 12 |
| Polar Bear | 12 |
| Rambler | 12 |
| Sarge | 12 |
| Scooby | 12 |
| Scooter | 12 |
| Shutterbug | 12 |
| Sunny | 12 |
| Tin Man | 12 |
| Tortoise | 12 |
| Bear | 11 |
| Billy Goat | 11 |
| Blueberry | 11 |
| Bluegrass | 11 |
| Brightside | 11 |
| Captain | 11 |
| Cheese | 11 |
| Cookie | 11 |
| Gandalf | 11 |
| Legs | 11 |
| Loon | 11 |
| Lost & Found | 11 |
| Marmot | 11 |
| Miles | 11 |
| Monkey | 11 |
| Nomad | 11 |
| Pace | 11 |
| Peter Pan | 11 |
| Poppins | 11 |
| Possum | 11 |
| Radar | 11 |
| Rainbow | 11 |
| Skipper | 11 |
| Skittles | 11 |
| Smokey | 11 |
| Stitch | 11 |
| Switchback | 11 |
| Tarzan | 11 |
| The Kid | 11 |
| Torch | 11 |
| Waldo | 11 |
| Yeti | 11 |
| Yoda | 11 |
| Boo Boo | 10 |
| Detour | 10 |
| Dragonfly | 10 |
| Ducky | 10 |
| Dutch | 10 |
| Easy | 10 |
| Freebird | 10 |
| Gourmet | 10 |
| Gypsy | 10 |
| Jaybird | 10 |
| Karma | 10 |
| Ladybug | 10 |
| Little Bear | 10 |
| Lorax | 10 |
| Mercury | 10 |
| Pigpen | 10 |
| Ripple | 10 |
| River | 10 |
| Salty | 10 |
| Sasquatch | 10 |
| Skippy | 10 |
| Spider | 10 |
| Stumbles | 10 |
| T | 10 |
| Tex | 10 |
| Tinkerbell | 10 |
| Viking | 10 |
| Woody | 10 |
| Arrow | 9 |
| Bacon | 9 |
| Badger | 9 |
| Big Sky | 9 |
| Breezy | 9 |
| Camel | 9 |
| Candyman | 9 |
| Cheetah | 9 |
| Crash | 9 |
| Critter | 9 |
| Dingo | 9 |
| Dreamcatcher | 9 |
| Drifter | 9 |
| Frodo | 9 |
| Goldilocks | 9 |
| Grizzly | 9 |
| Hot Sauce | 9 |
| Jester | 9 |
| Kiwi | 9 |
| Mama Bear | 9 |
| Mango | 9 |
| Mantis | 9 |
| Mosey | 9 |
| Packman | 9 |
| Pepper | 9 |
| Pika | 9 |
| Pilot | 9 |
| Pockets | 9 |
| Princess | 9 |
| Rafiki | 9 |
| Sherlock | 9 |
| Sidewinder | 9 |
| Slider | 9 |
| Snowman | 9 |
| Sonic | 9 |
| Speedy | 9 |
| Spoons | 9 |
| Sprinkles | 9 |
| Sundance | 9 |
| T-Bone | 9 |
| Tadpole | 9 |
| Tater | 9 |
| The Honeymooners | 9 |
| Tigger | 9 |
| Tortuga | 9 |
| Trash Panda | 9 |
| Troll | 9 |
| Twinkle Toes | 9 |
| Wizard | 9 |
| Wolverine | 9 |
| Wrong Way | 9 |
| Yard Sale | 9 |
| Yukon | 9 |
| Apache | 8 |
| Baloo | 8 |
| Bear Bait | 8 |
| Bilbo | 8 |
| Bird | 8 |
| Bob | 8 |
| Boots | 8 |
| Breeze | 8 |
| Bubbles | 8 |
| Buffalo | 8 |
| Butterfly | 8 |
| Butters | 8 |
| Chainsaw | 8 |
| Chewy | 8 |
| Chickadee | 8 |
| Chip | 8 |
| Chopper | 8 |
| Compass | 8 |
| Daddy Long Legs | 8 |
| Data | 8 |
| Dreamer | 8 |
| Dusty | 8 |
| Evergreen | 8 |
| Flip | 8 |
| Geo | 8 |
| Gravity | 8 |
| Gravy | 8 |
| Greyhound | 8 |
| Handstand | 8 |
| Honey Badger | 8 |
| Lefty | 8 |
| Lighthouse | 8 |
| Lightning | 8 |
| Little Engine | 8 |
| Llama | 8 |
| Lobo | 8 |
| Lumberjack | 8 |
| Mad Max | 8 |
| Marathon | 8 |
| Mary Poppins | 8 |
| Medicine Man | 8 |
| Mighty Mouse | 8 |
| Monk | 8 |
| Neon | 8 |
| Orion | 8 |
| Ox | 8 |
| Papa Smurf | 8 |
| Pebbles | 8 |
| Penguin | 8 |
| Piper | 8 |
| Pippi | 8 |
| Pogo | 8 |
| Popeye | 8 |
| Reboot | 8 |
| Recon | 8 |
| Road Runner | 8 |
| Samson | 8 |
| Sandman | 8 |
| Sassafras | 8 |
| Second Wind | 8 |
| Seeker | 8 |
| Shortcut | 8 |
| Silver | 8 |
| Skywalker | 8 |
| Snap | 8 |
| Splash | 8 |
| Taco | 8 |
| Tapeworm | 8 |
| Teflon | 8 |
| Terminator | 8 |
| The Professor | 8 |
| Trigger | 8 |
| Trip | 8 |
| Two Step | 8 |
| Vortex | 8 |
| Wildcat | 8 |
| Yak | 8 |
| Anchor | 7 |
| Apollo | 7 |
| Bean | 7 |
| Beast | 7 |
| Big Bear | 7 |
| Big Foot | 7 |
| Birdman | 7 |
| Boomer | 7 |
| Boomerang | 7 |
| Buck | 7 |
| Buddha | 7 |
| Bugs | 7 |
| Bumblebee | 7 |
| Buzz | 7 |
| Castaway | 7 |
| Cloudwalker | 7 |
| Clover | 7 |
| Crazy Horse | 7 |
| Cruise | 7 |
| Cruise Control | 7 |
| Crush | 7 |
| Daddy Longlegs | 7 |
| Dozer | 7 |
| Dragon | 7 |
| Dundee | 7 |
| Eagle Eye | 7 |
| Easy Rider | 7 |
| Eleven | 7 |
| Fiddlehead | 7 |
| Freefall | 7 |
| Frog | 7 |
| Guinness | 7 |
| Haiku | 7 |
| Hiccup | 7 |
| Hopper | 7 |
| Indie | 7 |
| Joe Dirt | 7 |
| Joker | 7 |
| Ketchup | 7 |
| Lady | 7 |
| Lightfoot | 7 |
| Lone Wolf | 7 |
| Lost | 7 |
| Lotus | 7 |
| M & M | 7 |
| Magnet | 7 |
| Metric | 7 |
| Molasses | 7 |
| Moss | 7 |
| Mousetrap | 7 |
| Mowgli | 7 |
| Mule | 7 |
| Mushroom | 7 |
| Nugget | 7 |
| Papa Bear | 7 |
| Phantom | 7 |
| Pixie | 7 |
| Poncho | 7 |
| Pretzel | 7 |
| Radio | 7 |
| Ramblin | 7 |
| Red Beard | 7 |
| Redbeard | 7 |
| Rocketman | 7 |
| Romansky 7 | 7 |
| Salamander | 7 |
| Shorts | 7 |
| Shotgun | 7 |
| Siesta | 7 |
| Sketch | 7 |
| Sleeping Beauty | 7 |
| Slim Jim | 7 |
| Smooth | 7 |
| Socks | 7 |
| Spaceman | 7 |
| Sparrow | 7 |
| Spice | 7 |
| Spicy | 7 |
| Spiderman | 7 |
| Spirit | 7 |
| Spreadsheet | 7 |
| Stealth | 7 |
| Stick | 7 |
| Sugar | 7 |
| Super Dave | 7 |
| Sweet Pea | 7 |
| Sweet Tooth | 7 |
| Swiss Miss | 7 |
| T-Rex | 7 |
| The Dude | 7 |
| Tinman | 7 |
| Toast | 7 |
| Trainwreck | 7 |
| Twister | 7 |
| U-Turn | 7 |
| Wanderer | 7 |
| Waterboy | 7 |
| Woodchuck | 7 |
| Wounded Knee | 7 |
| Zebra | 7 |
| Zen | 7 |
| Ziploc | 7 |
| Zippy | 7 |
| Animal | 6 |
| Aquaman | 6 |
| Bald Eagle | 6 |
| Bam Bam | 6 |
| Bambi | 6 |
| Bandit | 6 |
| Banjo | 6 |
| Bomber | 6 |
| Braveheart | 6 |
| Bud | 6 |
| Bullfrog | 6 |
| Burrito | 6 |
| Casper | 6 |
| Caterpillar | 6 |
| Catfish | 6 |
| Chairman | 6 |
| Cheeseburger | 6 |
| Chilly | 6 |
| Chipper | 6 |
| Clark Kent | 6 |
| Cosmo | 6 |
| Cougar | 6 |
| Crow | 6 |
| Crusher | 6 |
| Dave | 6 |
| Dimples | 6 |
| Double D | 6 |
| Downhill | 6 |
| Einstein | 6 |
| Eric | 6 |
| Finder | 6 |
| Fireman | 6 |
| Flapjack | 6 |
| Floater | 6 |
| Flow | 6 |
| Footloose | 6 |
| Forest | 6 |
| Fox | 6 |
| Foxtrot | 6 |
| Frenchy | 6 |
| Fresh | 6 |
| Fun Size | 6 |
| Gadget | 6 |
| Gazelle | 6 |
| Gilligan | 6 |
| Glide | 6 |
| Golden | 6 |
| Goldfish | 6 |
| Gq | 6 |
| Grumpy | 6 |
| Hammer | 6 |
| Hansel | 6 |
| Happy Hour | 6 |
| Hedgehog | 6 |
| Helium | 6 |
| Hermes | 6 |
| Hobbes | 6 |
| Hoot | 6 |
| Hops | 6 |
| Huckleberry | 6 |
| Indiana Jones | 6 |
| Irish | 6 |
| Ironman | 6 |
| Ishmael | 6 |
| Jedi | 6 |
| Just Dave | 6 |
| Just Jim | 6 |
| Just John | 6 |
| K2 | 6 |
| Koolaid | 6 |
| Leapfrog | 6 |
| Leprechaun | 6 |
| Lightning Rod | 6 |
| Little Spoon | 6 |
| Lone Star | 6 |
| Low Gear | 6 |
| Luna | 6 |
| M&M | 6 |
| Mac | 6 |
| Magic | 6 |
| Magpie | 6 |
| Maple | 6 |
| Marathon Man | 6 |
| Mismatch | 6 |
| Mojo | 6 |
| Mountain Laurel | 6 |
| Mountain Man | 6 |
| Mr. Ed | 6 |
| Nails | 6 |
| No Worries | 6 |
| Nobody | 6 |
| Noodle | 6 |
| Not Yet | 6 |
| Nutella | 6 |
| Oatmeal | 6 |
| One Step | 6 |
| Pacemaker | 6 |
| Pancake | 6 |
| Paparazzi | 6 |
| Peach | 6 |
| Peanut Butter | 6 |
| Pegleg | 6 |
| Pickles | 6 |
| Pig Pen | 6 |
| Pinecone | 6 |
| Poet | 6 |
| Puck | 6 |
| Pyro | 6 |
| Q-Tip | 6 |
| Rainman | 6 |
| Rhino | 6 |
| Robin | 6 |
| Rockhopper | 6 |
| Salsa | 6 |
| Samwise | 6 |
| Scorpion | 6 |
| Sensei | 6 |
| Shades | 6 |
| Sky | 6 |
| Slingshot | 6 |
| Smudge | 6 |
| Snacks | 6 |
| Snake Charmer | 6 |
| Sneaks | 6 |
| Snooze | 6 |
| Sour Patch | 6 |
| Spark | 6 |
| Spoon | 6 |
| Spot | 6 |
| Squatch | 6 |
| Stargazer | 6 |
| Steamboat | 6 |
| Sunrise | 6 |
| Superman | 6 |
| Surefoot | 6 |
| Tabasco | 6 |
| Tailgate | 6 |
| Tenderfoot | 6 |
| Thunder | 6 |
| Tom | 6 |
| Train | 6 |
| Trout | 6 |
| Veggie | 6 |
| Waffles | 6 |
| Wahoo | 6 |
| Walker | 6 |
| Walking Home | 6 |
| Walking Man | 6 |
| Wallace | 6 |
| Weatherman | 6 |
| Wiki | 6 |
| Wonder | 6 |
| Woodstock | 6 |
| Worm | 6 |
Trail Name Insights
Now that we know the most common trail names, let’s look at the characters that trail names most frequently begin with.
The table shows two numbers for each character. The first is the overall percentage of hikers with a trail name that begins with the character. The second is the overall percentage of unique trail names that begin with the character. Make sense? Excellent.
| Character | Overall Percentage | Unique Name Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Symbol | 0.10% | 0.15% |
| 0 | 0.01% | 0.02% |
| 1 | 0.10% | 0.14% |
| 2 | 0.16% | 0.24% |
| 3 | 0.09% | 0.13% |
| 4 | 0.09% | 0.10% |
| 5 | 0.09% | 0.10% |
| 6 | 0.03% | 0.05% |
| 7 | 0.04% | 0.04% |
| 8 | 0.02% | 0.03% |
| 9 | 0.02% | 0.03% |
| A | 2.39% | 2.64% |
| B | 8.13% | 7.96% |
| C | 7.32% | 7.33% |
| D | 4.52% | 4.82% |
| E | 1.63% | 1.73% |
| F | 4.20% | 4.16% |
| G | 4.39% | 4.51% |
| H | 4.57% | 4.57% |
| I | 1.10% | 1.14% |
| J | 2.68% | 2.76% |
| K | 1.65% | 1.89% |
| L | 3.99% | 4.02% |
| M | 6.86% | 6.90% |
| N | 2.13% | 2.35% |
| O | 1.89% | 2.09% |
| P | 6.16% | 5.74% |
| Q | 0.32% | 0.33% |
| R | 4.72% | 4.31% |
| S | 14.67% | 13.25% |
| T | 9.34% | 9.64% |
| U | 0.64% | 0.79% |
| V | 0.70% | 0.79% |
| W | 3.80% | 3.79% |
| X | 0.07% | 0.10% |
| Y | 0.81% | 0.73% |
| Z | 0.59% | 0.62% |
Wrap Up
I would love to dive deeper into the trail name data. It would be interesting to see how names have changed (if at all) over time. Or to look at themes in trail names such as the number containing reference to an animal or a color.
Trail names are a great feature of trail culture. If you are hiking and don’t have a trail name, don’t sweat it. You’ll get one eventually. Don’t want a trail name? That’s okay too.
There’s certainly a lot to tease out here. If you’re interested in more (or want to help out), leave a comment below or get in touch!
I have traveled the world and lived in several really beautiful and popular US states. I have had so many hiking names along the way but nothing really ever sticks. I like it that way. Being fluid is a good thing, almost like being a phantom leaving nothing behind but collecting so much !
Are there other named “GottaWalk”?
Not that I’ve come across yet, but maybe!
Honestly surprised not to see Viking and Shepherd on the list! Also, Flower.
Maybe hikers with those names are statistically less likely to complete trails?
I think my trail buddy still has the best name and most original out there: He Who Sh*ts With Bears
He Who Shots With Bears?
What years does the data cover?
The data covers all the years available on each of the three trail websites – going back as far as 50 years.
Honestly I would love to see the 16,117 other trail names so I could giggle at some of those really good, one of a kind names that I’ve never heard before. Coochiesnack, if you’re out there, sometimes I still think about your trail name
I’ll add it to the list!
Its’ funny–when I think of trail names I would like to have, they have all been taken many times over (hello–mountain goat). I guess that says something for being named spontaneously by someone else along the trail–you have to wait for someone else to come along to see that something about you that calls for a trail name you may not expect.
Some of the best trail names are also some of the most unique ones (Moist, etc.)
Or be like ANISH, you ‘might’ have heard of her? She gave herself that name.
Correct, I ‘might’ have heard of her.