Does anyone know the origins of the nickname 'Mickey Dripping'? It was certainly in common usage before the British 70s kids TV show 'Lizzie Dripping'. Any ideas?

For some reason, in the North of England during the post war periods, anyone called Michael immediataly acquired the nickname "Mickey Dripping", just as anyone with the surname Clark aquired the nickname "Nobby", and anyone with the surname White immediately became "Chalky".

Dripping, also known as beef or pork dripping, is an animal fat produced from the fatty or otherwise unusable parts of cow or pig carcasses. It is similar to lard and tallow.

It is used for cooking, especially in British cuisine, significantly so in Northern England, though towards the end of the 20th century dripping had fallen out of favour due to it being regarded as less healthy than vegetable oils such as olive or sunflower.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dripping

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=192340&page=4

Ah! right thanks - reading the Wiki article it says that the brown part of the dripping is known as mucky fat in Yorkshire. I guess you could surmise; mucky fat - mucky dripping - Mickey Dripping, maybe anyway.

Much obliged zbeckabee ;-)

My father used to call me Mickey Drippin when I was young (I am a Michael), but I've not heard it used since. He grew up in the US and had never been to the UK, but he did serve in the South Pacific during WWII and spent significant time in Australia where he may have pick this up? I've seen inquiries from Australians wondering about the source as well. Perhaps the phrase carried over from the UK?

Here's one theory:

G'day mike, not wishing to offend any one but a 'Mickey dripping' was the name given to some of the crew who originated from Ireland. Mick was the term used, and dripping as they all used to splash holy water on themselves. happy daze john in oz

http://www.voy.com/149183/16390.html

There is nearly NO information anywhere on the web on this topic, which is rather unusual for these "origin" questions.

One more theory posted elsewhere:

"I understood that it was a northern English term for the poor Irish during the late 1800's and early 1900's where they used dripping to smarten up their hair"

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1068338

So two theories now relating to a derogatory Irish term, so that's probably the best we've got to go on as far as origins go.