While we focus mainly on the AFOL community here at BrickNerd, I thought it would be fun to reconvene my scientific panel of children for another round of “LEGO According To Kids.” As builders and hobbyists, we use a lot of acronyms and nicknames to discuss LEGO. But can someone with little to no exposure to the hobby understand any of the lingo we use?

I quizzed my kids, aged 3, 6 and 7, to see what translates from our comprehensive BrickNerd AFOL Slang Dictionary. I picked some of the more common parts with well-known nicknames to see what they thought. I first asked what they thought the part should be called, then got their reaction on the actual nickname.

Name That Brick!

To start off, I chose some pieces with fairly known nicknames within the LEGO community. While many of these element names are subjective, I went with the most commonly accepted term in my area.

Common Name: LURP

Our panel members didn’t like the word “ugly” in the real name of this piece (Little Ugly Rock Piece) since they like the part and it’s “pretty obviously a mountain.”

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Mountain
6-Year-Old: Little Mountain
3-Year-Old: Grey Rocks

Common Name: BURP

Panel members reported that BURP was a gross name and again mentioned they didn’t like the word “ugly” in its acronym (Big Ugly Rock Piece).

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Bigger Mountain
6-Year-Old: Big Mountain
3-Year-Old: More Grey Big Brick

Common Name: BUTT

All three kids had a really hard time believing this was called a BUTT (Big Ugly Tree Trunk). Mostly because it looks like a tree and not a butt.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Quarter Tree
6-Year-Old: Tree
3-Year-Old: Tree Bark Piece

Common Name: Cheese Grater

While only 1/3 of the panel guessed correctly, all three agreed Cheese Grater was a good name.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Bumpy Slide
6-Year-Old: Cheese Grater
3-Year-Old: Step Piece

Common Name: Cheese Slope

Obviously, it’s a home run of a nickname; everyone loves a cheese slope.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Cheese Slope
6-Year-Old: Cheese
3-Year-Old: Cheese For Mouse Piece

Common Name: Jumper

The 6-year-old might have a future in miniscale building by seeing a limo in this jumper piece because that’s something I wouldn’t have said but now won’t be able to unsee.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Ground with a Hole
6-Year-Old: Limousine
3-Year-Old: Daddy’s Cellphone Piece

Common Name: Headlight

The panel got a little meta on this one. I love the idea of the little lip on the brick being a Polaroid picture coming out, as well as it being a birdhouse.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Polaroid Camera
6-Year-Old: Brick with a Hole and a Step
3-Year-Old: Birdhouse

What’s That Name Again?

In our AFOL Slang Dictionary, there are a lot of LEGO pieces with weird and dubious nicknames. Not even all AFOLs agree on these terms, but I thought I’d pick some fun ones and take them for a spin around our panel.

Less Common Name: Blate

This relatively new brick threw our panel for a loop. No member of the panel believed the current nickname of “brick + plate” should stick.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Big Cube
6-Year-Old: Tower with Weird Hat
3-Year-Old: Laundry Basket

Less Common Name: Cinderella Shoe

We have some pretty solid guesses here. If you squint, it does look like the cab of a semi-truck more than a show, so I understand where the panel is coming from.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Shoe
6-Year-Old: Cheese Slope with a Button Behind it
3-Year-Old: Truck Piece

Less Common Name: Camera

My favorite name for this new SNOT brick was Mickey Mouse because if you stare at it for a second, it starts to make sense.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Camera
6-Year-Old: Brick with a weird hat on the side
3-Year-Old: Mickey Mouse Brick

Less Common Name: Donut

Not only did the panel guess correctly here, but they guessed it quickly. I thought one of them might guess the letter O, but nope, straight to “donut!”

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Donut
6-Year-Old: Donut
3-Year-Old: “It has a hole like the donut we get at Safeway so we should call it donut brick”

Less Common Name: Duck Butt

“Daddy, ducks don’t have butts.” They most certainly do my young friend, and this is what they look like. However, the panel clearly honed in on the overall shape of the top of the piece.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Half Pyramid
6-Year-Old: Weird Pyramid
3-Year-Old: Roof Piece

Less Common Name: Faucet

This is another piece that looks pretty clearly like its nickname, even though it goes by “Tap” as well. If you give them credit for “that sink thing,” they went three for three!

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Faucet
6-Year-Old: That Sink Thing
3-Year-Old: Faucet Sink Like We Have In Our House Brick

Less Common Name: Home Plate

I’m with our panel on this one; I think “shield” is a better nickname than home plate, especially since it was introduced as a Nexo Knight shield. Both are better than “Pentagonal Tile".” Ugh.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Shield
6-Year-Old: Shield
3-Year-Old: Ice Pack (Author’s Note: He refused the elaborate when asked what he meant by ice pack, so there’s no additional context.)

Less Common Name: Microphone

To my eyes, this piece could have no other nickname, it’s pretty clearly a microphone. But you can always trust the middle child to come up with something out of left field and perhaps more functional.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Microphone
6-Year-Old: Lever
3-Year-Old: Microphone

Less Common Name: Pie Piece

This one hit home and made the panel hungry. It is curious that they all went pizza pie and not fruit pie.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: 1/4 Circle
6-Year-Old: Pizza
3-Year-Old: Pizza! Pizza!

Less Common Name: Washing Machine

66% success rate in naming this iconic SNOT piece indicates it’s well-named. However, I do contend that “I don’t know” is a good guess.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Washing Machine
6-Year-Old: “I Don’t Know Brick”
3-Year-Old: Washing Machine

What’s! That! Acronym!

Lastly, there are so many acronyms used in the LEGO community. Head to any convention and you might just think everyone was speaking a different language. I said the term to our not-so-scientific panel and asked them what it meant.

Term: SNOT (Studs Not On Top)

Even after explaining that it was an acronym and it had nothing to do with real snot, our panel couldn’t get passed the name. Lots of giggling ensued.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Gross.
6-Year-Old: It means you slobber.
3-Year-Old: It means LEGO comes out of your nose. Gross!

Term: AFOL (Adult Fan Of LEGO)

I mean, AFOL may not mean any of the following things, but maybe it should?

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: It’s what you say when you step on a LEGO piece. Like, “Ow! AFOL! My foot!”
6-Year-Old: It’s like a season. A Winter. A Summer. A Fall.
3-Year-Old: I don’t know, probably something boring. (Author’s note: LOL.)

Term: STAMP (STickers Across Multiple Pieces)

Our panel hovered around the right answer but couldn’t quite get there.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: Is it like mailing a letter?
6-Year-Old: It’s a kind of sticker.
3-Year-Old: It means you can mail LEGOs in the mail with stamps.

Term: POOP (Parts Out of Other Parts)

Continuing the theme of incredulity from our panel, they thought I was making this one up too and about lost their minds. They were too giggly after this to continue with the experiment.

Kids’ Guesses:

7-Year-Old: That’s not a real thing. I don’t believe you.
6-Year-Old: Hahahahaha. Hahahaha. LEGO poop. Hahaha.
3-Year-Old: You said Poop! Daddy said poop!

Truth in Names

Based on this very scientific experience, it would seem that some of our LEGO lingo and nicknames translate to people from outside the hobby… but other terms could maybe return to the drawing board. No matter what, the AFOL community has a language all its own, even if a slang dictionary is required from time to time.

Do you have kids that come up with interesting part names for LEGO bricks? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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