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Stellenbosch is Maties and their are multiple theories about the origin of this nickname. Some suggest the maroon tops of the university’s rugby players suggested (to their rivals) that they looked like tomaties, or tomatoes. Other suggest, more obviously, that it is a diminutive of the Afrikaans word maat, meaning “mate”, which accurately reflects the friendly nature of most Stellenbosch students.

Do note: the word is pronounced MAH-ties not MATE-ees, and the university is also known as Matieland.

The University of Cape Town are Stellenbosch’s archrivals. They are known as Ikeys and it is claimed that this was originally an Afrikaans slang word for Jews, and that Stellenbosch students mocked the supposedly larger Jewish population at UCT. It may come from the uni’s Afrikaans initials U.K. (Universiteit Kaapstad) — it’s not a long jump from “ooo-kah” to “i-kee”.

Whatever the origin, “Ikeys” is now a term of pride, and the UCT rugby club are additionally known as the “Ikey Tigers”.

The University of Pretoria goes by the nickname of “Tuks” or “Tukkies”. This origin is clear and simple: the institution was originally called Transvaalse Universiteits-Kollege, or Transvaal University College.

The University of the Free State has a similar origin for its nickname of “Kovsies” — in the 1940s it was known as the Universiteitskollege van die Oranje-Vrystaat or UkOV. I’ve no idea where the modern nickname for their rugby team “the Shimlas” comes from. Their home ground is called Shimla Park, but of course that could easily be named after them in the first place.

The Potchefstroom campus of North West University was founded as the Potchefstroomse Universiteit vir Christelike Hoër Onderwys, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, hence “Pukke”.

The University of the Witwatersrand‘s nickname of “Wits” is fairly obvious. The Witwatersrand (Afrikaans for “white water ridge”) is a range of hills which includes South Africa’s richest deposit of gold and uranium mines. This is why the South African government named their unit of currency the “rand”.

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University is the merger of the Port Elizabeth Technikon and the University of Port Elizabeth. The city of Port Elizabeth itself, though always still referred to by that name, became part of a larger municipal entity called the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality in 2001, even though there is no geographical feature by that name, and the simpler “Mandela Bay” would sound so much nicer.

Regardless, it was decided to call the merger of the two tertiary institutions Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, and the rugby team’s nickname is “the Madibaz”, as Madiba is the Xhosa clan name of Prince Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the former president of South Africa.

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