The Walking Dead: Favorite and new creative names for zombies

On The Walking Dead we never hear the word zombie. We know that. What is the favorite word we use instead? What are some new names we could use?

We know that we never use the word zombie on the show. If you’re not aware, Robert Kirkman has said that he wanted to have the world of The Walking Dead take place in a setting where the zombie culture such as books and movies about zombies does not exist. The people of The Walking Dead have no concept of a zombie.

The actors and cast and crew, however, know what zombies are! They say the word all the time. I’ve talked to actors who play walkers and they say the word zombie is used on set quite often. Greg Nicotero uses it on Talking Dead. 

But most fans of The Walking Dead got pretty accustomed to the term walker pretty darned quickly! Many are very attached to that term. When I posed the question on our Facebook and Twitter about the favorite word for zombie, walker was the overwhelming favorite.

Many specifically added comments such as “always walkers, ” or “walkers, of course,” “Walker! DUH,” and “Walker! What else?” A few that got mentioned as other favorites were geeks, biters, rotters, roamers, lame-brains. Walker actor Chris Harrelson likes geeks and walker actor Stephen Vining likes zoms.

When I asked for creative new names for zombies, some people even questioned the reason because they are so attached to walkers. However, many on Facebook came up with some clever suggestions! I started them off with my ideas of leaners, reachers, grabbers, stumblers, and moaners!

I can’t list them all, but you can click on the link for the Facebook post. Here are some great ones: shufflers, Carol’s prey, uglies, hunters, nibblers, snackers, chomp-chomps, skinny, bony, stinky, target practice, ramblers, undead dead. Walker actor Chris Payne said he was more of a screecher.

Next: Nicotero promises great zombies in season 7

What’s your favorite zombie name? Do you have any ideas for new names? I tend to use walkers as my default name. I also tend to use the name that a particular group uses when I’m talking about people from that group. If I’m talking about The Governor, I might use biter. Or if I want to really make a distinctive sentence, I choose a different word that has a nice sound or rhythm in that context. I like rotter or geek sometimes for that purpose.

I wish they would start coming up with some gnarly California names for the infected of Fear the Walking Dead!

Update: My new favorite name for walkers: drunk uncles!