I grew up in Michigan calling these little creatures "rolly pollies" and I also knew "pill bug." I recently realized that the tiny animals have many, many more names than the two I knew— some as odd as "carpet shrimp" and "cheesy bobs." Here's a non-exhaustive list from the Woodlouse Wikipedia article.
- "Jomits" (Cloneganna)
- "armadillo bug"
- "billy baker" (South Somerset)
- Billy Button (Dorset)
- Granny grey (Wales)
- "boat-builder" (Newfoundland, Canada)
- "butcher boy" or "butchy boy" (Australia, mostly around Melbourne)
- Bunty Nathans (Western Australia)
- "carpenter" or "cafner" (Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada)
- "carpet shrimp" (Ryedale)
- "charlie pig" (Norfolk , England)
- "cheeselog" (Reading, England)
- "cheesy bobs" (Guildford, England)
- "cheesy bug" (North West Kent, Gravesend, England)
- "cheesy lou" (Suffolk)
- "cheesy papa" (Essex)
- "cheesey wig"
- "chiggy pig" (Devon, England)
- "chucky pig" (Devon, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, England)
- "chuggy peg"
- "crawley baker" (Dorset)
- "daddy grampher" (North Somerset)
- "damp beetle" (North East England)
- "dandy postman" (Essex and East London)
- "doodlebug" (also used for the larva of an antlion)
- "Fat Pigs" (Cork, Ireland)
- "gramersow" (Cornwall, England)
- "Grumper-pig" (Bermuda)
- "Mochyn Coed" (meaning "Tree Pig"), "Pryf lludw" (meaning "Ash fly"), "granny grey" in Wales
- "granny grunter" (Isle of Man)
- "hardback" (Humberside, England)
- "hobbling Andrew" (Oxfordshire, England)
- "hog-louse"
- "horton bug" (Deal, Kent, England)
- "humidity bug" (Ontario, Canada)
- "menace" (Plymouth, Devon)
- "monkey-peas" (Kent, England)
- "monk's louse" (transl. "munkelus", Norway)
- "parson's pig" (Isle of Man)
- "pea bug" or "peasie-bug" (Kent, England)
- "pennysow" (Pembrokeshire, Wales)
- "piggy wig"
- "pill bug" (usually applied only to the genus Armadillidium)
- "potato bug"
- "roll up bug"
- "roly-poly"
- "rosary bug" (Turkey)
- "slater" (Scotland, Ulster, New Zealand and Australia)
- "saw bug" (Dingwall, Nova Scotia)
- "sour bug" (Cambridgeshire)
- "sow bug"
- "wood bug" (British Columbia, Canada)
- "wood-louse"
All the "bug" names are technically misnomers because they aren't even bugs. They're technically tiny land crustaceans— related to crabs, crayfish, etc. The silly little not-bugs unfortunately are not as tasty as their lobster and crab cousins. They're said to have an unpleasant taste that's similar to "strong urine."
