There Are at Least 66 Different Names for Egg-in-a-Hole

Over the weekend, I was with my boyfriend's family at the beach. His mom very kindly made us breakfast, and one morning, she made what she called a Marty Wilson. A what? Apparently, that's what she grew up calling what I have always known as toad-in-a-hole or egg-in-a-hole: that delicious, ubiquitous dish of an egg fried in bread. And those names? They are so, so far from the only names for this breakfast dish.

The good folks at Eater did a deep-dive into the origins of the simple breakfast. The first time a recipe for the dish appeared in print, in Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cookbook, it was called "egg with a hat,"calling for the bread's center cut-out to be served on top of the egg, as its "hat." And it's popped up again and again in popular culture: in the movie Moonstruck, where it's called uova nel cestino, or "egg in a trashcan," in the film Moon Over Miami, in which it's called "gashouse eggs" (which may come from the German gasthaus, or "guesthouse") and in the movie V for Vendetta, they called it "egg-in-the-basket."

For those of you keeping score, that's seven different names already. And we're just getting started. I scoured the internet for all the different names people have for the dish, including go through nearly 350 comments on a SeriousEats thread, 171 comments on a New York Times Cooking recipe, and already compiled lists by HuffingtonPost and Chicago Foodies. I only included names that had more than one nod. Ready?

1. Egg-in-a-hole
2. Egg-with-a-hat
3. Egg-in-a-trashcan
4. Egg-in-the-basket
5. Egg-in-a-nest
6. Egg-in-the-middle
7. Egg-in-a-cage
8. Egg-in-a-window
9. Egg-in-a-pocket
10. Egg-in-a-well
11. Egg-in-a-boat
12. Egg-in-a-frame (or Framed egg)
13. Egg-in-a-blanket
14. Egg-on-an-island
15. Egg-in-jail
16. Bird's nest
17. Bird drop
18. Birdie-in-a-basket
19. Toad-in-a-hole
20. Toad-in-the-road
21. Frog-in-the-pond
22. Bull's eye
23. Ox eye egg
24. Camel's eyes
25. Elephant tracks
26. Marty Wilson
27. Betty Jane
28. Mary Jane
29. Adam and Eve on a raft
30. The Popeye
31. One-eyed Susie
32. One-eyed Jack
33. One-eyed Pete
34. One-eye pirate
35. Lazy-eyed pirate
36. One-eyed Egyptians
37. One-eyed Texans
38. A man in a raft
39. Fireman's toast
40. Cowboy eggs
41. Hobo toast
42. Rocky Mountain toast
43. Polish eggs
44. Lighthouse eggs
45. Birmingham eggs
46. Hot house eggs [Ed. note: Mentioned in D is for Dahl by Roald Dahl.)
47. Guesthouse eggs
48. Gashouse egg
49. Gaslight egg
50. Knot-hole eggs
51. Goldmine egg
52. Circus toast
53. Sunshine eggs
54. Hol[e]y eggs
55. Hole-in-one
56. Hocus Pocus egg
57. Peek-a-boo eggs
58. Bregg
59. Toast Tits
60. Spit in the eye
61. Cartwheel
62. Diamond toast
63. Baby in a buggy
64. Doughnut egg
65. Toast with a tummy (or Belly-Button egg)
66. Moon Over Miami eggs