The country music trio once known as the Dixie Chicks has officially (and rightly) dropped the “Dixie” from its title and is now just “The Chicks.”
Dixie, a euphemism for the South that refers to the part of the country below the Mason-Dixon line, has long been used in references to a romanticized pre-Civil War South. For example, the song “Dixie” came out of blackface minstrel shows from the 1850s and was the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy.
The Chicks, however, are named after the 1973 song “Dixie Chicken,” by the band Little Feat. And while it is time to drop the “Dixie,” the Chicks had so many chicken and non-chicken related options to choose from for their replacement title. Natalie, Emily, and Martie, if you’re reading this, allow my colleagues and me to offer some unbidden input on your name change with a few, perhaps unexplored, options:
- The Hens
- Hen Party
- Hen Do
- Hey Henny
- Hay Henny (should you prefer to stay on a barnyard theme)
- The Hennies
- Cocks of the Walk
- The Walking Cocks (if you’d like to keep a three-word, chicken-centric band name featuring an article, adjective, and noun)
- The Cocks
- Dixie Carter Renamed Carter
- The Carters (though I can see how this might cause problems with the Carter family)
- The Chics
- And finally, obviously, The Chic Dix