Strawberry week, red aunt, the monthly things

People have always found other ways to say “period”. Some nicknames are jokes. Some are polite. Some are old family words. This Column looks at a few of them, in several languages. It reports what one app company, three research studies, and two governments’ own words say. It does not rank any language or any culture.

One poll, thousands of nicknames

A cycle-tracking app company says it once polled its users, with the help of the International Women’s Health Coalition, and that “90,000 people responded”. It says its users, in “190 countries and counting”, helped it find “over 5,000 euphemisms for the word ‘period.’”

That is the company’s own count, from its own app users. It is not a random sample of people. The company’s page gives two dates, 2016 and 2017, and does not say which year the poll ran.

What the nicknames borrow

The examples below come from the same company’s list. The English meanings are the company’s. Fluent readers will check each one.

What linguists say

Linguists have words for these words. A 2023 study, published in 2024, sorts them into three kinds. A euphemism is softer: it “mitigates the intensity and the offensive nature of a taboo concept through its evasive characteristics”. An orthophemism is plain: a “direct and literal” word. A dysphemism is harsher. The study’s umbrella word for all three is “X-phemistic”.

The study asked 516 people who speak Dutch, German or Mandarin Chinese for their words. The study kept 2,141 of the expressions they sent, covering 275 different words and phrases.

The study also reports older research, from 1975. It found that women tended to call a period a “female visitor, friend, or relative”, and that men more often used “red” words. One English example in the study is “our aunt from Redfield”.

What about younger people and funny nicknames? The researchers suggest a possibility, not a finding: “It is also possible that the younger generation is using humorous mechanisms and sources not in order to stigmatize menstruation, but to make light of it in an ironic manner.”

A note on words: the studies we cite say “women”, “men” and “female”. We keep researchers’ words so we report their findings accurately. The Reading Room is for everyone who menstruates.

Choosing plain words

Nicknames can be fun. Some people choose plain words instead, on purpose. In a 2025 study in Spain, “some respondents intentionally chose not to use euphemisms, viewing this as a personal contribution to making menstruation more visible.”

Others reshape the words. A 2023 study of 24 videos by trans and non-binary people who have periods found that some avoid terms like “feminine hygiene”, and some use “euphemisms—or even hyper-euphemisms” and “puns and wordplay”. For more on words and identity, see “Period care and gender dysphoria”.

Both are choices. The word that fits you is the right one for you.

Closer to home

English and French in Canada. The Government of Canada keeps a term bank called TERMIUM Plus. For English, it lists “menstruation”, “menses”, “menstrual period” and “catamenia”. For French, it lists “menstruations”, “règles”, “menstrues” and “cataménie”. For Spanish, it marks “regla” and “periodo” as familiar words. Règles, one of the French words it lists, is also why the ruler joke works. Its record lists no nicknames. We have not yet checked everyday Quebec expressions, so this Column does not say France’s nicknames are used in Quebec.

Korean. Korea’s food and drug regulator uses two words for periods, 월경 (wolgyeong) and 생리 (saengri), in the title of one 2025 notice. It calls period pads 생리대 (saengridae) (our translation). For more, see “Period care in South Korea”.

Moon time. Moon Time Connections, a national Indigenous-led period equity group, uses the words “Moon Time”. It is the group’s own term, used in its own context, and not a nickname from the list above. Teachings differ between Nations.

What does your family call it?

What does your family call it? Or your friends, or your language? One word is plenty. Tell us what it means, if you like. Readers’ words may shape a future Column. We will ask before quoting anyone.

Please leave out names and health details, yours or anyone else’s. If you are under 14, please ask a parent or carer to send it for you.

What this is not

This Column reports words for periods as other people listed them, with their English meanings, marked. The poll figures are one company’s, from its own users. The Column does not say any language or culture is better, or more or less ashamed, than another. It left out nicknames that mock bodies or other countries. Translations are checked by fluent readers before publication.