15 Creative Ways to Call 'Dibs' Across the U.S.

Looking to stake your claim on that final chocolate doughnut? You know to shout, 'I’ve got dibs!' But what if someone else exclaims, 'I wackie that doughnut!' or 'Let’s grab the snacks!'? You could end up missing out on some chocolatey delight. Be ready by expanding your dibs vocabulary—here are 15 ways to call dibs all across the United States.

Dubs

Once a term from marbles, dubs is short for doubles, which refers to winning two or more marbles knocked out by a single shot. To claim something, you'd shout 'dubs,' and to tell someone to back off, you'd use the phrase no dubs. According to the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), the term dibs might be a variation of dubs, or perhaps an abbreviation of dibstones, a 17th-century game akin to jacks.

Ducks

This dubs variant may also have roots in the marbles term ducks, which refers to the marbles that are the targets in the game, according to DARE. A South Carolina local mentioned that you might call ducks on 'the use of an article after the owner is finished.' A resident of northwest Virginia remarked that while 'children in the North' say 'dibs,' kids in Virginia may instead claim 'ducks on it.'

Wackie

This term for staking a claim in the Northeast can also be spelled wackers, wackies, whackie, and whacky, and is connected to the English dialect word whack, meaning 'to divide or share.' One respondent recalled hearing 'I wackies!' and 'No wackies!' in New Jersey, while another from Concord, Massachusetts, mentioned phrases like 'I wackie that' and 'Fin whackie on my pie,' meaning 'No whackie on my pie.' This saying is also common in Pennsylvania and New York.

Aikie(s)

This phrase, used for claiming or dividing something equally, originates from New York City. It might also appear as akey(s) or achies. To claim something for yourself, you would say, 'No aikies!' In Virginia, however, the term 'Achins!' might be used. While the origin of aikie(s) is unclear, it could stem from an English dialect pronunciation of 'equal,' or from hake, meaning 'to hanker or gape after.'

Yakers

'Yakers on it!' you might shout when you're claiming the last french fry. Whether it's yakers, yackers, yackies, yack(s), or yakes, this expression from Pennsylvania is likely a variation of aikie(s).

Digsies and Halvsies

If you want to claim something that someone else discovered first, you can shout 'digsies' or 'halvsies.' While halvsies clearly comes from 'half,' the origin of digsies is more ambiguous. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) explains that dig was once an old term for a duck—and, as we discussed earlier, 'duck' can also be a way of saying 'dubs' or 'dibs.'

Snacks and Snooksies

To 'go snacks on' something means 'to share it equally,' particularly in the South and New England. This expression has a long history; DARE’s earliest citation dates back to 1769: “They ... whipped the Magistrates Who went Snacks with them in their Plunder.” The OED’s earliest use is even earlier—it comes from the 1693 translation of The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis: “If one piece thou take, That must be cantled, and the Judge go snack.”

What do snacks have to do with halvsies? The word snack originally meant 'a share or portion,' according to the OED, and traces back even further to 'a snatch or snap, especially from a dog'—perhaps with the image of Fido grabbing his share of food. In the Southeast and Northeast, a variation is the phrase go snooks. Meanwhile, snooksies is used to claim first dibs, as in 'Snooksies on the comfy chair!'

Ballow

The term ballow from eastern Massachusetts is a verb meaning 'to claim something,' as in 'I ballow the last chicken wing!' The word comes from an English dialect with the same meaning.

Boney and Boners

Want to claim something in Wisconsin? You can say, 'I boney it!' or 'I boney-eye it!' Boners is similar, meaning 'to stake a claim or divide' with someone; it might also be spelled bonas, possibly a variation of bonus. DARE’s earliest recorded usage dates to 1895 in eastern Massachusetts: 'I bonas it.' In New Mexico, you might hear, 'Let’s boners it' (presumably said seriously). The term bonas or boners likely derives from the English dialect word bunce, meaning 'a share or profit.' 'Bunce!' was also used to assert possession.

Finnie

To 'finnie' something doesn’t just mean 'to claim it,' according to one DARE respondent—it also means 'to take something nobody else appears to own.' This term can be heard in Massachusetts and Ohio and is a variation of fen, a marbles term used to either give an advantage to a player or take it away from another. Fen is a distorted form of defend or fend.

Hosey and Honey

Hosey (sometimes spelled hozey or hozy) is a term for staking a claim in Massachusetts and Maine. It may come from a corruption of holds plus the diminutive -ie—so it could be holdsie—or possibly a blend of Holds I. In a 1971 letter to the Today Show, a Bostonian described hearing, 'I hosey (pronounced ‘hoe-zee’) that chair or whatever.' According to John Gould’s Maine Lingo: A Wicked-Good Guide to Yankee Vernacular, 'Mainers generally recognize that the first to cry hoseys has established a claim.' The vintage New York term honey, pronounced 'hoaney,' carries a similar meaning to hozey.