The classic graduation hat is usually called a mortarboard.

Quick Scoop: What Are Graduation Hats Called?

When people ask “what are graduation hats called,” they’re almost always thinking of the flat, square cap with a tassel worn at high school and college graduations. That specific style is properly known as a mortarboard , because its shape resembles the flat board bricklayers use to hold mortar.

Main name you’re looking for

  • The square, flat-topped hat with a tassel = mortarboard.
  • It’s also casually called:
    • graduation cap
    • grad cap
    • cap (as in “cap and gown”)

A quick example: if someone says, “Move your tassel on your mortarboard from right to left,” they’re talking about that standard square graduation hat.

Other graduation hats (beyond the mortarboard)

If you’ve seen different-looking graduation hats in photos or at ceremonies, they often have their own names.

  • Tam (or academic tam / tam o’shanter):
    • A soft, round (often velvet) cap with multiple panels.
    • Commonly worn by master’s and especially doctoral graduates, as well as professors.
  • Tudor bonnet :
    • Another term sometimes used for the doctoral-style round cap, especially in the UK and Commonwealth traditions.
* Often made of velvet, with a tassel or cord decoration.

So, in everyday talk, people say “graduation cap,” but if you want the precise term for the classic square one, the answer to “what are graduation hats called?” is: mortarboard.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.