The nickname “Ole Miss” originally comes from the University of Mississippi, not the state as a whole, and is tied to both a campus yearbook contest and the language of plantation slavery in the American South.

Quick Scoop

  • The term “Ole Miss” first appeared in 1897 as the winning title in a student contest to name the new University of Mississippi yearbook.
  • The phrase itself was already in use in the South; it was a form of address enslaved people used for the “old mistress” of a plantation, the plantation owner’s wife.
  • Over the next few years, students and alumni began using “Ole Miss” as a beloved name for the entire university, and it eventually became its best‑known identity.

Where the name comes from

  • In 1897, the University of Mississippi published its first yearbook and held a naming contest; a student entry, “Ole Miss,” was chosen as the title.
  • Within about two years, people were using “Ole Miss” not just for the book, but for the university itself, so the phrase shifted from a publication title into a school nickname.

Deeper historical roots

  • Long before the contest, “ole miss” (or “ol’ missus”) was a term enslaved African Americans used for the plantation mistress, distinguishing her from younger women in the household.
  • Because Mississippi was a slaveholding state with large plantations, this language was part of the region’s social world, which is why historians connect the nickname to that older usage.

Why people say “Mississippi” vs. “Ole Miss”

  • Strictly speaking, “Ole Miss” refers to the University of Mississippi in Oxford, while “Mississippi” can mean the state itself or its broader culture.
  • In sports, news, and online forums, people sometimes say “Mississippi” when they mostly mean the university and its teams, which helps spread the idea that “Mississippi is called Ole Miss.”

Modern views and controversy

  • Because the term grew out of slave-era plantation language and later sat alongside Confederate imagery at the school, “Ole Miss” carries racial and historical baggage for many people today.
  • Some at the university emphasize the formal name “University of Mississippi” to distance the institution from that legacy, while others still use “Ole Miss” as a cherished tradition and brand.

TL;DR: Mississippi isn’t officially “called” Ole Miss; the University of Mississippi picked “Ole Miss” as a yearbook title in 1897, borrowing a phrase that originally meant the plantation mistress, and the name stuck as the university’s enduring, and sometimes controversial, nickname.

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