Bingo
Bingo Calls and Funny Bingo Nicknames
Bingo calls are the nicknames and rhymes a caller uses to announce each number, from Kelly’s eye for 1 to top of the shop for 90.
The UK game has 90 of them, and you can still hear them in bingo halls and online bingo rooms. The full list, with the meaning behind every call, is below.
Bingo Calls 1-90: The Full List
Every number in UK 90-ball bingo has its own call, and many have two or three that callers use interchangeably. Where a number has more than one, the alternatives are listed together.
Running a bingo night at home? Pair this list with our bingo card generator and have some fun calling the numbers the traditional way.
1 – Kelly’s eye
Could this be a reference to Ned Kelly? See our ‘History of Bingo Calls’ section below.
2 – One little duck
A visual reference – the number 2 looks like a duck, right?
3 – Cup of tea
A nice British rhyme.
4 – Knock at the door
From an old nursery rhyme.
5 – Man alive
An exclamatory rhyme.
6 – Tom Mix/Half a dozen
A rhyme referring to Hollywood’s ‘first Western Star’/half of 12 is six.
7 – Lucky seven
A famously lucky number.
8 – Garden gate/One fat lady
This rhyme reportedly has a deeper meaning: a secret meeting or drop-off point/the number 8 also looks like a curvaceous woman.
9 – Doctor’s orders
A military reference. See our ‘History of Bingo Calls’ section below.
10 – [Prime Minister’s name]’s den
Insert current head of UK Prime Minister. See our ‘Funny Bingo Calls’ section below.
11 – Legs eleven
Refers to the shape the number makes.
12 – One dozen
A dozen, of course, means 12.
13 – Unlucky for some
A famously unlucky number.
14 – Valentine’s Day
Refers to the 14th of February.
15 – Young and keen
A simple rhyming call.
16 – Sweet sixteen
Refers to the ‘coming of age’ celebration.
17 – Dancing queen
ABBA fans, sing your heart out. See our ‘funny bingo calls’ section below.
18 – Coming of age
A big milestone in the UK. You’re officially an adult!
19 – Goodbye teens
Another age-related bingo call.
20 – One score
An old counting term: there are 20 units in a ‘score’.
21 – Royal salute/Key of the door
There are 21 guns fired in a traditional military salute/21 is the traditional age for getting the keys to your own place.
22 – Two little ducks
Just look at the shape of those numbers – cute!
23 – The lord is my shepherd/Thee and me
A biblical reference – see Psalm 23 in the Old Testament/an Old-English rhyme.
24 – Two dozen
2 x 12 = 24.
25 – Duck and dive
Another rhyme. Need help remembering this one? Think of the number 2 as a duck, and the 5 as an upside-down duck ‘diving’ in the water.
26 – Half a crown
Refers to pre-decimalised currency in the UK. Two shillings and sixpence is half a crown.
27 – Gateway to heaven
A divine rhyme.
28 – In a state
Cockney rhyming slang – “I got into a right two and eight!”
29 – Rise and shine
A cheery rhyme.
30 – Dirty Gertie
A military song. See ‘Funny Bingo Calls’ below.
31 – Get up and run
A motivational rhyme.
32 – Buckle my shoe
A catchy rhyme.
33 – Dirty knee/All the threes/Fish, chips and peas
A simple rhyme/33 represents all the threes available in a 90-ball game/a traditional English takeaway.
34 – Ask for more
The perfect rhyme if you’re still hungry after 33.
35 – Jump and jive
A groovy rhyme.
36 – Three dozen
3 x 12 = 36.
37 – More than eleven
A factually correct yet slightly odd rhyme.
38 – Christmas cake
More cockney rhyming slang.
39 – Steps
Refers to a classic film. See ‘Other Interesting Bingo Calls’ below.
40 – Life begins/Naughty forty
A popular proverb: ‘life begins at 40’/an old rhyme.
41 – Time for fun
A fun rhyme.
42 – Winnie the Pooh
A rhyme about a popular bear.
43 – Down on your knees
A military rhyme – refers to the phrase made popular by soldiers during the war.
44 – Droopy drawers
A rhyme (about sagging underwear, would you believe it?)
45 – Halfway there
There are 90 balls in traditional British bingo.
46 – Up to tricks
A mischievous rhyme.
47 – Four and seven
Another self-explanatory one.
48 – Four dozen
4 x 12 = 48
49 – PC
“Evening all”; refers to an old radio series and film: ‘The Adventures of P.C. 49’.
50 – Half a century
Another self-explanatory one.
51 – Tweak of the thumb
A traditional bingo rhyme.
52 – Danny La Rue/Weeks in a year
A rhyme referring to the popular drag performer Danny La Rue/a self-explanatory one.
53 – Stuck in the tree/Here comes Herbie
A simple rhyme/53 is the number of the famous Disney car (“beep beep!”)
54 – Clean the floor
A rhyme about housekeeping.
55 – Snakes alive
A rhyme that also represents the shape of the numbers.
56 – Shotts Bus/Was she worth it?
See our ‘Other Interesting Bingo Calls’ section below/a marriage licence used to cost five shillings and sixpence (players shout back “every penny!”)
57 – Heinz varieties
‘57 varieties’ is the slogan of the food company Heinz.
58 – Make them wait
A simple rhyme.
59 – Brighton Line
A rhyme referencing a coastal line. See ‘Other Interesting Bingo Calls’ below.
60 – Five dozen/Grandma’s getting frisky
5 x 12 = 60/a sort-of-rhyme referencing the traditional age women could retire.
61 – Baker’s bun
A simple rhyme.
62 – Turn the screw/Tickety-boo
Rhyming phrases referring to putting the pressure on someone/to be doing well.
63 – Tickle me
A cheeky rhyme.
64 – Red raw/Almost retired
A sore rhyme/being a year away from the traditional age of retirement (see below).
65 – Old age pension
The traditional age of retirement for men in the UK.
66 – Clickety click
A rail-based rhyme.
67 – Stairway to heaven
Another holy rhyming call.
68 – Pick a mate/Saving grace
A friendly rhyme/a sort-of-rhyme?
69 – Any way up
Refers to the number reading the same upside down. Other bingo calls for this number may be less wholesome.
70 – Three score and ten
More old counting terms. 3 x 20 + 10 = 70.
71 – Bang on the drum
A rhythmic rhyme.
72 – Six dozen
6 x 12 = 72.
73 – Queen bee
A bee-autiful rhyme.
74 – Hit the floor/Candy store
Choose your favourite rhyming call.
75 – Strive and strive
A hardworking rhyme.
76 – Trombones
A musical reference. See our ‘History of Bingo Calls’ below.
77 – Sunset strip
One for fans of old detective dramas. Check out our ‘History of Bingo Calls’ below.
78 – 39 more steps
Wait, another reference to 39 Steps? (39 + 39 = 78).
79 – One more time
An easy rhyme.
80 – Ghandi’s breakfast/Eight and blank
Because Ghandi supposedly “ate nothing” (Eight and nothing)/the latter call is more self-explanatory.
81 – Stop and run/Fat lady with a walking stick
A contradictory rhyme/another visual reference (see 88).
82 – Straight on through/Fat lady with a duck
A classic rhyme/yet another visual reference (see 88).
83 – Time for tea
Another traditional British rhyme.
84 – Seven dozen
7 x 12 = 84.
85 – Staying alive
A catchy Bee Gees rhyme. See ‘Funny Bingo Calls’ below.
86 – Between the sticks
A goalkeeping rhyme.
87 – Torquay in Devon
A nice geography rhyme.
88 – Two fat ladies
A classic visual reference. See our ‘Other Interesting Bingo Calls’ section below.
89 – Nearly there
There’s only one number left in 90-ball bingo.
90 – Top of the shop/End of the line
The highest or last number in bingo.
The Most Popular Bingo Calls Explained
The best-known bingo calls are two fat ladies, legs eleven, two little ducks, Kelly’s eye and Dirty Gertie, and most of them work because you can picture the number as it’s called.
- Two fat ladies (88) is probably the most famous call of all. Each 8 looks like a curvy figure, so two side by side became two fat ladies. The joke carries through the 80s: 8 on its own is one fat lady, 81 is a fat lady with a walking stick and 82 a fat lady with a duck.
- Legs eleven (11) is the same kind of visual joke. The two ones stand side by side like a pair of legs.
- Two little ducks (22) follows the same logic, with each 2 shaped like a duck on the water. Its single form, one little duck, is number 2, and 25 turns the idea into duck and dive.
- Kelly’s eye (1) has murkier origins. One theory links it to Ned Kelly, the Australian outlaw, and the armoured helmet with a single eye slit he famously wore. The other points to Kelly’s Eye, a strip in the boys’ adventure comic Valiant (1962 to 1976), whose hero carried a magic amulet shaped like an eye.
- Dirty Gertie (30) comes from Dirty Gertie from Bizerte, a song Allied troops sang during the Second World War. Some callers use Burlington Bertie instead, after Burlington Bertie from Bow, a song from the music hall era.
Funny and Obscure Bingo Calls
The funniest and most obscure bingo calls are usually tied to a place, a book or a song, and several only make sense once you know the story behind them.
Number 10 changes with every election. Callers put the name of the sitting Prime Minister in front of “den”, a reference to 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s London address.
- Brighton Line (59) is the railway running from London Victoria to the seaside town, and it gets a mention in Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest. Players in the north of England are less likely to have heard of it.
- Shotts Bus (56) is even more regional. 56 was once the number of the bus route from Glasgow to the town of Shotts in North Lanarkshire, so the call is far better known in Scotland than anywhere else.
- 39 steps comes from John Buchan’s 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps, which has since been adapted into several films. Number 78 doubles the joke as 39 more steps, since 39 + 39 = 78.
Pop music has left its mark too. Staying alive (85) borrows the Bee Gees song title, while Dancing queen (17) goes a step further and plays on the ABBA lyric that makes the dancing queen 17.
Where Bingo Calls Came From
Most bingo calls come from British military slang, rhymes and jokes, spread by servicemen who played housey-housey, an early version of bingo, during the Second World War.
Doctor’s orders (9) is a good example. Army doctors handed out a laxative known as the Number 9 pill, and the name stuck to the number. Down on your knees (43) is another phrase that soldiers made popular during the war.
The history of bingo goes back much further, to Lo Gioco del Lotto D’Italia, an Italian lottery first played in 1530. It spread through Europe over the following centuries and reached the United States with early migrants.
In 1929, toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe watched a game then called Beano at a carnival in Georgia and took it home to New York, where it caught on with his friends. During one close game, a player yelled “Bingo” instead of “Beano”, and the name stuck.
Bingo’s popularity in the UK surged in the 1950s and 1960s, which is why so many calls borrow from that era. 76 Trombones is a song from the 1957 musical The Music Man, 77 Sunset Strip comes from an American detective series of the time, and PC 49 comes from the radio series and film The Adventures of PC 49. Pre-decimal money and old counting terms survive in the calls as well, from half a crown (26) to three score and ten (70).
Bingo Calls in Online Bingo
Bingo calls are still part of online bingo, mainly in the chat rooms that run alongside each game.
The calls in this list belong to 90-ball bingo, the traditional UK game and one of several types of bingo you’ll find online. They’ve never been fixed, though. Callers in different halls and regions have always used their own versions, as Shotts Bus shows, and online chat now spreads new nicknames between players much faster than bingo halls ever did.
Chat rooms have also developed a shorthand of their own, alongside the traditional calls. Our glossary of bingo terms covers the most common phrases and chat acronyms.
Bingo Calls FAQs
What are all the bingo calls?
The bingo calls are the 90 nicknames used for the numbers 1 to 90 in UK bingo, from Kelly’s eye for 1 to top of the shop for 90. The full list, with the meaning of each call, is at the top of this page.
What is the bingo lingo?
Bingo lingo is the slang of the game, made up of the number calls and phrases such as “eyes down”, which signals the start of a game, and “full house”, which means every number on a ticket has been marked. Online players add their own chat shorthand on top.
What is 10 in bingo calling?
Number 10 is named after 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s residence. Callers usually put the current Prime Minister’s name in front of “den”, so the call changes whenever the office changes hands.
What is a catchy phrase for bingo?
The catchiest bingo phrases are the classic number calls, such as two little ducks (22), legs eleven (11) and two fat ladies (88). “Eyes down”, the call that signals the start of a game, is just as well known.
New to the game? Our guide on how to play bingo covers the basics. When you’re ready for eyes down, play bingo at William Hill.
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