These Cheeses Have the Wackiest Names

Screamer, or Stinking Bishop aren’t rock bands or circus acts—they’re cheeses

From the delightfully absurd to the downright curious, some cheese names are proof that cheesemakers don’t take their products too seriously. Whether you’re a cheese lover or just here for the laughs, we’ve compiled some of the wildest-named cheeses that are as fun to say as they are to savor.

Cheese Names

Naming cheese has always been more art than science. Even ancient cheeses have names with stories. Take Gruyère, the Alpine cheese that has been produced since 1115 in and around the region of Gruyères in Switzerland. Legend has it the small, picturesque town is named for grue, a crane that landed on the shoulder of the settlement’s founder.

“The naming of cheese has always been incredibly fascinating to me,” says Emilia D’Albero, ACS CCP, aSales & Marketing Manager for Formaticum, and a member of the 2025 Team USA for Le Concours Mondial du Meilleur Fromager. “It seems that there are no hard and fast rules, except for PDO cheeses, whose names are protected and restricted. Producers of PDO cheeses like Parmigiano Reggiano, Comté, and Gruyères have no room for creativity when it comes to naming these cheeses,” D’Albero explains.

D’Albero explains, “Many other European cheese names are indicative of their area or method of production, for example: Tomme aux Fleurs (flower-rinded tomme), Pecorino Sardo (sheep’s milk cheese from Sardegna), Stracchino Stagionato di Capra (aged goat’s milk stracchino), Persillé de Rambouillet (“parsleyed” blue-veined cheese from Rambouillet).” Many cheeses are simply named after their places of origin—Cheddar, Roquefort, and Colby get their names from towns in England, France, and Wisconsin. Pecora is the Italian word for sheep, so the family of hard Italian sheep milk cheeses goes by the name pecorino. Pretty straightforward! These names do heavy lifting in terms of explaining a wheel’s identity, but they are not exactly creative.

In Mexico, some cheeses are known by one name within the state or region where they originated, but outside of that area they are known by the state’s name - “for example, Quesillo from Oaxaca is known widely as Queso Oaxaca outside of that area,” D’Albero explains. “In some cases, European cheeses are even renamed for the American market, notably OG Kristal and Drunken Goat.” While European names may seem romantic, sometimes they are just a mouthful. With a name like Brokkeloude Roeselare perhaps OG Kristal isn’t such a bad idea.

Whimsical Cheese Names

Modern cheesemakers are free to have fun and lean into whimsy when naming their creations. American producers, without Europe’s name protection system, have free reign. “Some of my favorite domestic cheeses with unique names are Willi Lehner’s Big Sky Grana, Arethusa Farm’s Crybaby, Goat Rodeo’s Cowboy Coffee, and Crown Finish Caves Barnburner (RIP),” says D’Albero.

Some cheeses like High Lawn Farm’ Smorbier or Blakesville Creamery’s Shabby Shoe pay homage to the European recipes they pull inspiration from. “Something I love about American cheeses’ freedom of identity is that their names can be so descriptive and evocative, even romantic at times, D’Albero says. “Take Mystic Cheese Co. for example, and their cheese Melinda Mae, which is named for the cheesemaker’s favorite Shel Silverstein poem about a girl who tried to eat a whale bite by bite, representing his professional journey.”

Weird Cheese Names

Dairyere

From Connecticut’s Cato Corner, this raw milk wheel is inspired by Alpine greats and made from milk from their own herd. It’s nutty, snappy, and perfect with a malty ale. The name, of course, is lol.

Ubriacone

“This means the big drunk one, as it’s soaked in wine,” explains D’Albero. Ubriacone is a Venetian cow’s milk cheese bathed in a mixture of local Clinton and Raboso wine, then pierced like a gorgonzola to let the aroma and flavor of the wine permeate the cheese. The result is fruity, punchy, and stunning, with its dramatic purple veining.

Puzzone di Moena

D’Albero spells it out: “Puzzone literally means big stinker.” The Italian PDO cheese’s name comes from a 1974 radio broadcast, when the “Nostrano Fassa cheese” from Moena’s Alpine dairy earned a playful new nickname—“Puzzone di Moena” (Smelly of Moena)—thanks to its strong aroma. The name caught on quickly, and stuck. True to form, the cheese is robust, with a not-for-the-faint-of-heart aroma.

Moser Screamer

Ueli Moser is a bit of a renegade in the Swiss cheese world—an Emmentaler producer turned inventor of Screamer, a mushroom-y, dense, and buttery triple crème. Legend has it, its name is derived from the sounds of pleasure from people experiencing its luscious deliciousness.

Shakerag Blue

Named for Shakerag Hollow—a destination renowned for its moonshining history and trails of wildflowers in Sewanee, Tennessee—this fudgy, complex blue is wrapped in Chattanooga Whiskey-soaked fig leaves. A gorgeous farmstead blue from Sequatchie Cove Creamery. Learn more about Sequatchie Cove Creamery.

Stinking Bishop

If you’ve ever caught a whiff of Stinking Bishop, you know the name isn’t just for fun—it’s a cheese that earns its stink. Its famously pungent aroma comes from being bathed in perry, a pear-based cider, as it ripens. But here’s the twist: it’s not the cheese itself, but a pear, that inspired the name.

The Stinking Bishop pear takes its moniker from Frederick Bishop, a Gloucestershire farmer who lived from 1847 to 1919. By all accounts, Bishop was a real character—and not the charming kind. He loved to drink, hated to bathe, and left behind a reputation as ripe as the pears growing on his land. Local legend dubbed both the man and his fruit Stinking Bishop, and when cheesemaker Charles Martell needed a name for his aromatic creation, well…how could he resist?

Intergalactic

Philadelphia’s Perrystead Dairy’s signature cheese is Intergalactic, a soft lactic cow’s milk cheese. It’s a demure wheel with a brainy, snow-white exterior, coagulated with Iberian cardoon thistle flowers. The name is a play on the word lactic, the international and inter-tradition cheesemaking innovation, and the fact that the result is out of this world.

Tête de Moine AOP

Tête de Moine may sound fancy—it translates to “monk’s head”—but its origins are as humble as a monastery cellar. This smooth, nutty Swiss cheese dates back more than 800 years to the monks of Bellelay Abbey, who crafted it with devotion and a touch of culinary genius. The name likely comes from the way the cheese was once rationed—by the monk’s head—or perhaps from its distinctive shaved curls, which, when scraped into delicate rosettes, resemble a monk’s freshly shorn crown. Either way, those monks knew how to make a cheese worth savoring. Read more about Tête de Moine.

Slack-ma-Girdle

Just like Stinking Bishop takes its name from a pear, the British Slack-ma-Girdle gets its name from a regional variety of apple. Beneath its delicate rind lies a luscious, almost spoonable center. Young, it’s bright and lemony, but give it time, and those citrus notes melt into something rich, buttery, and irresistibly creamy.