DeAndre Hopkins is known by the nickname “Nuk.” His mother gave him the name when he was an infant because he repeatedly chewed through NUK pacifiers, a brand whose name is pronounced “nook.” Hopkins’s nickname, however, is generally pronounced “nuke.”
Hopkins was born in 1992 in Central, South Carolina, and became a standout wide receiver at Clemson University. The Houston Texans selected him in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft, 27th overall. He quickly developed into one of the league’s most reliable contested-catch specialists, earning multiple Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro selections.
The nickname is sometimes confused with “DHop,” another widely used short form of his name. “Nuk” is the distinctive childhood nickname, while “DHop” is a more straightforward abbreviation of DeAndre Hopkins. The spelling also matters: it is commonly written “Nuk,” even though the pronunciation resembles the word “nuke.”