Common Weed Names: Your Guide to Other Names for Weed

If you find yourself bored at work, wishing you could smoke some weed, have some time to kill and want to learn another word for marijuana or two along with the history behind ‘em so that you can impress your new stoner friends this article is for you. If you’re a newbie when it comes to smoking weed or maybe thinking more deeply about all the weed you’ve been smoking over the years—this potent weed terms post is for you. After all there are two common weed names everybody talks about: Sativa and Indica but there’s another one that you probably aren’t even aware of—and no it’s not hemp. So stay tuned and we’ll get to it. Pull this weed term out in your next smoke circle and you’ll impress the entire group.

Best weed names

The list of existing weed names is long and about as contested as the long list of synonyms for marijuana—if that makes any sense? So it’s a bit difficult to determine which are the best weed names. But we’re down to try to start with those because it seems like blog posts typically begin by talking about the best. What you think is a good name for weed or the best name might be considered really silly by someone else. What you think are good weed names might be better suited as baby names or names for dogs. Actually, lots of people are using weed names as names for dogs nowadays. And everybody has an opinion on what’s good weed or bad weed. Anyhow, let’s cut to the chase and get to defining some common weed names that you might encounter on your trip to the dispensary or the traditional market.

Let’s start with one of the words for marijuana that most people would consider the true scientific name for weed, Cannabis. This is probably the closest to the actually correct term for weed when it comes to names for weed. That’s because cannabis is the scientific term for the plant itself. Since we’re now talking about the more scientific terms for weed let’s get to those three main categories of weed before we get to the more slang terms.

3 Most Popular Cannabis Names

The first is Cannabis Sativa. You’ve probably heard of this by now. Sativa strains typically deliver a more cerebral or heady high when consumed. The high is considered to be more energetic and described by some as even electric at times. Sativa strains are typically found in tropical locations. That means that they have long growing seasons. As a result they tend to get really tall and lanky. Connoisseurs love Sativas. Some famous sativa strain names include Jack Herer, Sour Diesel and Pineapple Express.

Cannabis Indica refers to any Indica strain of weed. Unlike Sativa these plants originated in areas above and below tropical locations. So they’re more used to grow in in cooler conditions. As a result these plants grow faster and stay squatter. A few of the more common Indica strains that you’ve probably heard of include Northern Lights, Grape Ape and Grand Daddy Purple. An Indica high is typically considered a more body-type high. Meaning it’ll relax the body and calm the nerves. You may have come across the term “couch-lock” during your weed-smoking career? Well that phrase is often used to describe heavy, sedative Indica weed strains. Connoisseurs love these as well.

Ruderalis is that elusive third and most forgotten about names for weed. This strain is  native to Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. Cannabis Ruderalis plants grow up to be a lot smaller than Sativa, Indica or hybrid plants. These guys rarely grow bigger than just a couple feet tall and they have really thin and fibrous stems with little branching. They typically contain virtually no THC but can be high in CBD. This is changing of course as the cannabis industry continues to grow and as legalization continues to loosen its tight grip on control.

One really interesting fact about ruderalis strains is that they mature a lot faster than other cannabis strains. Typically they’ll reach maturity in about five to seven weeks. They begin to flower based on maturity rather than based on a change in the light cycle which is how Indica, Sativa and Hybrid plants grow when to enter the flowering stage. Crossing an Indica, Sativa or Hybrid plant with a ruderalis plant results in what’s known as an autoflowering plant. This plant will flower when it reaches a certain height. This unique growing style is great for people who want to grow a couple crops outside. That is if they live in a region with a fairly long growing season or for people who have a really short growing season and need cannabis plants that flower really fast.

Hybrid
When breeders combine an Indica or Sativa or even a Ruderalis strain they get what’s known as a hybrid. The weed that you’ll find in a dispensary or at the local sesh is probably a hybrid. Pure strains or strains that have parents from the same strain are known as Landraces. Landrace strains are becoming less and less common everyday as more people create more hybrids. This results in a weaker gene pool to create new hybrids or to strengthen landrace genetics.

Marijuana
One of the other most common names for weed is marijuana of course. This term has a sordid history as you probably already know. Many people agree that the term marijuana was originally a Mexican-Spanish word. It’s sometimes spelled “marihuana” and seemed to gain a lot of popularity during the 1920s and 1930 just as reefer madness reached its zenith. Many people also agree that the term was a way of spreading anti-cannabis propaganda and fear not to mention fueling racism.

How did one of the most common weed names get linked to racism? Well the theoray stands that U.S. law enforcement associated cannabis with broadly-held racist and anti-immigrant views of Mexican people. This is one reason why you’ll often hear people in the cannabis community correct others about using the term, marijuana—because they feel that using it pays tribute to the word’s racist and xenophobic origins. Other people feel differently and consider this as one of the best names for weed of all time because using it often helps transform it’s meaning from something negative into something much more positive.

More marijuana synonyms

Weed
When it comes to weed names our favorite has always been weed. It probably always will. There’s just something so cool and so defiant about this super popular term. It’s the one we first used and continue to use since we encountered the material and fell in love with it many years ago. The word weed doesn’t feel derogatory even though weeds are something that you typically kick out of your garden. There’s also a sort of playful innocence about the word weed that makes it fun to use. It’s also a lot of fun to say—especially in a crowded elevator.

Pot
Pot is another one of the really common names for weed out there. Why is marijuana called pot? Well when we Googled the origin of the term pot we discovered that it comes from the Spanish word potiguaya or potaguaya, both of which are a type of alcoholic drink made by steeping weed. Potiguaya or potaguaya sounds awesome. And it also sounds a little bit like pakalolo. That’s one of the names for weed you’ll hear when traveling among the locales in Hawaii if you’re lucky.

Grass
Grass is one of those weed names that your parents probably use. It’s cringe worthy and feels more like it should be on a list of lame nicknames for weed from the past. That’s because this weed name is pretty dated and it’s somewhat loaded with negativity. When we hear the term grass we often think of those 60s cop shows that were particularly sensational when it comes to weed. “Those dirty hippies and their grass are ruining this country” not only sounds like something Nixon would say it was probably something people uttered on episodes of Columbo, or Hawaii 5-0, or Dragnet every weeknight.

Bud
Bud. This name for weed just feels like the most friendly of all weed names. Maybe it’s because the term bud is a synonym for friend? It’s also a synonym of the word flower which marijuana or at least the coveted part of the plant that you smoke actually is. Did that make sense? Just to be crystal clear—marijuana buds are flowers, dude.

Nug
Nug is another one of those common names for weed that you’ll hear tossed around pretty often. It comes to mind right now as we write this because, like bud, nug is also just three letters. Sometimes when we hear the name Bud we think of Kelly Bundy’s little brother from Married With Children. But when we hear the term Nug we always think of weed. Don’t you?

Skunk
Skunk is not only the name of one of our favorite magazines about weed it’s also among the really common weed names too. Not because weed looks like a skunk but because it smells like the odor emitted from a skunk when it farts or whatever. Once we used to hate the smell of skunks but nowadays not so much. Skunk stink kind of smells a lot like weed. Once we made that connection the skunk odor never really bothered us again. Not that we want to get sprayed by a skunk but each time we smell that familiar aroma off in the distance we think of weed. Then we think about smoking weed. Then we actually smoke weed. And life is good. See how that works? Mary Jane
Mary Jane is another one of those popular weed names nowadays. When we think of the phrase Mary Jane we think of three things. Weed is first of course. Spider Man’s girlfriend is probably third. But Rick James—is the second. This guy loves Mary Jane so much that dude actually wrote a song about Mary Jane called Mary Jane. And it’s hella dope too.

I’m in love with Mary Jane, I’m not the only one.

If Mary wanna play around, I let her have her fun.

She’s not the kind of girl that you can just tie down.

She likes to spread her love and turn your head around.

Mary Jane by Rick James

Mary Jane is also one of those types of weed names that can be fun to misspell like Merry Jane, which is the name of Snoop Dogg’s weed blog. Anyhow Rick James loved this weed term so much that he named his 1980s funk group the Mary Jane girls. They actually had a few hits back then and we’re fairly popular. But not as popular as Mary Jane being a cool name for weed.

More dope names

Herb
How could we almost forget one of the dopest names for weed of all time? Herb! It’s one of our favorite names for pot. This is the term also favored by Peter Tosh and Bob Marley who both famously said I don’t smoke marijuana—I smoke HERB. Bob Marley also said that herb is the healing of the nations. And we tend to agree with this wise man.

Several other reggae musicians refer to weed as herb as well. This name for weed elevates the plant and speaks to its ability to be used as a medicine or as a life-enhancing agent. It also hints at the myriad ways people can use the plant—from smoking it, to cooking with it, to infusing it with other materials. We really dig herb as a name for weed and encourage other stoners to adopt its use. It’s one of the best and most descriptive weed names in the weed dictionary. Make sure to use it, man.

Ganja
Speaking of reggae artists and other words for weed you’ve probably heard reggae musicians utter the term Ganja. This word isn’t more fake dank slang it’s actually among the really common weed names. This name is often associated with Rastafarians too. Rastas, including Peter Tosh think that any term for weed other than herb is heresy as derogatory names like “marijuana” are used by those in power to incriminate and discriminate against those who are not.  Tosh famously said “Marijuana is a girl from Cuba. Ganja is a bird in Australia…I SMOKE HERB.” When it comes to Peter Tosh he proudly had no weed synonyms, no dope nicknames of any kind. To him it was all about the herb and no other marijuana terms were necessary.

Did you know that Rastas assert that their original African languages were ripped from them when they were taken into captivity as part of the slave trade? They feel that English is an imposed, abusive, colonial language and they reject it. We know the government used the term marijuana as a weapon so it sounds like the Rastas are on to some truth.

To get around the “shitstem” of using language as a weapon Rastas have created a modified vocabulary and dialect known as “Iyaric“ to take back language, push it forward and reject modern western society—often referred to as “Babylon” which Rastas see as entirely corrupt. So it’s for these reasons that Rastas smoke herb—the healing of the nation—nd nothing else.

Anyhow there’s enough slang terms for weed and weed terminology to hold you over for now, right?

What is your favorite weed name? Have any code names for weed? We want to hear from you. What other names for marijuana should we have included? Let us know in the comments section below.