Big Ben is officially called Great Bell of Westminster and strikes on the hour (check the number of hours) in the clock tower with the official name of Great Clock of Westminster. The tower, which since 2012 named
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| Photo by Andrew Dunn |
Big Ben, 'Great Legs', a nickname, and Ben is a typical nickname and shorthand for Benjamin. Clock Big Ben may be named after Sir Benjamin Hall (later Baron Llanover) who was Chief Commissioner of Works, about 'chief commissar for (construction) work', when the bell was cast in 1856. Another hypothesis for the origin of the name is that the bell may have been named after the contemporary heavyweight boxer one: Ben Caunt. Because Ben is a nickname and Big 'great' is often a common names, uses "Big Ben" than today (perhaps with allusion to Big Ben) as a nickname in various more or less well-known events and people.
In popular parlance, the term Big Ben is often extended to the whole of the tower, but the tower was called before 2012 officially only The Clock Tower of the staff of Parliament. A similar misunderstanding is that the tower is sometimes called St. Stephen's Tower, but that's the name of the central tower above the central lobby in the middle of the Palace of Westminster, also known as Central Tower (compare Palace of Westminster).
2012 a proposal was made to name the bell tower by Queen Elizabeth II. The proposal was motivated by the only other ruler who spent more than 60 years on the throne, Queen Victoria, with naming Westminister Palace's second tower, Victoria Tower. The proposal was approved and the name change was marked September 12, 2012 a ceremony of the House of Commons Speaker John Bercow unveiled a nameplate on the tower at the Speaker's Green.
