Here are some of the best nicknames for workers at local companies

Moose. Wombats. Humanzees.

These aren't the names of exhibits at Franklin Park Zoo. Rather, they are some of the nicknames that workers at local companies have bestowed upon themselves.

While some local businesses have interesting back stories to their company names, and others give creative names to their conference rooms, employee nicknames are another piece of the corporate nomenclature — one that often gets created by chance, but sticks around. And in the Boston area, there are plenty.

In most cases, the nicknames are based on the company name, such as the "Gurus" for workers at Cambridge-based CarGurus Inc. (Nasdaq: CARG). In others, they have come up with something original. Case in point: Employees at cybersecurity business Rapid7 Inc. (Nasdaq: RPD) have long adopted the name, "Moose," to refer to themselves, saying it denotes teamwork in that the singular version of the noun is the same as the plural.

Click on the above slideshow to discover the most original nicknames for employees at local tech and biotech companies

Eunice Park, an Oakland, Calif.-based naming expert who works for CVS Health as senior strategic naming manager, said that while employee nicknames are perhaps most common at tech companies, they can be found at all types of companies as a way to build team spirit.

"When you join a company and get into the culture, part of that process is to take on the identity of people at the company," she said. "A name for belonging to a group is a good way of doing that."

In some larger companies, certain types of employees can even have different nicknames. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), for example, is known for its Googlers, but people familiar with the internal workings of the tech giant know that there are also Noogler (for new Googlers), Gayglers (for members of the LGBT community) and Greyglers (for people who joined later in their careers).

Even if worker nicknames were created internally, many later become publicly known, and Park says companies might want to have their legal department check on any names if they end up used on swag or somewhere they will be seen outside the company.

She said such nicknames can be more important now, during widespread remote work, than ever.

"[Letting employees name themselves] is especially important, because a lot of people are working remotely right now, so anything you can do to increase the feeling of connection between employees is helpful," she said.