The importance of the topic of this study is determined by several factors: increased interest of linguists to the problem of interaction between language and culture; the need to study the onomastic units as body language. The purpose of this article is to identify the types of motivational nick names of famous American and English public figures, describing their positive and negative connotations. The leading approach to the study of this problem is multidisciplinary, which requires the use of such sciences as sociology, psychology, cultural studies, ethnography, etc. This article presents the findings of linguistic and cultural research aimed at identifying the semantic features of public nicknames as the key characters in the conceptual spheres of contemporary British and American societies. The materials of this paper may be useful in studying linguocultural language aspects, as well as for contemporary public debates about the place of nicknames in the English language. [The issue number (4) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct issue number is 17.]