Andy - I think you covered most all the forms I've heard. I'll add: Philly (Cheese steak), Wreck, Bench Girl, Sinatra Special, Something Else, Stoners Delight, Highnooner, The Grandpa, some of these can be made in several styles, long roll, sandwich bread, round rolls, wraps, etc..... I've seen (in ethnic neighborhoods) many sandwiches with their own touch, names... all over the chart. Great subject, and now I'm wanting one, just gotta figure out which one!!!! Each section of the country will probably come online with additions.

The term hoagie originated in the Philadelphia area. The Philadelphia Bulletin reported, in 1953, that Italians working at the World War I–era shipyard in Philadelphia known as Hog Island, where emergency shipping was produced for the war effort, introduced the sandwich by putting various meats, cheeses, and lettuce between two slices of bread.[citation needed] This became known as the "Hog Island" sandwich; shortened to "Hoggies", then the "hoagie".

The Philadelphia Almanac and Citizen's Manual offers a different explanation, that the sandwich was created by early-twentieth-century street vendors called "hokey-pokey men", who sold antipasto salad, meats, cookies and buns with a cut in them. When Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta H.M.S. Pinafore opened in Philadelphia in 1879, bakeries produced a long loaf called the pinafore. Entrepreneurial "hokey-pokey men" sliced the loaf in half, stuffed it with antipasto salad, and sold the world's first "hoagie".[10]

Another explanation is that the word "hoagie" arose in the late 19th to early 20th century, among the Italian community in South Philadelphia, when "on the hoke" was a slang term used to describe a destitute person. Deli owners would give away scraps of cheeses and meats in an Italian bread-roll known as a "hokie", but the Italian immigrants pronounced it "hoagie".[3]

Shortly after World War II, there were numerous varieties of the term in use throughout Philadelphia. By the 1940s, the spellings "hoagie" and, to a lesser extent, "hoagy" had come to dominate less used variations like "hoogie" and "hoggie".[11] By 1955, restaurants throughout the area were using the term "hoagie". Listings in Pittsburgh show hoagies arriving in 1961 and becoming widespread in that city by 1966.[11]

So there are two different origin stories for a "hero" sandwich, both of which are kind of fun.

First, of course, is that they were so big you had to be a "hero" to eat the whole thing. Seems kind of a low bar for heroism, but what the heck - maybe heroes were bigger a century ago!

The second story is that the name was derived from a Greek "Gyro", sandwich. If you're not from an area where they're popular, you might not know that the name is not pronounced as in "Gyroscope" or "Gyrocopter" but with a long e sound and a kind of cross between a hard G and an H at the end - sort of like "Gheeroe". That's a pretty short path to "Hero".

Andy