The Blue Dahlia
According to newspaper reports shortly after the murder, Short received the nickname "Black Dahlia" from staff and patrons at a Long Beach drugstore in mid-1946 as wordplay on the film "The Blue Dahlia" (1946). Other popularly-circulated rumors claim that the media crafted the name due to Short's adorning her hair with dahlias. According to the FBI official website, she received the first part of the nickname from the press "for her rumored penchant for sheer black clothes".