Why are the French called Frogs?

Hello.

There are a number of competing theories on how the "frog" nickname
came to be:

Here are six such theories from the web page "Archived French Frog
Stories":
(1) Many French people enjoy eating frog legs.
(2) Clovis, an early Frankish king, adopted frogs as part of his
emblem.
(3) France's national emblem, the Fleur de Lys, resembles a frog.
(4) England's Queen Elizabeth I had a French suitor whom she
affectionately called her "little frog.""
(5) The lands around Paris were swampy, so the peasants who dwelled
there were called "frogs" by the upper classes.
(6) At one time, French soldiers wore camouflaged uniforms and
resembled frogs.
Allaboutfrogs.org:
http://allaboutfrogs.org/weird/general/frenchfrogs.html

Also see this explanation from the web site word-detective.com:
"'Frog' was indeed at one time a popular derogatory term for a French
person, though it didn't start out quite that way. Originally (around
1330), 'frog' was applied by Britons to almost any group they found
objectionable, and was aimed at both Jesuits and the Dutch before it
was decided in the late 18th century that the French, with whom
England was then at war, were the real 'frogs.'"
Source: word-detective.com
http://www.word-detective.com/041400.html

Some of the same theories mentioned above are repeated on the page
"Ask The History Doc: Why are the French called Frogs?" on bparis.com
http://www.bparis.com/newsletter1464/newsletter_show.htm?doc_id=89550

Alse see some Usenet discussions of the matter, archived by Google
Groups:
ORIGIN "FROGS"RE:FRENCH?
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&client=googlet&threadm=387A728B.ED0C3AA2%40nospam.com&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dfrench%2B%2522called%2Bfrogs%2Bbecause%2522%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26client%3Dgooglet%26selm%3D387A728B.ED0C3AA2%2540nospam.com%26rnum%3D1
OT - FROG
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=french+%22called+frogs%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&client=googlet&selm=3AD11BDC.5164D8F2%40earthlink.net&rnum=1

search strategy: french, "called frogs", because

I hope this helps.

One of the Episodes of Horatio Hornblower was called "The Frogs and
the Lobsters" -- Frog referring to the French and Lobster referring to
the British. Why were the Brits called "lobsters"? Does that have
something to do with them being sailors? This question brought it to
mind.

Lobsters refers to the bright red uniforms the British soldiers wore.
answerfinder-ga (a Hornblower fan)