Spike

Spike could mean:

• Nail, especially one more than 100mm (4 inches) long
• Rail spikes used to secure railroad rails to the wooden ties
• Spiked shoes worn by athletes, which provide more traction (similar to cleats)
• An adolescent male deer or male elk
• The Spike is a widely used nickname for the Spire of Dublin, a massive needle-like structure erected in Dublin in 2003
• Spike TV, a cable network that caters to a young male demographic (originally known as TNN, The National Network, or The Nashville Network)
• Spike missile, an Israel-developed anti-tank guided missile
• Spike bayonet, chiefly used on early muskets
• Voltage spike, or electrical surge
• The action potential which transmits signals along a nerve axon is often called a spike
• Spike is a botanical term for an unbranched, indeterminate inflorescence with sessile flowers arranged along the axis
• Spike (company), a video game company

Media with Spike in the title include:

• The Spike (Borchgrave/Moss), a 1980 novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave, former editor of The Washington Times
• Spike of Bensonhurst, a 1988 movie directed by Paul Morrisey
• Spike (Elvis Costello album), a 1989 album by Elvis Costello
• The Spike (1997), a 1997 book by Damien Broderick
• Spike (Puffy AmiYumi album), a 2001 album by Puffy AmiYumi

A number of famous people are named Spike, including:

• Spike, a newcomer Romanian rapper promoted by Parazitii
• Spike Lee, a filmmaker
• Spike Jonze, a filmmaker
• Spike Jones, a satirist
• Spike Milligan, a satirist
• Spike Robinson, a jazz musician
• Spike Slawson, a punk vocalist and bassist of the Swinging Utters and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
• Matt Hyson (aka Spike Dudley), former professional wrestler
• Spike (porn star), a gay pornography actor
• Spike Feresten, television writer and talk show host
• Spike Xavier, Lead Singer of Nu-Metal band Corporate Avenger
• Spike, a Welsh musician, co-founder of Z Block Records, Reptile Ranch and Weekend
• Spike O'Donnell, famous Irish/American gangster from Chicago

A number of fictional characters have been named Spike, including:

• Spike, a main playable character in the Ape Escape video game series
• Spike Spiegel, from the Japanese anime Cowboy Bebop
• Spike (Buffyverse), a vampire
• Spike, Fonzie's cousin in Happy Days
• Spike Fumo, in Spike of Bensonhurst
• Christine "Spike" Nelson, in the Degrassi series
• Spike Thomson, in Press Gang
• Spike, a member of the Screws Gang in Medabots
• Spike, a dragon character from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
• Spike Lester, a character on the soap opera Passions
• The Spike (Marvel Comics), a member of the X-Statix
• Spike Freeman, another character in Marvel Comics' X-Statix/X-Force
• Spike (The Land Before Time), a young stegosaurus in The Land Before Time film series
• "Spike" Stoker, a supporting character from Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books
• Joshua "Spike" Cohen, a Jew from Tom Robbins' novel Skinny Legs and All
• Spike, a character originating in Super Mario Bros. 3 who launches spiked mace balls at the player
• Spike, the boss of the Midday Gardens world in the Spyro: Year of the Dragon video game
• Spike, a character in the DC Comics comic book Sugar and Spike
• Spike Lavery, a character on All My Children, he the son Kendall and Ryan
• Father Spike, a high-church parish priest who is mentioned in C.S. Lewis' book The Screwtape Letters
• Spike, Roger Wilco's alien pet in Space Quest V: The Next Mutation
• Spike, a porcupine from the movie Over the Hedge
• Spike Witwicky, a character from the Transformers TV cartoon series and comic books
• Spike (NX Files), a fictional character in an action-adventure web-show called NX Files
• Michelangelo 'Spike' Scarlatti, a fictional character in the Canadian TV series Flashpoint

A number of cartoon dogs have been named Spike:

• Spike (Ace Ventura), Ace Ventura's dog in the motion picture Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
• Spike (Goofy Movie)
• Spike (Peanuts), Snoopy's brother in Peanuts
• Spike (Tom and Jerry), Tom's and the other cats' nemesis in the cartoon series Tom and Jerry
• Spike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier, in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons
• Spike, the family pet in Rugrats
• Spike, Heathcliff's nemesis in the comic strip and animated series Heathcliff
• Spike, Droopy's nemesis in Tex Avery's Droopy Dog theatrical cartoon series

As a place name, Spike may refer to:

• Spike is the former name of a village in Derbyshire now known as Poolsbrook

In sports, Spike may refer to:

• A spike is an offensive attack in volleyball
• Spiking in American football is to throw the ball forcefully and intentionally into the ground
• In Track and Field and cross country running, spiking an opponent (or sometimes, inadvertently, a team mate) is to kick them with the metal spikes in the bottom of the runner's shoe