McDreamy & McSteamy: The Iconic Grey's Anatomy Nicknames Explained

Longtime fans of "Grey's Anatomy" know that the show has its own vernacular. People shout "seriously?!" at each other a lot. Best friends call one another their "person." You should probably google "va-jay-jay" for yourself, as we're not going to get into that here. Perhaps the most famous and enduring part of the "Grey's Anatomy" vocabulary, though, is the prefix "Mc," which led to two of the show's most iconic nicknames. 

Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) and Dr. Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) — a top neurosurgeon and plastic surgeon, respectively — are two of many, many absurdly beautiful doctors who grace the halls of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital (formerly known as Seattle Grace and also Seattle Grace Mercy West). They also, throughout their time on the show, earn their own nicknames. Derek is christened "McDreamy" in the show's second-ever episode, while Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) dubs Eric "McSteamy" after he gets punched (by Derek) and insists on suturing his own face. These are the simplest versions of the McDreamy and McSteamy origin stories — especially because they're used both as compliments, insults, and jokes throughout the show. 

Also, both of them end up dead. That's not related to the nicknames; it's also just true.   

Just before her first day at work as a surgical intern, Meredith meets a guy at a bar and takes him home... only to discover, the next day, that he's the new chief of neurosurgery and also her boss. In a moment of weakness, she caves and tells her fellow intern Dr. Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) that she "met" Derek the night before, even though both interns and residents alike would freely judge anyone who's perceived as getting special favors from a high-ranking surgeon. Thanks to that revelation, "McDreamy" is a seemingly off-the-cuff moniker made by Cristina, who pretty much never uses it as a compliment, as she's pretty clearly not a fan of the talented, coiffed neurosurgeon.

So what about "McSteamy?" Well, after a nurse refers to Derek as such, Meredith is apparently inspired when Mark shows up at Seattle Grace and is immediately clocked by Derek. (This is all because Mark had an affair with Derek's wife Addison, Kate Walsh's Addison Montgomery Shepherd, which precipitated Derek's move from New York to Seattle.) Meredith dubs him McSteamy, which is made all the funnier when the show just keeps putting Mark into situations where he leaves a bathroom wrapped only in a towel... surrounded by steam.

For a while, a lot of good things happen to Derek Shepherd. Sure, Addison comes to town and blows up his spot with Meredith, but once the two attending surgeons realize their marriage is DOA, they split up, leaving room for Meredith and Derek to finally get together. They certainly have their ups and downs throughout their relationship — Meredith doesn't feel ready to commit right away, which frustrates Derek — but eventually, they get married on a Post-It, then get legally married, and then adopt a daughter. After having two more children, it seems like all is well in Grey-Shepherd country... until the President comes calling.

When Derek is asked to participate in groundbreaking neurological research with the government, Meredith is furious, as she's asked him to take a step back from getting involved in any more big projects to allow her to pursue her own medical research. They fight and Derek leaves for Washington D.C. without her — but when one of his researchers makes a move on him, he flies home and tells Meredith she's more important than anything else.

Their happiness is short-lived, though. In Season 11, Derek is driving when he sees a car accident and helps those involved... only to get hit by a truck while driving away from the scene. The small hospital he's taken to doesn't do the tests he needs and he ends up brain-dead, leaving Meredith to make the final call about his fate.

As for McSteamy, he, as was previously mentioned, has quite a dramatic entrance to the show... and then, against all odds, he sticks around for the long haul. After Addison leaves for Los Angeles (because Walsh left for her spin-off "Private Practice"), Mark is somewhat adrift until he starts a friendship with benefits with Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez), an orthopedic surgeon. From that point on, he becomes one of the most consistently delightful supporting players on "Grey's Anatomy," falling in love with Meredith's younger half-sister Dr. Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh), having a baby with Callie and her eventual wife Dr. Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw), and just being kind of awesome whenever he's on-screen.

This all comes to a screeching halt in the Season 8 finale, where Derek, Cristina, Meredith, Lexie, Mark, and Arizona take a small plane to go perform surgery only for the plane to go down in the woods. Arizona's leg is stuck underneath a piece of the plane, Lexie is fatally trapped, and it turns out that Mark has serious open wounds. Mark survives until they all make it back to Seattle, but he eventually succumbs to his injuries — which could also be related to losing Lexie, the love of his life.

Both characters are dead and gone, but thanks to an extended dream sequence in Season 17 of "Grey's Anatomy," both Eric Dane and Patrick Dempsey ended up briefly returning to the series. During the height of COVID-19, Meredith falls seriously ill and is in a coma, where she envisions herself on a beach. At that beach, she's visited by ghosts of her past, with everyone from fellow original intern George O'Malley (T.R. Knight) to Lexie to both Mark and Derek.

Mark returns specifically with Lexie, and the two of them sit on the beach with Meredith, making it clear that the two found each other in some sort of afterlife. Derek, though, is a steady presence on the beach, returning to his great love with a smile. The two even have a makeshift "wedding" on the beach in full finery — after their Post-It wedding, the two hastily marry at City Hall to help expedite their adoption process — but in the end, Derek and the rest of Meredith's lost loved ones are the same ones who convince her to fight, leave the beach, and return to her family and loved ones.

You can watch Derek and Mark's greatest episodes on "Grey's Anatomy," which is streaming on Hulu and Netflix now.