A harum-scarum fellow, a madcap (Dutch, randten, to be in a state of idiotcy or insanity, and pole, a head or person). The late Emperor Napoleon III. was called Rantipole, for his escapades at Strasbourg and Boulogne. In 1852 I myself saw a man commanded by the police to leave Paris within twenty-four hours for calling his dog Rantipole.
(E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898)
Napoleon III was the subject of a number of nicknames, including, “Badinguet”, “Boustrapa”, “Man of December, “Man of Sedan”, “Man of Silence”, “Rantipole”, and “Verhuel”.