Cities known by their initials

[NoClueBoy]

Originally Posted by redtail23

Really? I've never ever heard "The OKC". "The City", "Oke City", and "OKC", yes.

Depends on who you're talking to, I guess. Might just be the weirdos I know. Point is: Oklahoma City is often referred to by its initials.

When I first moved to this state, I had a job in a small town some miles from either OKC or Tulsa. Whenever anyone said they were going to The City, I would ask which one. I mean, it could be Enid, Tulsa, Oke City, Lawton, etc ... right? Nope. The City is always OKC.

Some oldtimers will refer to Tulsa as T-Town. Don't seem to hear that much from younger folk, ymmv.

[Shalmanese]

Originally Posted by robert_columbia

Does anyone use OC to refer to the Ocean City in Maryland or NJ?

Don't call it that!

[Sunspace]

Originally Posted by Shalmanese

Don't call it that!

Yeah! Everyone knows that "the OC" refers to the Oshawa Centre mall.

Well, everyone who grew up near Oshawa, that is.

[madmonk28]

Originally Posted by robardin

True, but we do refer to several nearby cities by letter initials. Visiting Atlantic City is often referred to as "making a run to AC", and Washington, DC is often just "DC". (I'd be curious to find out if the locals there do so as well.)

Hey, AC/DC. You know, I never noticed that until I put the two together in the same sentence like that.

We do sometimes, but more often, we call it the District.

[Mr Downtown]

DFW pretty much always refers to the airport. The Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area, on the other hand, is called the Metroplex.

On the other hand, you will sometimes see hipsters make written reference to Portland as PDX.

Truth or Consequences, N.M., is called T or C.

[pancakes3]

I think most of the initials have been covered but there are abbreviations like B-more for baltimore (bawl'mer?) or Sac-town for Sacramento and more local ones I'm sure like C-ville for charlottesville, etc.

[gaffa]

Originally Posted by Thudlow Boink

How about KC?

"KC" is pretty universally used, although you have to distinguish between "KCK" and "KC MO".

I was so annoyed when the local CBS affiliate moved from Kansas City, Missouri to Fairway, Kansas and changed their very cool call letters KCMO to the much less cool KCTV. Serves them right for moving to a completely useless little townlet that exist mainly to generate speeding tickets.

[Tangent]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

DFW pretty much always refers to the airport.

No, 'DFW' is also often used (locally, at least--I've lived here for almost 30 years) to refer to the entire area, just as 'the Metroplex' is used. Sometimes you'll even hear "the DFW Metroplex."

[Nava]

Originally Posted by Thudlow Boink

How about KC?Do they also refer to it as "LA" in the Spanish-speaking world?

The answer, in post 2. Yes, we call it Ele A or eléi (the second pronunciation is used either by people who think English is cooler than Spanish, or ironically as in the example from post 2). One of Loquillo's biggest hits is officially called Cadillac Solitario (Lonely Cadillac) but everybody calls it by its first verse: siempre quise ir a ele a (I always wanted to go to LA).

I've heard it called Ele A by people from a dozen different countries, it's quite general.

[VOW]

I don't know if the residents of Las Vegas (NV, since there is also a Las Vegas, NM) call their city LV, but many Southern Californians who make turnaround trips to that gambling mecca often call the place LV.


~VOW