# CA residents - Do you ever refer to the state you live in as "Cali"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 8, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648 "2012-07-08T23:29:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Evil\_Prince\_Zorte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@The\_Evil\_Prince\_Zorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Evil_Prince_Zorte)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/1 "2012-07-08T23:29:41Z")
We have a friend from NJ coming to visit, and she keeps referring to her “trip to Cali”. I find the term a bit grating, the kind of thing you only hear in rap music. I never hear people who live here call CA “Cali” but that might just be me and my particular work/social community. So if you live in California, do you ever refer to your state as “Cali” in normal conversation? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2012, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/2 "2012-07-08T23:33:10Z")
It’s a NorCal thing. A _pretentious_ NorCal thing at that. If you said that down here you’d get your ass kicked. By a grandmother. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2012, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/3 "2012-07-08T23:38:08Z")
Cali native…never use the term (except for just now). ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/4 "2012-07-09T00:13:12Z")
It’s like “Frisco”. Only non-natives use it. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/5 "2012-07-09T01:00:26Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > It’s a NorCal thing. A _pretentious_ NorCal thing at that. If you said that down here you’d get your ass kicked. By a grandmother. I’ve lived in Northern California for 32 years and have never heard this. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/6 "2012-07-09T01:08:50Z")
Cali-for-nye-AY, motherfucker. 🙂 Never Cali. Sometime SoCal. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/7 "2012-07-09T01:25:29Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > I’ve lived in Northern California for 32 years and have never heard this. That is because your aren’t _pretentious_, silly. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/8 "2012-07-09T01:39:53Z")
Lived in Norcal growing up. People from outside of California might refer to it as Cali. I noticed that when I lived in Asia. But I don’t and pretty sure no one in my circle from California ever called it Cali. Norcal, Socal, California are all used but not Cali IMHexperience ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/9 "2012-07-09T02:04:42Z")
I grew up in Chicago, but I’ve lived near San Jose for 27 years. I’ve never used it, and have heard it used exactly once, and that was by a non-California resident. And it sounds really stupid to my ears. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/10 "2012-07-09T02:10:04Z")
I’ve been here 10 years and I don’t think I ever heard anyone say “Cali”. It’s California, or SoCal & NoCal. Strangely, I don’t hear NorCal either. Maybe NoCal is a SoCal thing and NorCal is a NoCal thing … . 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/11 "2012-07-09T02:12:49Z")
SoCal native. I definitely did _not_ (and do not) say ‘Cali’. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/12 "2012-07-09T02:27:03Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > It’s a NorCal thing. A _pretentious_ NorCal thing at that. If you said that down here you’d get your ass kicked. By a grandmother. I’ve lived in Northern California my whole life (42 yrs) and I’ve never heard a native say “Cali”. Not even the pretentious ones. I’ve only ever heard it used by non-Californians. I think they say it to sounds “hip” or something, but they just sound stupid ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/13 "2012-07-09T02:31:36Z")
Grew up in SoCal to age 18. Never heard “Cali” except for back in the 80s when LL Cool J was “Goin’ Back to Cali, Cali, Cali…” No, I don’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/14 "2012-07-09T02:37:10Z")
Lived in California for 16 years, in the Bay Area mostly & never heard anyone say Cali. As someone previously said, it’s like Frisco… only someone not from here says it. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/15 "2012-07-09T02:52:07Z")
I blame Guy Fieri. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/16 "2012-07-09T03:02:16Z")
I may have called it “Cali” a time or two, but that didn’t happen until after I’d moved away. But if I said I was going to Cali, I would mean Frisco or someplace other than where I lived (southern California). And yeah, I know “Frisco” annoys the people who live there. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/17 "2012-07-09T03:04:13Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > That is because your aren’t _pretentious_, silly. Well, thank you. Very kind. That would account for why I never used that term myself. The only thing that would account for why I never heard it is if no-one around me is pretentious either. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/18 "2012-07-09T03:05:27Z")
I heard it frequently while living in Reno (about ten miles from the California border), at least a few times from a SoCal native. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/19 "2012-07-09T03:44:37Z")
I think in general people from an area don’t refer to it in an abbreviated form. In Massachusetts I never hear natives refer to it as Mass. or MA. but people from out of town frequently do. I do generally say MA when typing because I’m lazy though. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648/20 "2012-07-09T03:46:21Z")
I’m from the SF Bay area (originally from central CA) and I’ve never once called it “Cali” nor heard any of my friends do it in 47 years. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ca-residents-do-you-ever-refer-to-the-state-you-live-in-as-cali/627648.md?page=2)