# City nicknames that city residents actually use **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 29, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377 "2012-02-29T19:04:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/161 "2012-03-09T04:43:18Z")
> [@flodnak](#): > > The people of San Francisco never refer to their city as “San Fran” or “Frisco” and, from what I understand, really don’t like it when other people do. My Dad is a fifth generation San Franciscan, and he will call it Frisco. The rich people and Herb Caen disapprove. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/162 "2012-03-09T08:54:27Z")
> [@Shamozzle](#): > > Wasn’t it called “The Emerald City” at one time (still)? Could be, but I’ve never heard this term before. If we define a nickname as a name that people use as short hand for something else that they could use in casual company without making waves, then Seattle doesn’t have one. ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/163 "2012-03-09T11:16:14Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > New Orleans also goes by The Big Easy and The Crescent City. Both of those are sometimes used by locals. I’ve heard more than a few ‘natives’ of New Orleans refer to it as “N.O.”. > [@Irishman](#): > > I see what you did there. > > Houston is either Houston or H-town. Occassionally the news or sports refer to “the Bayou City”, but that isn’t common in parlance. I might say “downtown” for going into Houston from the burbs. Born and raised in Houston (the Heights/North Side). Mostly, I hear “Houston”, but occasionally “Bayou City” (I even use that term, though infrequently). The media will sometimes use the term “Space City”, especially if it happens to be a story about NASA or the space program. “H-town” IME is only used by the ‘young’ crowd (ie: under 30). > [@snailboy](#): > > _ **Or less pridefully, Dullas** _. Fort Worthians live in Funky Town and the entire metropolitan area is called the Metroplex. (bolding mine) I have friends in Irving, Texas (in the Metroplex) that occasionally use that term, though it’s usually said, “Dull-ass”. 😉 > [@Shig](#): > > \*\*\*While I’d hardly call it a “city”, \*\*\*the town of Burkburnett, Texas where I was born is referred to just about everyone I’ve ever known from there as “Burk.” Also, in the show “The Wire,” there are multiple references to Baltimore by the locals where they refer to it as “B’more”. (bolding mine) Likewise, I occasionally hear the ‘city’ of Conroe, Texas referred to as “Corn-row”. ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/164 "2012-03-09T12:10:27Z")
> [@SharkB8](#): > > I’ve never heard anyone from Boston say “Beantown,” because really, these days, where would you even go to find Boston Baked Beans on a menu? Never see it…maybe at [Sturbridge Village](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Sturbridge_Village). > > Provincetown, MA, on the tip of the Cape is “P-Town.” And I suppose you can say just about everyone around here calls Cape Cod “The Cape.” Actually, I’ve _never_ heard anyone say, “Cape Cod,” when referring to that region who is from New England. Durgin Park? Yup: You headin’ to the Cape this weekend? ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/165 "2012-03-09T17:47:49Z")
And apparently I also use the term “Space City”, as evidenced by my profile. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/166 "2014-02-09T18:30:51Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > Could be, but I’ve never heard this term before. If we define a nickname as a name that people use as short hand for something else that they could use in casual company without making waves, then Seattle doesn’t have one. “Emerald City”, “Rain City”, and although fading out “Jet City” are widely used by businesses, but never in conversation. Thirty miles south Tacoma tries to brand itself “City of Destiny”, but nobody in real life uses it. “Grit City” is being adopted by businesses, but “T-town” is the default nickname locally. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/167 "2014-02-09T20:56:34Z")
> [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > 4 small towns in California: > > San Luis Obispo is called SLO, pronounced “slow” or SLO town. Also “SLObispo.” > [@Infovore](#): > > Ah, yes, same. Sorry about that. I was too busy emphasizing “Hi” rather than “Hee,” but yeah, I always heard “hi-GAR-ra” as well. For awhile I tried pronouncing it “hih-GARR-a” but nobody else did, so I stopped. > > Another one I often wonder about is the city up here in the Bay Area named San Pablo. Seems like most people (even newscasters) pronounce it “San PAB-lo” (“pab” rhyming with “jab,” not with “job”.) This one grates on my ears like crazy, and I refuse to call it anything but “San POB-lo,” even if it’s wrong. The name is pronounced that way, dammit, right? Sorta opposite sitch… in Long Beach, there’s an avenue called “Ximeno.” Most people these days would pronounce it correctly as “he-MEN-o” However, when I was a young lad, most LBers would pronounce it “Ex-IM-en-o”. Make of that what you will. * * * Thanks to that show, most people now abbreviate all of Orange County, CA as “The O.C.” However, this ignores the fact that the county encompasses every socioeconomic stripe from upper-middle-and-beyond class (Irvine, some parts of Fountain Valley) to working-class-and-below (Garden Grove, Santa Ana.) For instance “Garbage Grove.” ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/168 "2014-02-09T21:28:26Z")
Cleveland is sometimes called “The North Coast,” but most Clevelanders would call it “The Mistake on the Lake.” ---
**Author:** ![Beauregard\_Porkypine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Beauregard\_Porkypine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beauregard_Porkypine)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/169 "2014-02-09T22:10:50Z")
Denver has long been called the Mile High City. Since legalizing Mary Jane it’s being used a lot more. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/170 "2014-02-10T00:38:25Z")
As mentioned up-thread, Birmingham is sometimes Brum, but more often Birningam. Portsmouth, and its football team, is Pompey, Bristol is Bristle and Cirencester used to be called Cissister by locals. An area to the North West of Birmingham, around Lye mainly, is known as The Black Country. This is nothing whatsoever to do with race. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/171 "2014-02-10T07:40:42Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > Sorta opposite sitch… in Long Beach, there’s an avenue called “Ximeno.” Most people these days would pronounce it correctly as “he-MEN-o” However, when I was a young lad, most LBers would pronounce it “Ex-IM-en-o”. Make of that what you will. And in the adjacent cities of Pebble Beach and Pacific Grove, CA, there is a residential road named Sinex. I have no idea what the correct pronunciation is. But what I have heard is that the locals there can always tell who the visitors are because visitors _always_ get it wrong. I suspect that the wrong pronunciation used by visitors is “Seenex” (rhymes with Kleenex), while the right pronunciation is probably “SINnex” (first syllable rhymes with tin). ETA: I mean, Pebble Beach and Pacific Grove are adjacent to each other, not that they are adjacent to Long Beach 🆒 They are in the vicinity of Monterey. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/172 "2014-02-10T07:42:30Z")
Folks around here sometimes use “Oaktown” for “Oakland.” People sometimes jokingly refer to Berkeley as “Berserkely” or “The People’s Republic of Berkeley.” Placerville is sometimes called “Hangtown.” ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/173 "2014-02-10T08:48:55Z")
Sacramento is sometimes Sack-o-tomatoes, but it’s also referred to as The City of Trees and the River City. The Los Angeles suburb of San Pedro is pronounced PEE-dro. I always want it to be PAY-dro, but, nope. When the San Francisco Warriors (now the Golden State Warriors since they moved to Oakland) were actually in San Francisco, they had THE CITY proudly emblazoned on their uniforms. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/174 "2014-02-10T14:29:18Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Yes, that’s pretty common. But San Jose is never SJ. The only other Bay Area city that I’m familiar with that goes by initials is Los Gatos: LG. For example, I’ve never heard Palo Alto called PA, although Palo Alto High is often called Pally. My best friend lived in Los Gatos for years and informs me has has never in his life heard anyone call it “LG.” Toronto’s old nickname was “Hogtown,” but this has fallen into disuse inasmuch as it no longer makes any sense. Residents sometimes call it “T-O,” which is boring. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/175 "2014-02-10T14:54:08Z")
Orlando residents sometimes use “O-Town”. We never say “The City Beautiful” or “The City of Magic” or any of the other stupid nicknames that mayors like. ---
**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:** [February 10, 2014, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/176 "2014-02-10T16:10:17Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > My best friend lived in Los Gatos for years and informs me has has never in his life heard anyone call it “LG.” Yeah, I’ve lived in the Bay Area for 25 years and never heard it called that either. I’ve heard Palo Alto called “PA” and (even more commonly) East Palo Alto called “EPA,” though. ---
**Author:** ![HyacinthBucket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hyacinthbucket/32/3063_2.png) [@HyacinthBucket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HyacinthBucket)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/177 "2014-02-10T17:42:47Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > Seattle is not like Chicago where non-Seattleites consider themselves Seattleites just because they live in a suburb, unlike Chicago where everyone within hundreds of miles of downtown wants to pretend that they live there. (I have chastised a friend from Crete, IL for telling people he was “from Chicago”, no you’re not. ) We live in the Chicago 'burbs, and the reason we just say we’re from Chicago is because it saves us from having to give a five-minute explanation of where our obscure suburb is actually located relative to places around Chicago someone might actually have heard of. It has nothing to do with pretending or wishful thinking. Trust me on this. Otherwise, if we’re going into the city for a party, dinner or whatever, we just use the name of the neighborhood or area - Downtown, Lincoln Park, Greektown, Nort’ Side, Sout’ Side, whatever. Or just “the city”. Our group (mostly Sout’ Side refugees) used to call it Daley City but that name was eventually retired. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/178 "2014-02-11T15:33:47Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > As mentioned up-thread, Birmingham is sometimes Brum, but more often Birningam. I’d argue that that’s an accent thing rather than anyone actually trying to say that. And I don’t agree with the “n” either. Grew up in Warwickshire, just over the border from the West Midlands, and lived for five years in Birmingham. Which reminds me, Coventry is “Cov”. Similarly nearby Leamington is Leam. They think long and hard about their nicknames in that part of the country. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/179 "2014-02-11T15:52:39Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Cleveland is sometimes called “The North Coast,” but most Clevelanders would call it “The Mistake on the Lake.” Most Clevelanders? I think not! ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377/180 "2014-02-11T17:53:07Z")
Most residents call it “Vegas”. I have never heard a local (well…the few who there are) call it “Sin City” or “Lost Wages” And any transplant from the Bay Area to Nevada always calls San Francisco “The City” as if it were the only one. Most Chicagoans tell you what neighborhood they live in or what streets (especially intersections) that they live near (from my 4 1/2 years near 61st Place and Narragansett) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-nicknames-that-city-residents-actually-use/614377.md?page=10)