I can’t think of a single other city in the U.S. that is regularly referred to by letters as opposed to its name.
Near me in northern Michigan, we occasionally call Traverse City “T.C.”, but certainly not to any extent that makes it as common as its actual name.
Can anyone think of any others? Why do you suppose it didn’t catch on with other places, but did in Los Angeles. (“Ell-ay” does kind of roll off the tongue, I must admit …)
“We are here for this – to make mistakes and to correct ourselves, to withstand the blows and to hand them out.” Primo Levi
There’s a town in New Mexico called Truth or Consequences (yes, the town changed its name to attract the game show). Just about everyone calls it “T or C” for short. It even shows up that way on weather broadcasts.
Yeah but how often have you actually heard someone say “enn-why” or “enn-why-see”?
Although I guess it happens, more than once I’ve actually said something like “irk” (IIRC) in conversation when I should be saying “if I recall correctly.” That’s when I know I’ve been online far, far too long.
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People in San Francisco are also pretentious enough to refer to their municipality as “The City.”
Not only is Los Angeles routinely referred to as LA, but its principal university almost always goes by its initials, UCLA, even though most of the other University of California campuses switch between initials and the name of the city.
You will hear “UC Berkeley”, “UC”, or simply “Berkeley”, but never “UCB.”
Ocean Beach in San Diego is almost always referred to as OB. Palos Verdes in Los Angeles County is often referred to as PV but since this is more of an area than a city it might be cheating.
As a Uper friend of mine once pointed out:
T.C. is a central Michigan City.
PS, I grew up near B.R.(also known as Big Rapids) Although whether or not B.R. is a city is debatable. But we also often said “driving down to G.R.” in casual conversation.
Just putting my 2sense in.
Tyranny,* like Hell*,* is not easily conquered*.
-Thomas Paine (fugitive slave catcher)
I can’t believe I forgot about PV–I lived there. We called it PV even back in the early 70s. But you’re right, it’s not really a city.
And while DC might be cheating, it is nevertheless the most common term in use, in my opinion. Unless you’re associated with the government. I hear politicians and lobbyists refer to DC as “The Capital” fairly often. Only tourists call it “Washington.”
The Palos Verdes peninsula was one of Southern California’s first exclusive suburbs, designed in the 1920s.
Until the 1970s, it was just one big unincorporated area called Palos Verdes or PV. It’s now four small separate cities with the extraordinarily tony names of: Palos Verdes Estates (PV Estates), Rancho Palos Verdes (Rancho PV), Rolling Hills (open to strangers by appointments only), and Rolling Hills Estates.
Technically true, but most Michiganians consider northern Michigan the northern tip of the Lower Peninsula (Generally from an area, if you hold out your right hand palm-up, from your second knuckle-line north to your finger tips. Ah, Michigan, the only state where you always carry a map.)
While obviously further north, the Upper Peninsula is called “the Upper Peninsula” or “U.P.” by most state residents.
And FYI, the term for somebody from up there is spelled “Yooper.”
The “Northern Michigan/Upper Peninsula” thing could easily be a Great Debate, but fortunately, not enough people here or elsewhere care.
“We are here for this – to make mistakes and to correct ourselves, to withstand the blows and to hand them out.” Primo Levi
LA is certainly the most common. It is internationaly know as such. The small local idioms don’t seem to answer the OP. Sorry but 99% of the population would have NO IDEA what you meant by PV.
And I agree that having the initials used in speech as opposed to abbreviations is a necessary restriction. Ones I’m familiar with on a national and global scale:
LA (nuff said) NYC (I’ve heard it spoken quite often) DC (It certainly is common, and perfered IMHO) BA (A friend who worked there for a long time indicated that it is most commonly refered that way in english) KC (Pretty common)
Most of the other mentioned are too localized or rarely spoken to allpy to the OP.