Just to chime in, I’ve definitely heard KC and DC used a LOT in conversation. Occasionally, someone will talk about NYC, but usually not aloud.
Well, this isn’t a U.S. city, but you’ve all heard of it. Throughout all of Mexico, Mexico City is known simply as “De Efe.” Or D.F. (this stands for “federal district” [of Mexico]) I’m not sure if it’s known as anything other than “Mexico City” in other Latin American countries though.
BTW, I noticed that in metro-Chicago a lot of people also say “The City,” when refering to Chicago.
Adam
cracking up I’ve heard that so often that I keep forgetting other people don’t call it that. Where are you - I can’t afford Manhattan, so am currently in JC instead, more’s the pity.
-Elthia
Milossarian:
What are you talking about.
Yoopers can’t spell, eh?
Just putting my 2sense in.
Tyranny,* like Hell*,* is not easily conquered*.
-Thomas Paine (fugitive slave catcher)
I think it has more to do with making sure it’s pronounced correctly – as opposed to “uppers.”
“We are here for this – to make mistakes and to correct ourselves, to withstand the blows and to hand them out.” Primo Levi
TJ- Tijuana
they are not saying “LA”
they are saying “HELL-A”
born and raised there
Not exactly a big city, but the far northern burb of Chicago I live in is called Lake in the Hills, but everyone just says (and writes) LITH
Also, its not uncommon to call Champaign-Urbana CU.
He who is truly wise is the one who knows how much he has yet to learn.
OC=Orange County
CJ’s=Carl’s Junior
Taco Hell=Taco Hell
Yeah, I call it Hell-A all the time. Or Los Ang-Hell-es.
I’ve got to get out of this place! I was born here. I don’t want to spend the next rest of my life here.
On a note more related to the OP, what was the original name of L.A.? It was something like “La Cuidad de la Madre (Spanish, Spanish, Spanish) de Los Angeles”.
“I must leave this planet, if only for an hour.” – Antoine de St. Exupéry
Are you a turtle?
Not sure if it really fits, but Minneapolis and St. Paul are called that on news broadcasts - everyone else calls the area the Cities…
Also, MPLS seems to be the standard abbreviation, although it’s never said that way.
It’s actually: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciúncula
Meaning: The town of our Lady, the queen of the angels of…
I don’t know what Porciúncula means, but you get my drift :). I guess the people who named the city were really inspired or something when they named it. Though, the town of Carmel was originally known as San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (IIRC). Anyway…
Yeah, well I grew up in Philly, and when you went into the Center City area, it was referred to as The City. I don’t think it is pretention, I think it is convention 
People will refer to the nearest Megalopolis as “The City”.
Cartooniverse
If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel.
Omniscient said:
Really? I’ve gotta go along with J String on this. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone say “enn-why” or “enn-why-see” in my life.
Give me immortality, or give me death!
True - after a being around here a few years I started doing it myself. Come to think of it, these days I identify myself to people from other parts of the country as from “The Bay Area”, as if SF (note use of initials, heh, heh) has the only bay in the world, although it shares it with places like Oaktown. Rather than pretension, it may be counter reaction to the tendency of outsiders years ago to call it 'Frisco, which the locals never liked.
Actually, I usually refer to that city in the southern end of the state as “Lala land”.
Sometimes we call our area of the Florida Panhandle, “L.A.”, for “Lower Alabama”.
…send lawyers, guns, and money…
Warren ZevonWe have two women in our office from Kansas City and they alway refer to it as such. I have never heard any one say KC. But as the original poster says you constantly hear of L.A.
The only other really common usage is DC which isn’t a city it’s a distric. Washington is the city.
Elbows! You left out the most charming city in the country - JB, officially referred to as Johor Bahru.
People from the Washington area call the city and its suburbs as a whole the Washington area, or perhaps just Washington. All the restaurant guides and tourist guides, for instance, are called guides to Washington, even though they take in stuff for up to fifty miles away. Residents of the area then divide up the area into DC (or perhaps the District), suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia (not suburban Virginia, please note, and even though the area they are referring to is more like the Northeast of Virginia than the North of it).
The tortured history of the name of the largest city on the West Coast.
First of all, a Spanish missionary named Father Crespi named a river in the area “Nuestra Señora de los Angeles de la Porciúncula”. “Porciuncula” is a Spanish version of an Italian word meaning “little piece of land.” The name was chosen because the river was named on August 2, 1769. August 2 is a feast day related to St. Francis of Assisi.
In 1781, a small band of settlers set up their little town on the banks of that particular river. They called their settlement “El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de la Porciúncula”
(The Town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels of the Little Portion of Land.) The Spanish governor decided to shorten the name to “El Pueblo de la Reyna de Los Angeles.”
By the time, California became a state in 1850, everyone called the place Los Angeles and it was incorporated as “The City of Los Angeles.”
L.A. was the next logical step in shortening the name of the city. In some respects, it helps since everybody pronounces the Spanish word “angeles” as “ANN-jell-us” instead of the proper “AN-he-less”.