# Who calls California Cali? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 23, 2006, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849 "2006-06-23T12:51:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [June 23, 2006, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/1 "2006-06-23T12:51:35Z")
I was born and raised in California, and I’ve never heard a native call it ‘Cali’. (Except for one guy in WA, who was a native but spent a lot of time in WA.) I call Southern California ‘Southern California’ or ‘SoCal’, Northern California ‘Northern California’, and California ‘California’. You? ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/2 "2006-06-23T12:57:29Z")
I had one irratating co-worker in Atlanta call that state “Cali”. She also referred ti Cincinnati as “Cincie” and San Fransisco as “Frisco”. Maybe she just didn’t like saying entire nouns. Ugh. ---
**Author:** ![Twinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@Twinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twinkie)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/3 "2006-06-23T13:01:50Z")
The Beastie Boys. That’s the only time I’ve ever heard California called “Cali.” I’m in New York, if we’re looking for regional patterns. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/4 "2006-06-23T13:05:59Z")
I hate when people refer to Chicago as Chi Town. It’s just stupid. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/5 "2006-06-23T13:10:59Z")
I’ve only heard it abbreviated like that when used as an adjective, usually for food – “Cali Burger”, “Cali Roll”. Never actually used the state. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/6 "2006-06-23T13:34:27Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > I hate when people refer to Chicago as Chi Town. It’s just stupid. To be fair, it’s about as stupid as “Chicagoland” (as if it is its own country). ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/7 "2006-06-23T13:44:06Z")
I grew up in LA, lived there for almost thirty years, and never heard anyone refer to California as “Cali” until a few years after I moved away, by someone who claimed to be native. ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/8 "2006-06-23T13:50:56Z")
> [@bluethree](#): > > I grew up in LA, lived there for almost thirty years, and never heard anyone refer to California as “Cali” until a few years after I moved away, by someone who claimed to be native. You know they’re not, if they call it Cali. (The other dividing line is how they refer to the freeways.) I have never heard it called Cali, except once, by my college roommate. It never happened again. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/9 "2006-06-23T14:31:40Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > To be fair, it’s about as stupid as “Chicagoland” (as if it is its own country). It’s always reminded me of an amusement park (which it can be, at times). Do other cities incorporate their surrounding towns into a “Land”? We need a king. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/10 "2006-06-23T14:34:12Z")
Call it “Cali”? I don’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/11 "2006-06-23T14:41:53Z")
I hear it quite a bit in Vegas . ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/12 "2006-06-23T14:42:35Z")
NoCal native here - **Johnny L.A.** has it right in the OP - no self-respecting native refers to it as “Cali” I first heard it in the song “Going back to Cali” off the, what, Less than Zero soundtrack? I think it was LL Cool J. \*\*sciurophobic \*\* - what your post a reference to that? That line is used in the song… ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/13 "2006-06-23T14:45:28Z")
Yep [here](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000024K5/qid=1151073844/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-5613554-2703328?s=music&v=glance&n=5174) it is (Amazon link). So one James Todd Smith from Queens appears to have come up with this nickname - and no locals picked it up… ---
**Author:** ![sabatobello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@sabatobello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sabatobello)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/14 "2006-06-23T14:47:06Z")
I do (especially because it annoys my roommate who grew up in Cali), but it feels like something I specifically picked up _somewhere_- though I can’t remember from what. I’m from Philadelphia. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/15 "2006-06-23T15:33:20Z")
I’ve never heard California called “Cali”, but I’m not a native. I _am_ native to Ohio, and “Cinci” is a not uncommon nickname for Cincinnati. ---
**Author:** ![Glassy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ea666f/32.png) [@Glassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glassy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/16 "2006-06-23T15:38:55Z")
I once heard someone say he had recently visited Cali. I thought he was referring to the city in Columbia and asked him all about it, and was confused by the subsequent conversation. My mom’s from LA. She has never called California anything but California. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/17 "2006-06-23T15:51:36Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’ve only heard it abbreviated like that when used as an adjective, usually for food – “Cali Burger”, “Cali Roll”. Never actually used the state. No one here abbreviates it, it’s california burger or california roll. I say let all the non-californians say it, that way we weed out the ones that have actually been here or lived here from the rest. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/18 "2006-06-23T16:25:27Z")
I’ve never heard someone from Southern CA say it, but I have heard a few Northern CA people say it. That said, I mostly hear it from non natives who think they are being cool. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/19 "2006-06-23T16:32:00Z")
I will occasionally shorten it that way when I write in my blog about how much I like living in this state. But as **Campion** said, my most distinguishable non-native characteristic is referring to highways as “Route [insert]”-Route 110 or Route 405 or whatever. As soon as I say something like “well I take the metro from Fillmore but sometimes I drive down Route 110 to park at Avenue 26” I usually get the “YOU’RE NOT FROM AROUND HERE ARE YOU???” I fully intend to continue misidentifying highways in this manner, refusing to wear a parka and mittens when the temperature dips below 68, wearing black/grey/plum and other severe colours, layering with sweaters in the middle of summer, talking ecstactically to people about their fruit trees, saying “wicked [insert]” instead of “hella” and otherwise bumbling about as an East Coaster. I’m never going to be a Native so I have no intention of attempting it. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849/20 "2006-06-23T16:59:10Z")
> [@Campion](#): > > (The other dividing line is how they refer to the freeways.) Southern California != California. They can keep their "the"s. Aside from Biggie, I don’t think I’ve heard anyone refer to “Cali.” It just screams “trying too hard.” Unless you’re Biggie. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-calls-california-cali/361849.md?page=2)