# Why is Boston called "Beantown"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 23, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953 "2016-03-23T15:25:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/21 "2016-04-03T03:21:52Z")
From the end of _The Boston Beguine_ [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EthgPPb0Qg#t=6m56s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EthgPPb0Qg#t=6m56s) > [@](#): > > Exotic Boston, > Land of the brave, > Home of the free, > Home of the Red Sox, > Home of the bean, > And home > Of the Boston Beguine! (The beginning of the song is at 3:50.) ---
**Author:** ![cwniles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@cwniles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwniles)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/22 "2016-04-04T14:06:57Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > Who calls it beantown? I lived in Boston for a few years, nobody in the city calls it that. > [@Telemark](#): > > [http://www.cambridgebeantowntaqueria.com/](http://www.cambridgebeantowntaqueria.com/) - Beantown Taqueria > [http://beantownclassic.com/](http://beantownclassic.com/) - Beantown Hockey Classic > [http://beantownswing.com/index.html](http://beantownswing.com/index.html) - Beantown Swing Orchestra > [http://www.beantownpub.com/index.html](http://www.beantownpub.com/index.html) - Beantown Pub > [http://beantownrugby.com/](http://beantownrugby.com/) - Beantown Rugby > [http://www.beantownbootcamp.com/](http://www.beantownbootcamp.com/) - Beantown Bootcamp > [https://www.berklee.edu/news/beantown-jazz-festival-announces-2015-lineup](https://www.berklee.edu/news/beantown-jazz-festival-announces-2015-lineup) - Beantown Jazz Festival > [http://www.bostontours.us/?event=offer.detail&offerId=838](http://www.bostontours.us/?event=offer.detail&offerId=838) - Beantown Trolley Tours > [http://www.beantownjewishgardens.org/](http://www.beantownjewishgardens.org/) - Beantown Jewish Gardens > [http://www.beantowntapfest.com/](http://www.beantowntapfest.com/) - Beantown Tapfest > [http://www.beantownbaker.com/](http://www.beantownbaker.com/) - Beantown Baker > [http://www.beantownpastrami.com/](http://www.beantownpastrami.com/) Beantown Pastrami > [http://www.beantownvapor.com/](http://www.beantownvapor.com/) - Beantown Vapor > [http://www.beantowndiner.com/](http://www.beantowndiner.com/) - Beantown Diner > > There are plenty more, I just got tired of typing. Yes, of course opportunistic area business owners and event organizers will make use of a term they feel identifies them as “Boston” but, in the end, it is an attempt to lure tourists to the business or event. Nobody calls it Beantown unless, at best, they want to get rollyeyes or, at worst, a beantown beatdown. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/23 "2016-04-04T16:31:12Z")
> [@cwniles](#): > > Nobody calls it Beantown unless, at best, they want to get rollyeyes or, at worst, a beantown beatdown. No, people just say Boston most of the time, but you do occasionally hear people use Beantown in sports discussions, or speaking grandiosely/ironically. But everyone knows the term even if it’s not in favor, similar to Frisco for San Francisco. It’s mostly used by people from elsewhere, because Bostonians don’t need to use a nickname for their own city. Not many people use The Hub either, but everyone knows the term and it’s used in products and events often. > **[Nicknames of Boston](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_nicknames)** > > Boston has many nicknames, inspired by various historical contexts. They include: ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/24 "2016-04-11T20:59:15Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > The Hub either, but everyone knows the term and it’s used in products and events often. > > [Nicknames of Boston - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_nicknames) Hmm, growing up in the area ISTM that local newcasters referred to “The Hub” quite often. Maybe that’s fallen out of use over time, or perhaps I just have a selective memory. I can tell you that my current home is referred to locally as “Music City” all the time. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/26 "2020-12-02T05:22:11Z")
Spammer reported (gogomaju) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/27 "2020-12-02T20:57:29Z")
Just for funsies I entered beantown in ngrams and got [this](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=beantown&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cbeantown%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Cbeantown%3B%2Cc0). Looks like beantown was a big thing back in the 1930s, fell off the charts and has had a recent revival. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/28 "2020-12-03T02:38:47Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > See also John Collins Bossidy’s toast: “Written by Dr. Bossidy for an alumni dinner of Holy Cross College” And while we’re here: is that the only thing Dr. Bossidy ever did or wrote? I’ve not yet found anything else about him. Not helped by the popularity of that famous quote. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/29 "2020-12-03T16:25:03Z")
Because “CreamPieTown” takes on a whole different flavor in this day and age. (Wasn’t there a “BeanTown” TV show some years back [Bill Bixby/Marriette Hartley?]) ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2020, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/30 "2020-12-03T16:53:31Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > (Wasn’t there a “BeanTown” TV show some years back [Bill Bixby/Marriette Hartley?]) > **[Goodnight, Beantown (TV Series 1983–1984) ⭐ 6.8 | Comedy](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085024/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_10)** > > 30m Potentially patterned after Natalie Jacobson and Chet Curtis, married Boston news anchors of that era. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2020, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/31 "2020-12-06T05:35:26Z")
I have lived most of my life in the Seattle area. People never call it “Emerald City”, not with a straight face. It’s too quaint, kitschy, and pretentious even for a Seattlite hipster. But everyone knows and accepts it as a nickname and you see the term used everywhere in business names and tourism ads. I’ve never been to Boston but I assume it might be similar there with the Beantown nickname. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/32 "2021-01-26T04:07:42Z")
According to “How Carrots Won the Trojan War” by Rebecca Rupp: > American bean cookery owes a lot to the Indians who, by the time the European colonists arrived, had been cooking and eating beans for at least 600 years. The original of Boston baked beans was a New England Indian dish in which dried beans were soaked in water until softened, mixed with bear fat and maple sugar, and baked overnight in a “beanhole” — a hole dug in the earth and lined with hot stones. > Slow overnight baking particularly appealed to the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay, for whom cooking was prohibited on the Sabbath. Beans, tossed into the pot on Saturday night, seemed a neat solution to the problem of Sunday dinner, and soon became a Boston tradition. Boston, accordingly, acquired the nickname Beantown ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/33 "2021-01-26T04:20:06Z")
> [@cwniles](#): > > Yes, of course opportunistic area business owners and event organizers will make use of a term they feel identifies them as “Boston” but, in the end, it is an attempt to lure tourists to the business or event. Nobody calls it Beantown unless, at best, they want to get rollyeyes or, at worst, a beantown beatdown. It’s just a name that outsiders call it. Sorta like “Frisco”. Nobody in San Francisco would ever call it that, nor would any other self-respecting Californian. Pretty sure nobody in California calls their state “Cali”, either. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/34 "2021-02-04T18:40:53Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > > [@cwniles](#): > > > > Yes, of course opportunistic area business owners and event organizers will make use of a term they feel identifies them as “Boston” but, in the end, it is an attempt to lure tourists to the business or event. Nobody calls it Beantown unless, at best, they want to get rollyeyes or, at worst, a beantown beatdown. > > It’s just a name that outsiders call it. Sorta like “Frisco”. Nobody in San Francisco would ever call it that, nor would any other self-respecting Californian. Pretty sure nobody in California calls their state “Cali”, either Except [LL Cool J](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FdizL4on-Rc). In the early twentieth century, the Post Office decided, for some reason, that it needed to rename all the villages on Hatteras Island. One San Francisco-born postmaster decided to name the town of Trent Woods after his home town. I know this because I often vacation at a beach house in [Frisco, N.C.](https://www.outerbanks.org/plan-your-trip/towns-and-villages/frisco/) ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/35 "2021-02-04T20:38:07Z")
In an attempt to see how far back the term was used, I found an article from the late 1800s where the author was talking about how happy he was to return to Beantown in reference to Boston. Let’s add poetic usage to the reasons to call it that (I got bored about that point which is why I’m not in SDSAB) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/36 "2021-02-04T20:46:43Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > In an attempt to see how far back the term was used, I found an article from the late 1800s where the author was talking about how happy he was to return to Beantown in reference to Boston. Sportswriters started referring to the major league baseball team as “Beaneaters” around 1883. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2021, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/37 "2021-02-05T00:18:43Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > It’s just a name that outsiders call it. Sorta like “Frisco”. Nobody in San Francisco would ever call it that, nor would any other self-respecting Californian. Born and raised in Cali. I use Frisco, but mainly to annoy oversensitive Friscans. (I’m not saying that all San Francisco residents are oversensitive, but the ones who get upset about “Frisco” deserve some teasing.) ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/38 "2021-02-07T17:07:06Z")
Imagine, someone getting irritated by a person who deliberately uses the wrong name to refer to their home town. I’m sure that wouldn’t happen anywhere except in San Francisco. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/39 "2021-02-07T17:25:17Z")
I would think most city nicknames really aren’t used by the inhabitants. I don’t know of any locals who refer to Detroit as “Motor City” or even “Hockeytown”. If someone in the Detroit area were talking about things with such names, they would be more likely to be referring specifically to the Casino or memorabilia store, respectively. If they wanted to refer to going downtown or some other district, they’d say that specifically. The most likely way they’d mention “Detroit” is in respect to the city government. That’s certainly true in my line of work, where we prepare a non-negligible number of Detroit city income tax returns despite being located 16 miles north of Detroit’s northern border. When I lived in Minnesota during college, about a hour’s drive south of Minneapolis, people would talk about the urban area as “the cities”, not “the Twin Cities”. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2021, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/40 "2021-02-08T15:48:01Z")
I have no idea how Baltimore got the nickname “Charm City.” Nobody uses it except the PR poobahs, although I suppose it’s better than “Murder Capital of the Country,” or, “Crown Jewel of the Patapsco River drainage basin.” ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953/41 "2021-03-05T22:35:43Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I have lived most of my life in the Seattle area. People never call it “Emerald City”, not with a straight face. It’s too quaint, kitschy, and pretentious even for a Seattlite hipster. But everyone knows and accepts it as a nickname and you see the term used everywhere in business names and tourism ads. How long is “most of your life”? “The Emerald City” was the winning submission when the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau ran a contest in 1982. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-boston-called-beantown/749953.md?page=3)