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  #41  
Old Posted Oct 29, 2020, 9:12 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mousquet View Post
Yeah, "Ville-Lumière"... Admittedly. You know what this name would have come from? It's not that people over here would've ever been particularly enlightened, wise or smart, huh.

Popular beliefs and classic literature say that it came from gas lighting that was set up to the streets from the mid 19th century, so people could see gangsters standing on street corners to 1- cut their throats, then 2- take their money at night.

No kidding, it is said that robbers in the city wouldn't just mug you 150 years ago. They would first murder you, then take whatever you'd carry. I remember a novel by Émile Zola (l'Assommoir) talking about the screams of poor random strollers being murdered in the streets at night. I don't know how accurate popular sayings are in that matter. There may be some sort of legend and exaggeration in there, but life was surely much rougher back then anyway.

So, at some point, the local authority developed a lighting system based on gas, just to let people see what was hidden in the dark corners of the streets. This story is actually well known.
Maybe this gas lighting network was sort of early, innovative and original, which owed this nickname to the city.
But to be honest, "City of Lights" is a bit too much of honor, if not pompous.
We don't deserve to be called that name.
I'd argue it's well-deserved!
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  #42  
Old Posted Oct 29, 2020, 9:12 PM
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Two for Moscow:

The Third Rome (третий Рим) - seeing itself as the Orthodox heir to Constantinople, the second Rome

The Forty Forties (сорок сороков) - for having supposedly 40 times 40 churches within it
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  #43  
Old Posted Oct 29, 2020, 10:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mousquet View Post
Yeah, "Ville-Lumière"... Admittedly. You know what this name would have come from? It's not that people over here would've ever been particularly enlightened, wise or smart, huh.

Popular beliefs and classic literature say that it came from gas lighting that was set up to the streets from the mid 19th century, so people could see gangsters standing on street corners to 1- cut their throats, then 2- take their money at night.

No kidding, it is said that robbers in the city wouldn't just mug you 150 years ago. They would first murder you, then take whatever you'd carry. I remember a novel by Émile Zola (l'Assommoir) talking about the screams of poor random strollers being murdered in the streets at night. I don't know how accurate popular sayings are in that matter. There may be some sort of legend and exaggeration in there, but life was surely much rougher back then anyway.

So, at some point, the local authority developed a lighting system based on gas, just to let people see what was hidden in the dark corners of the streets. This story is actually well known.
Maybe this gas lighting network was sort of early, innovative and original, which owed this nickname to the city.
But to be honest, "City of Lights" is a bit too much of honor, if not pompous.
We don't deserve to be called that name.
In Brazil, "Cidade Luz" is an extremely popular name for Paris as popular as "Cidade Maravilhosa" for Rio and maybe a bit more than "Big Apple" (sometimes translated, mostly not) for New York.
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  #44  
Old Posted Oct 31, 2020, 12:54 PM
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I don't have anything to add, other then I enjoyed reading these so far. I heard most of them already, but there are a few new ones here.Especially the ones for Brazilian cities..Re: Funky Town..I've always thought that Austin owned that one?
I would be curious to hear from the Australian or New Zealand crowd.


Quote:
Originally Posted by IluvATX View Post
I don’t think any Canadian cities work here. Otherwise it would be a can vs USA thread. I don’t care about Toronto.
So through your "broadened" world view, please enlighten us on why Canadian cities can't have monikers and should be excluded from having nicknames??
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  #45  
Old Posted Oct 31, 2020, 5:03 PM
badrunner badrunner is offline
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Lame sports nicknames for cities:

The LAND

We the North
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  #46  
Old Posted Oct 31, 2020, 10:13 PM
IluvATX IluvATX is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Razor View Post
I don't have anything to add, other then I enjoyed reading these so far. I heard most of them already, but there are a few new ones here.Especially the ones for Brazilian cities..Re: Funky Town..I've always thought that Austin owned that one?
I would be curious to hear from the Australian or New Zealand crowd.




So through your "broadened" world view, please enlighten us on why Canadian cities can't have monikers and should be excluded from having nicknames??
Anywhere can have a nickname. I was just hoping to avoid a USA vs Canada thread, like so many of them devolve into. Austin has Keep Austin weird, though I think that’s more of a slogan than a nickname. Shortsighted on my behalf to try to exclude Canadian cities though.
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  #47  
Old Posted Oct 31, 2020, 10:59 PM
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Los Angeles

L.A. ("El Lay")
LalaLand
City of Angels or less common, Angeltown
The Big Orange
Smogville (not as much as in the past)
City of the Stars, aka Hollywood
Movietown, or Tinseltown
Entertainment Capitol of the World
Fantasyland
City of Champions, Dodgertown (sorry Brooklyn), L.A.kertown (sorry Minneapolis)
City of Dreams, Dreamland or sometimes City of Broken Dreams
City of the Future
The Second City or Ciudad Dos (sorry Chicago), New York west
City of Future Texans...or Nevadans, Arizonans, Oregonians, Coloradoans etc.

Last edited by CaliNative; Oct 31, 2020 at 11:52 PM.
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  #48  
Old Posted Nov 1, 2020, 12:16 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CaliNative View Post
The Second City or Ciudad Dos (sorry Chicago)
It’s not a nickname Chicago would fight to keep.

It was a generic big city nickname in the 19th/early 20th Century and an implied insult when it was popularized by Liebling in 1952.
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  #49  
Old Posted Nov 1, 2020, 12:45 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by galleyfox View Post
It’s not a nickname Chicago would fight to keep.

It was a generic big city nickname in the 19th/early 20th Century and an implied insult when it was popularized by Liebling in 1952.
Don't get me wrong, I am a big Chicago fan. Might move there. Good property bargains. A toddling town, Chicago is.
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  #50  
Old Posted Nov 1, 2020, 1:21 AM
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Was LA not The Naked City?
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  #51  
Old Posted Nov 1, 2020, 2:59 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chef View Post
The only nickname people in Minneapolis ever use for the city is Mill City. If someone calls it Minny or the Minni-Apple you know they aren't from here.

St Paul is Pig's Eye, which was its original name, although sometimes people in the west metro call it St Small.


So you’re just not gonna mention “Twin Cities”. Weird

New York:
Gotham
Metropolis
The Big Apple
The city that never sleeps
Empire City
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  #52  
Old Posted Nov 1, 2020, 3:03 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CaliNative View Post
Don't get me wrong, I am a big Chicago fan. Might move there. Good property bargains. A toddling town, Chicago is.
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Hehe. Most of Chicago’s nicknames aren’t complimentary, but ‘Second City’ is just so bland compared to organic 19th century Midwestern s**tflinging. There’s just something so ridiculous and awesome about having the same nicknames, complaints and debates since Abraham Lincoln was still president


“The controversies between the Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis newspapers as to the importance of their respective cities, is amusing to outsiders. The Cincinnati Commercial lately called Chicago a ‘city of wind’…” New York Evening Post 1867

“Chicago is a very windy town. There is probably more blow about that place than any other in the world. In comparison to its “blows” the dreaded Simoon is only Simoonshine. The elements are combined to form a monster ear trumpet, the little end of which is inserted into the public ear, and thro’ it all Chicago blows the praises of that wonderful city, until it makes the public head ache — actually splitting the ears of the groundlings.“ Chronicling America 1866

“We are proud of Milwaukee because she is not overrun with a lazy police force as is Chicago — because her morals are better, he [sic] criminals fewer, her credit better; and her taxes lighter in proportion to her valuation than Chicago, the windy city of the West.” Milwaukee Daily Sentinel July 4, 1860
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  #53  
Old Posted Nov 1, 2020, 3:06 AM
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The two cities I’ve lived in-
St.Louis-
The Lou
STL
River City
Gateway to the West
Future Great City
Springfield -
The birthplace of Route 66
Queen City of the Ozarks
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  #54  
Old Posted Nov 1, 2020, 10:25 AM
IluvATX IluvATX is online now
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Columbia ,sc is cola city
Myrtle beach is the grand strand
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  #55  
Old Posted Nov 1, 2020, 11:21 AM
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Vancouver has a few:

Lotusland
Terminal City
Hongcouver
Vancity
Hollywood North
No Fun City
Vansterdam
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  #56  
Old Posted Nov 1, 2020, 5:26 PM
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Lancaster, PA

Red Rose City - Brace yourselves for a brief and rather incomplete history lesson. Lancaster, PA was named after Lancaster, England, which served as the seat for the royal House of Lancaster. The traditional emblem of the House of Lancaster is a red rose. The emblem/nickname was adopted by Lancaster, PA in 1734 when a newly arrived English businessman John Wright renamed the town after his birth city (Lancaster, PA's original name was Hickory Town and thankfully people did not object to the name change).

Spanish Rose - Lancaster city has the second highest concentration of Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania, 29% (Reading has the highest concentration). An additional 7.7% of Lancaster's residents hail from various Spanish speaking Latin American countries.

Little Munich - Historical nickname from the 1850s rarely used anymore. By the 1850s independent German brewers were producing 775,000 gallons of beer annually in Lancaster.

Garden Spot of the World - Refers to Lancaster's surrounding fertile farmland also rarely used.

Lanc or Lanc Lanc - Most recent nickname, frequently used by the younger generations.

P.S. only Weird Al's 1996 music video of "Amish Paradise" dubs Lancaster as an Amish Paradise

Last edited by mville1; Nov 1, 2020 at 6:48 PM. Reason: Sloppy Writing
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  #57  
Old Posted Nov 1, 2020, 6:39 PM
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california of oregon.
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  #58  
Old Posted Nov 1, 2020, 7:53 PM
Skintreesnail Skintreesnail is offline
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Philadelphia:
City of brotherly love
Birthplace of america
Quaker city
Philly
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  #59  
Old Posted Nov 1, 2020, 11:10 PM
badrunner badrunner is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack View Post
Was LA not The Naked City?
I've never heard it referred to as such. There is neighborhood called Naked City in Las Vegas though, which actually has a very literal explanation.
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  #60  
Old Posted Nov 1, 2020, 11:57 PM
thoughtcriminal thoughtcriminal is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Skintreesnail View Post
Philadelphia:
City of brotherly love
Birthplace of america
Quaker city
Philly
you beat me to this. although, in the interest of full disclosure, I was also going to include "Filthadelphia"
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