What's your city's nickname/nicknames? - Page 2

Chef · #21 Posted **Oct 28, 2020, 10:30 PM**

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.

bilbao58 · #22 Posted **Oct 28, 2020, 10:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JManc

Houston:

Space City (NASA)
Bayou City (several bayous that cross through town)
Clutch City (Rockets back to back championships in '94 & '95)
H-Town
Screwston (DJ Screw)

Since JManc got to my hometown before I did, I'll do the city I currently live in.

San Antone (said by people NOT from San Antonio)
Alamo City
There may be others that I don't know. I just call it Yuck.

ChiSoxRox · #23 Posted **Oct 28, 2020, 11:25 PM**

Fairbanks has the nickname "Golden Heart City" from the mining legacy and being smack in the middle of the Interior.

Anchorage has a fun one. Its urban scale and traffic means it's frequently called "Los Anchorage" up here.

IluvATX · #24 Posted **Oct 28, 2020, 11:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChiSoxRox

Fairbanks has the nickname "Golden Heart City" from the mining legacy and being smack in the middle of the Interior.

Anchorage has a fun one. Its urban scale and traffic means it's frequently called "Los Anchorage" up here.

Never heard that one and I’m currently in Anchorage. I’ve only heard the 907 reference. Or just anch. Fairbanks is squarebanks or merely wnhere I never want to go.

bilbao58 · #25 Posted **Oct 28, 2020, 11:54 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JManc

Houston:

Space City (NASA)
Bayou City (several bayous that cross through town)
Clutch City (Rockets back to back championships in '94 & '95)
H-Town
Screwston (DJ Screw)

Also, ever since Katrina it's been called "The Big Heart." I also call it Swamptown, Swamp City and The Great Swampopolis. But that's just me.

pj3000 · #26 Posted **Oct 28, 2020, 11:55 PM**

Erie - “The Gem City”, “The City by the Bay”, “Dreary Erie”, “Mistake on the Lake”, “The Flagship City”, “E-Town”

Pittsburgh - “The Steel City”, “The Iron City”, “The City of Bridges”, “The Burgh”, “The Smoky City”, “Paris of Appalachia”, “Hell With the Lid Off”, “The Handsome City”

Miami - “The Magic City”, “The Capital of Latin America”

ChiSoxRox · #27 Posted **Oct 29, 2020, 12:07 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by IluvATX

Never heard that one and I’m currently in Anchorage. I’ve only heard the 907 reference. Or just anch. Fairbanks is squarebanks or merely wnhere I never want to go.

"Los Anchorage" is definitely a nickname found outside Anchorage. I've heard Squarebanks here too, though.

Yuri · #28 Posted **Oct 29, 2020, 1:00 AM**

São Paulo:

"Brazil's Locomotive" (meaning Brazil's engine). Pretentious, and becoming more rare;

"Drizzle's Land" as the city is quite raining, with a milder climate;

"Stone Jungle" (meaning concrete jungle), but that's a bit generic and could be applied to other big metropolises as well.

In the 1990's, "Sampa" pop up from nowhere, but no one in São Paulo uses, only tourists from other parts of the country. I guess it was pushed by the media which were still heavily based on Rio and brought it in a context of watching São Paulo starting to emerge as a cultural juggernaut as well.

Londrina:

"Little London" due its name and origins by a British settlement company. "Londrina" means (female) "Londoner" in Portuguese.

bilbao58 · #29 Posted **Oct 29, 2020, 2:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acajack

Toronto

Hogtown

The Big Smoke

The Centre of the Universe

YYZ (rhymes with zed, not zee)

Queen City (very antiquated, actually makes some denizens uncomfortable!)

Toronto the Good

Toronto La Pure (from French speaking Canadians)

New York run by the Swiss

The 6ix (fairly recent, popularized by Drake)

Downtown Canada

T-Dot

I guess "Trawna" and "Trawno" are pronunciations, not nicknames. A gazillion years ago CITY-TV tried to propagate "People City" as a nickname and the result was a cloyingly schmaltzy song.

Acajack · #30 Posted **Oct 29, 2020, 4:13 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by IluvATX

I don’t think any Canadian cities work here. Otherwise it would be a can vs USA thread. I don’t care about Toronto.

What do you mean by this?

That Canadian city nicknames are not generally well-known in the U.S.? Yeah, I'd agree.

But that they shouldn't be cited in thread? I'd disagree. All cities in the world can be referenced here.

Atlas · #31 Posted **Oct 29, 2020, 4:37 PM**

Salt Lake City is "the Crossroads of the West"

This makes sense because it's geographically central to the Western US and, as a result, two major interstates (80 and 15) intersect there, it's historically a railroad hub, and the international airport is well-positioned for easy access anywhere on this side of the country.

bilbao58 · #32 Posted **Oct 29, 2020, 4:39 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by IluvATX

I don’t think any Canadian cities work here. Otherwise it would be a can vs USA thread. I don’t care about Toronto.

Seriously? Hey moderators! Can we please delete all mention of Canadian cities in this thread? PRONTO!

Anyway, I'm a native Texan and I've lived in Houston, Austin AND Toronto and I can tell you that Toronto is the best of the three. Followed by Houston, of course.

(four 0 four) · #33 Posted **Oct 29, 2020, 4:40 PM**

Atlanta:

Multiple versions of The A, A-Town, ATL, The Big A, da A, etc. depending on which rap artist you're listening to.

Y'allywood is one of the newest ones in response to the amount of business in the film industry.

City in a Forest

Just so you know, the 1st person who says Hotlanta, I will reach through your computer and slap you upside the head.

Dariusb · #34 Posted **Oct 29, 2020, 5:26 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acajack

What do you mean by this?

That Canadian city nicknames are not generally well-known in the U.S.? Yeah, I'd agree.

But that they shouldn't be cited in thread? I'd disagree. All cities in the world can be referenced here.

Right. Anyone can participate.

Don't Be That Guy · #35 Posted **Oct 29, 2020, 5:42 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by pj3000

Pittsburgh - “The Steel City”, “The Iron City”, “The City of Bridges”, “The Burgh”, “The Smoky City”, “Paris of Appalachia”, “Hell With the Lid Off”, “The Handsome City”

And there's "City of Champians," which came from the Pirates winning the World Series between two Steeler's Super Bowl Victories. But that's mostly from sports fans.

And I've never heard "The Handsome City."

But it is never, ever PIT, or Pitt. PIT is the airport code and Pitt is the University of Pittsburgh and anyone who refers to the city by any of those is immediately outed as not being local.

IluvATX · #36 Posted **Oct 29, 2020, 7:05 PM**

Charlotte is the Queen City
New York is the big apple
Chicago is the Windy City
LA is LA
Seattle is the emerald city
Phoenix is sun valley
Austin is the ATX
Dallas is the big d
Toronto is Canada
Miami is ?
Anchorage is the 907
Houston is ?
Atlanta is the ATL or hotlanta
New Orleans is Nola

mousquet · #37 Posted **Oct 29, 2020, 8:02 PM**

There's no nickname to my hometown. It's only glorious Paris. That name alone is enough.

Though it reminded me that some people sometimes called it "Paname", a nickname that would come from a song by Léo Ferré. But it never got to my own lexicon 'cause it feels like some outdated cheesy slang.

I guess Paris is Paris.

sopas ej · #38 Posted **Oct 29, 2020, 8:21 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mousquet

There's no nickname to my hometown. It's only glorious Paris. That name alone is enough.

Though it reminded me that some people sometimes called it "Paname", a nickname that would come from a song by Léo Ferré. But it never got to my own lexicon 'cause it feels like some outdated cheesy slang.

I guess Paris is Paris.

Among English speakers, an old nickname for Paris was "City of Light"... or was it "City of Lights?"

For Los Angeles, over the years, I've heard it referred to as

Tinseltown
La-La Land
City of Angels
The Big Orange

dave8721 · #39 Posted **Oct 29, 2020, 8:30 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by IluvATX

Charlotte is the Queen City
New York is the big apple
Chicago is the Windy City
LA is LA
Seattle is the emerald city
Phoenix is sun valley
Austin is the ATX
Dallas is the big d
Toronto is Canada
Miami is ?
Anchorage is the 907
Houston is ?
Atlanta is the ATL or hotlanta
New Orleans is Nola

For Miami i hear "The 305" a lot and of course "South Beach" has somehow become a nickname for the whole region. Also the Magic City, almost forgot about that one.

mousquet · #40 Posted **Oct 29, 2020, 8:46 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Among English speakers, an old nickname for Paris was "City of Light"... or was it "City of Lights?"

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.