Do you ever wish your city kept its original name?

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by homebucket

I doubt this is the case outside of California, but I know a lot of people from SoCal that refer to San Francisco as "SF" and San Jose as "SJ".

Yeah, I honestly can't remember ever hearing anyone in Chicago literally say the letters "SF" when referring to San Francisco.

It's always just "San Francisco", or maybe an occasional "Bay Area" if the context of California has already been established.

[Markitect]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Milwaukee has a suburb named "New Berlin".

there are also several other tiny "New Berlins" in TX, IL, NY, and PA, but the one in Milwaukee's burbs is by far the the largest at ~40,000 people.

New Berlin, Wisconsin (which was named in honor of the founder's hometown of New Berlin, New York) was originally pronounced as "new ber-LIN", with an emphasis on the last syllable, in the same manner as the German city. However, due to growing anti-German sentiment in the 20th century, locals began re-pronouncing it as "new BER-lin" which has stuck to this day.

Ironically and unfortunately, the New Order (formerly the National Socialist White People's Party, formerly the American Nazi Party) is headquartered there.

All of the other Berliin towns and city in Wisconsin are also pronounced as "BER-lin".

[urban_encounter]

Nueva Helvetia, ("New Switzerland") was the first name of 19th-century settlement and rancho centered at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers, later becoming Sacramento.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Yeah, I honestly can't remember ever hearing anyone in Chicago literally say the letters "SF" when referring to San Francisco.

It's always just "San Francisco", or maybe an occasional "Bay Area" if the context of California has already been established.

Wouldn't San Fran or Frisco also be fairly common?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Yeah, people WITHIN cities have all kinds of nicknames and verbal shorthands like abbreviations that they'll use instead of the proper name for their city.

The point I was making is that "DC" and "LA" are by far the two most common verbally spoken US city abbreviations by those who live outside of said cities.

I rarely hear anyone here in Chicago say out loud, "I'm headed to Washington next week for a conference".

But "I'm heading to DC next week for a conference" is extremely common.

In my experience DC and LA are the only two major US cities where their abbreviations are the definitive default used by outsiders when speaking about them.

Other examples like "ABQ", "NYC", "KC", "ATL", "SLC", "MSP", etc. are certainly used by some people when speaking about those cities, but they are nowhere close to being used as ubuiquitously as the two biggies.

Toronto used to be referred to as T-O fairly commonly but I think that's faded and given way to "T-Dot" or "The Six".

Ottawa is sometimes referred to as O-Town.

[saybanana]

Los Angeles was a town back then. El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula - Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula

Try writing that on a postcard.

[MolsonExport]

what the fuck is T-dot? I hate that. T-dot. So stupid sounding.

Heck, even Tarrana sounds better.

Edit: the internet knows everything:

It is called Tdot which is a shortened version of Tdot Odot.

The word comes from the abbreviated T.O. which stands for Toronto, Ontario.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Toronto used to be referred to as T-O fairly commonly but I think that's faded and given way to "T-Dot" or "The Six".

but are any of those nicknames the automatic default name for toronto that outsiders will say when speaking of the city the same way that "DC" and "LA" are the defaults for their respective cities?

would someone in Halifax or Calgary really be more likely to say "i'm heading to T-Dot next wednesday for a business meeting" than "i'm heading to Toronto next wednesday for a business meeting"?

if the former really is more common than the latter, color me surprised.

i don't think i've ever heard an american refer to Toronto as anything other than "Toronto".

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

what the fuck is T-dot? I hate that. T-dot. So stupid sounding.

Heck, even Tarrana sounds better.

Edit: the internet knows everything:

Don't shoot the messenger!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

but are any of those nicknames the automatic default name for toronto that outsiders will say when speaking of the city the same way that "DC" and "LA" are the defaults for their respective cities?

would someone in Halifax or Calgary really be more likely to say "i'm heading to T-Dot next wednesday for a business meeting" than "i'm heading to Toronto next wednesday for a business meeting"?

Not really. You're right.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Wouldn't San Fran or Frisco also be fairly common?

you might hear an occasional "San Fran", particularly from an older generation person.

"Frisco" is not commonly used by anyone from my experience, unless they're specifically trying to irritate a native san franciscan.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Wouldn't San Fran or Frisco also be fairly common?

Funny, because my generation (Gen X) seems to have used those nicknames here in SoCal. "I'm going up to Frisco this weekend" or "I'm visiting relatives in San Fran this weekend." I feel I don't hear those anymore.

And "Frisco" seemed to be a pet peeve for San Franciscans: "Don't call it Frisco!!"

[MolsonExport]

I just call the place "Rice-a-roni"

[JHikka]

In circles here it's always 'LA', 'San Fran', 'New York'. 'T-Dot' is a Gen X thing, 'the 6ix' is already well-past cheugy these days and nobody says it or refers to it in that way. Usually just 'Toronto'.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by JHikka

In circles here it's always 'LA', 'San Fran', 'New York'. 'T-Dot' is a Gen X thing, 'the 6ix' is already well-past cheugy these days and nobody says it or refers to it in that way. Usually just 'Toronto'.

Nope..Referring to Toronto as " T-Dot" or "The Six" is too new of a moniker.
X-ers are more likely to refer to Toronto as "Tee Ohh" or "Tronna" as others have pointed out.

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

but are any of those nicknames the automatic default name for toronto that outsiders will say when speaking of the city the same way that "DC" and "LA" are the defaults for their respective cities?

would someone in Halifax or Calgary really be more likely to say "i'm heading to T-Dot next wednesday for a business meeting" than "i'm heading to Toronto next wednesday for a business meeting"?

if the former really is more common than the latter, color me surprised.

i don't think i've ever heard an american refer to Toronto as anything other than "Toronto".

mmmm Good question? Had me thinking ."T.O" is used quite a bit casually, but come to think of it, when it comes to work place meetings, appointments, or anything formal, "Toronto" seems to be used in conversation..Toronto for business, T.O for pleasure..I know that we refer to Los Angeles as "l.A" quite often as well..Makes me wonder if it's the same as Toronto..Los Angelas for business, L.A for pleasure when Americans are referencing that city?..At work do you say "I'll be in Los Angeles for that meeting" vs L.A? Referencing Toronto as T.O is not common at a formal work setting.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Razor

Nope..Referring to Toronto as " T-Dot" or "The Six" is too new of a moniker.
X-ers are more likely to refer to Toronto as "Tee Ohh" or "Tronna" as others have pointed out.

Yeah, I was gonna say. I am a Gen Xer and Toronto was Tee Ohh for us.

T-Dot is probably a Gen Y thing, and likely dates to the early 2000s when the Internet started to take off.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Razor

Nope..Referring to Toronto as " T-Dot" or "The Six" is too new of a moniker.
X-ers are more likely to refer to Toronto as "Tee Ohh" or "Tronna" as others have pointed out.

'T-Dot' first began appearing on hip hop mixtapes as early as the 90s, so Gen X.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

for as many states as we have with native american derived names, there aren't a ton of large US cities with such.



Cities with fully-derived native american names out of the 100 largest US cities:

Chicago
Seattle
Milwaukee
Tucson
Omaha
Miami
Wichita
Tampa
Honolulu
Chesapeake
Spokane



Cities with partially-derived native american names out of the 100 largest US cities:

Oklahoma City
Kansas City
Minneapolis

Waco may not be top 100, but it may be unique in that it was the site of a native american settlement of the same name, Hueco, going back many hundreds of years. The city’s central park is the remains of that settlement.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Waco may not be top 100

with a population of 138,486 as of census 2020, Waco is the 200th largest municipality in the US, and the 20th largest in Texas.

but yes, there are lots of other cities and towns in the US with native american name derivations. i limited my search to the 100 largest for brevity's sake.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Yuri

To the Québécois here: how do you say "Detroit"? With the French or English pronunciation?

French pronunciation all the time. Unless speaking in English, obviously.

Amusingly, New York stays New York in French but New Orleans is La Nouvelle-Orléans. I realized how random this is during a conversation in Spanish with a Latino who referred to the Big Apple as “Nueva York”.