San Francisco has a nickname (San Fran), that is used almost exclusively by people who have never been there. Are there any other examples of this around the world?
Thursday, 13 Mar 2025
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Hotlanta.
Not sure if it counts, but the capital of Slovenia is called *močvirje* (lit. swamp) or *žabarija* (kind of like *frogland*) by people from the second-largest city/town and the surrounding region (maybe people from other regions as well?).
That’s because 1) the capital is located next to the country’s largest marsh/wetland and the whole capital area used to be a large swamp, and 2) the people use *kva* for *what* (instead of *kaj*), which sounds similar to the French *quoi* and is reminiscent of the sound frogs make in Slovenian: *kvak kvak* or *rega kvak*.
The nickname is obviously derogatory, though.
São Paulo, Brazil. It is common for the city to be referred to as “Sampa” in the press and by tourists because of a song from the 70s. But natives rarely or never refer to the city by that nick.
Apparently true Californians aren’t supposed to say “Cali” as that’s supposed to be a nickname only outsiders call us, I never realized this though as someone raised and living in San Diego.
Everyone outside of San Diego calls it, the whales vagina
In France we have the opposite:
Paris calling everyone else “the province”, which is the surefire way of spotting a Parisian lost outside their regular habitat, *because nobody else would use that word* (and 2/3 of us consider it a demeaning slur dating from the Ancien Regime)
It’s a bit like if New York called other Americans, including but not limited to Los Angeles, “his royal majesty’s rednecks”, and then wondered why everyone else punctures New Yorkers tires.
Here in Vancouver, “the GVA” (“Greater Vancouver Area”) is used by people who aren’t from here. This is often due to people from Toronto, who call their area the Greater Toronto Area (“the GTA”) and think all they have to to is substitute “Toronto” with “Vancouver.”
Locals are more likely to use the official name “Metro Vancouver.” And older locals might use “GVRD” (Greater Vancouver Regional District, which was the old name of the region until the 2000s). “VanCity” is another common nickname from locals.
Beantown
Foreigners/tourists calling Amsterdam “The Dam”.
There’s nothing that I hate more or that makes me cringe more.
First, “the Dam” / “de Dam” refers to the central square with the royal palace only. This is the actual dam in the river Amstel where the city got its name from.
Second, there are a ton of “Dams” in the Netherlands: Volendam, Rotterdam, Monnickendam, Appingedam, Schiedam, Zaandam etc etc.
Barca for Barcelona, locals refer to the city as Barna.
Also I heard Chi-town and Big Apple is frowned upon.
People somtimes refer Vancouver as GVA and we instantly know they’re a dirty Ontarioan.
In Finland, people outside Helsinki might refer to it as *Hesa*, but people living in Helsinki don’t (or “aren’t supposed to”). To them it’s typically *Stadi*, from the Swedish *stad* meaning city.
Derry/Londonderry.
If anyone calls it londonderry, no matter if they’re Protestant or catholic, it means they aren’t from Derry.
New Orleans has many names. No one calls it “the big easy”. It’s actually small and hard to live there. And if you want to make a local vomit then un ironically refer to the city at Nawlins. You will get a glare to see if you’re joking or if you’re mental.
I live in São Paulo. The rest of the country think we call ourselves sampa. No paulistano has ever used that term. We say Essepeeeee.
Also it’s really weird how badly every one tries to do an accent from here. No one even comes close to getting it right.
Manchester is referred to as “Manny” by some, particularly Gen Z. Everyone in Manchester hates it.
Brisvegas! Yeah nah, fuck it, everyone calls it that.
Chi-town.
No single human from Chicago has ever called it chi-town. Or the windy city for that matter.
Moral of the story from this comment section is that no one who lives in a city ever uses a nickname for that city
Calling Pittsburgh PA “Pitt” – that’s the university, not the city, and PIT is the airport
And please don’t spell it “Pittsburg” unless you’re talking about the one in Kansas…the locals are as sensitive about that missing “H” as they are about people trying to give them something besides Heinz ketchup for their fries…
Used to be Frisco. Also considered bothersome
“The big apple” from someone who grew up in nyc.
“Raleigh-Durham” is the name of an airport, not an actual place or the name of the region. Nobody from NC says that. It’s either you say the cities individually, or you say “The Triangle.” Drives me up the wall when people “in the Raleigh-Durham area” like that’s not a thing, the area is called the Triangle
I’d argue that people using the term “Hollywood” as a blanket term for all of Los Angeles fall into this category. LA is massive and the area of Hollywood is just a small part of it. Nobody from here says “Hollywood” unless they are directly and literally referring to the actual neighborhood.
G-town for Geelong
Older Americans call the Philippines P. I. (Philippine Islands) as if we’re still their fuckin colony lmao.
“Hot-lanta” 🙄
if you pronounce Toronto with 2 T’s I will immediately know you’re not from Toronto. Honestly, you’re likely not even Canadian because most Canadians pronounce it properly from years of watching hockey lol. It’s Churanno, get it right.
Bean Town. I’ll literally never heard anyone other than away team sports announcers call Boston that.
Nobody in Boston calls it the Hub or Beantown.
“The Big Ho” for Houston.
Yeah, I just made that up.
Big Apple
Saint Petersburg Florida visitors often call it “St. Pete’s”, no one here calls it that, St Pete is acceptable.
Not a nickname, but people in Oregon say OR-uh-gun; people outside the Northwest say OR-eh-GON.
“Rain City” for Seattle.
Not exactly the phenomenon you’re describing, but literally no one in history has spoken that name out loud but it is somehow the name of every goddamn business here. “Rain City {Product/Service}”. It’s a really dumb nickname for a city that doesn’t need a nickname and has several much better options if you insist.
It’s a nickname you’d think of if someone said “think fast nickname for Seattle” and you blurted out the first thing that came to mind in less than one second.
With apologies to Rain City Burgers, I like that place.
There’s a tendency for British people to call Ireland ‘Éire’ that I think is borne from plain ignorance (it’s on the stamps and coins but you’d never see it used here) and a need they have to distinguish the larger state on the island from Northern Ireland.
It’s also possibly a similar phenomenon to people saying ‘Barthelona’ with a lisp i.e. hypercorrection (assuming Irish people don’t like the term ‘Ireland’ and Éire is more authentic). It doesn’t help that they usually omit the fada (accent) over the first letter, making it “Eire’, which means ‘load’ or ‘burden’.
Suffice is to say no Irish person would ever refer to their country as ‘Éire’ whilst speaking English, so doing so is an instant giveaway that you’re not Irish and a 99% giveaway you’re British.
p.s. Using ‘Republic of Ireland’ (which is a soccer team) to describe the country is also a giveaway that you aren’t from here.
Toronto. Locals say Turonno.
Bangkok, everyone who lives there, or in Thailand in general, calls it Krung-Tep, which has been the official name for hundreds of years. Everyone else calls it Bangkok
Not a single person who lives in New Jersey has ever said “Joisey.” It’s not even close to our accent and I’ve never understood where it came from.
The Bourne Identity (Melbourne, AUS)
San Antone. Growing up in San Antonio this was never a thing outside of a Johnny Cash song and the only people I’ve heard using it were not local.
Wikipedia says Ottawa is nicknamed “O-Town” which is something I’ve never heard anyone use in any context.
A Dutch perspective:
– “Rotjeknor” for Rotterdam. Few people there use this nickname.
– “Groningen” for, well, the town of Groningen. Locals call it “de Stad”.
Paris is often called Paname in French slang.
Go to Las Vegas and pronounce “Nevada” wrong.
Everyone outside of Minnesota calls it “Minny” or refers to our sports teams as such. We do not use “Minny” in Minnesota.
The only people that call Minnesota “Minny” are not from Minnesota
Manhattan. If people call it that, they definitely are tourists. Locals just call it “The City” as if we’re in the 1800s and the other Burroughs weren’t cities yet, I guess. Lol
No one in Toronto calls Toronto, Toronto rather Toronto. Iykyk