Does it bother you when people use nicknames for you state or city? (neighborhoods, live in)

[Widowmaker2k]

It depends on the nickname. 'Cali' is annoying. 'Frisco' is annoying, but not terrible. 'So Cal' is fine, as is 'Nor Cal', but 'No Cal' is awful...it makes us sound like we come from a diet soft drink.

[DeaconJ]

It seems like city nicknames are more popular and widely used outside of the city. I still hear people from other cities/states call it "Hotlanta", but I have rarely heard anyone in Atlanta use that nickname - if ever. There are businesses and organizations that use Hotlanta in their names...

ATL is a more recent nickname and still hasn't really become dated as of yet...I hear people use this one pretty often.

Classic nicknames like The Big Apple, The Big Easy, Queen City (Charlotte, named for the queen), Charm City/B-More, Sin City, Philly, Magic City, Motown, Big D, etc...these are pretty much timeless.

[Central Illinois 1]

Originally Posted by DeaconJ

It seems like city nicknames are more popular and widely used outside of the city. I still hear people from other cities/states call it "Hotlanta", but I have rarely heard anyone in Atlanta use that nickname - if ever. There are businesses and organizations that use Hotlanta in their names...

ATL is a more recent nickname and still hasn't really become dated as of yet...I hear people use this one pretty often.

Classic nicknames like The Big Apple, The Big Easy, Queen City (Charlotte, named for the queen), Charm City/B-More, Sin City, Philly, Magic City, Motown, Big D, etc...these are pretty much timeless.

There are a few other cities in the midwest that have names used ONLY by outsiders too like:
St. Louie (Nobody but NOBODY from St. Louis calls the city this!!)
Chi Town (Ditto)
the Windy City (Never heard it used by locals)
Brew City (no way!)
Cincy (known to be offensive to some locals)

In contrast, I have heard "Indy", "KC", "Twin Cities", "C-town" (i.e., Cleveland) and "Titletown" (i.e., Green Bay) actually used by locals. So, I could be wrong, but I am assuming that they don't offend most local people. A a question for anyone: is "Motown" OK to use in Detroit or will this get you thrown in the river??

[thePR]

Originally Posted by Central Illinois 1

There are a few other cities in the midwest that have names used ONLY by outsiders too like:
St. Louie (Nobody but NOBODY from St. Louis calls the city this!!)
Chi Town (Ditto)
the Windy City (Never heard it used by locals)
Brew City (no way!)
Cincy (known to be offensive to some locals)

In contrast, I have heard "Indy", "KC", "Twin Cities", "C-town" (i.e., Cleveland) and "Titletown" (i.e., Green Bay) actually used by locals. So, I could be wrong, but I am assuming that they don't offend most local people. A a question for anyone: is "Motown" OK to use in Detroit or will this get you thrown in the river??

I hear Chi Town a decent amount and I hear the Windy City when people are making jokes.

[Astron1000]

Minneapolis-St.Paul is a mouthful. Many locals simply call it the Twin Cities, or often just "The Cities."

[krudmonk]

Originally Posted by Widowmaker2k

but 'No Cal' is awful...it makes us sound like we come from a diet soft drink.

I hate it because some halfheads just replace one letter in "SoCal" and think they have its counterpart.

[ckhthankgod]

I don't mind when people call Syracuse, "the 'Cuse". It became popular when the Syracuse University Basketball team made it to the NCAA finals in 1996. They also call it "the Salt City" due to being a major producer of salt at one time, but it is used once in a while.

[WestbankNOLA]

It KILLS me when I see or hear NAWLINS. Nobody says that, you'll never hear a New Orleanian say that. Local pronunciation may vary from nu-or-LE-ans, nu-Or-lins or nu-Aw-lins but never NAWLINS. It annoys me to death and I just left a room full of tourists inspiring me to make this post.

[lovethetruth]

Here is one that bothers me, because it not only is meant as a jab against the state of Kentucky, but also the city it is being used to describe.

I have noticed people use the last 4 letters in Kentucky (ucky) and apply it to cities that they think are rednecky.

examples:

Nashville TN becomes Nashtucky

Knoxville TN becomes Knoxtucky

And there are probably several other instances.

These bother me because the person saying them are trying to put down the particular city.


Another one I have noticed is Nashvegas, but that doesn't seem to bother me as much.

[madpie]

Being a Michigan native, I don't think people in Detroit are offended when called the Motor City or Motown. They have a lot of worse things they are called. Grand Rapids is called the Furniture City because of the amount of furniture they built. They still make furniture in the area but less for homes and more for offices.

I think a lot of the nicknames have been popularized by truck drivers when the CB craze was at its peak. It wasn't cool to use the real name, but a nickname on the radio. The names were there, but then more people heard them and started using them. Now we shorten everything, why not city names. The funny thing is most people don't know where the nicknames originate.

The Windy City was earned by the politicians not the weather. We have seen good examples of that lately. Motown of course is short for Motor City and is well earned by the automobile industry. Saint Louie is actually a take off on the original pronunciation of the city's name of San Louie (French). I have heard a lot of older folks in and out of the state called Iowa Ioway, but not too many people outside of the state use it.

Many times the local pronunciation of a town has been lost because of the "flat midwest" accents the media uses. For instance Louieville instead of Lou-a-vull or Nashville instead of Nash-vull. You will hear locals complain about how others say Oregon, New Orleans and others.

One last one, my brother-in-law calls Las Vegas Lost Wages. It works and is often true.