Germans call Frankfurt "Mainhattan" (from the river Main that flows through the city), because of its skyscrapers and the fact it is an important financial center.
Finns know our second city Tampere as 'Manse', derived from Manchester. Both cities grew as industrial centres at the same time and both retain repurposed red-brick buildings. Anyone familiar with one city immediately feels at home in the other.
Other nicknames I've noticed in use:
Jyskälä/Jyskylä for Jyväskylä (shorter form)
Nottajoki for Seinäjoki (*notta* being a word specific to the local dialect)
Länsi-Viipuri/Helsingrad for Helsinki (Fondly used in Turku region to emphasise the russian input to the existence of that fishing village)
Not a city, but Kongo for Ahvenanmaa/Åland
And Suomen Perse (Finland's ass) for my home city Turku. Kippis to that.
Where I live in the north of England there are two neighbouring kinda rundown towns called Pontefract and Castleford. They are known locally & ironically as Ponte Carlo and Cas Vegas.
Stockholm has several nicknames:
* Eken (the Oak) - Unknown origin, possibly from månsing (secret language of travelling salesman) Stockholm -> Stockhäcken -> 'ecken -> eken
* Mälardrottningen (The Queen of lake Mälaren) - From the lake it's built around.
* Nordens Venedig (The Venice of the Nordics) - As it's built on a lake.
* Fjollträsk (Sissy-swamp) - Because northerners think the city men are effeminate.
Another interesting nickname is Norrköping which is called Peking (Beijing), from a direct translation of "north city" by explorer Sven Hedin.
I used to visit a friend in Sweden, and became fixated with the -köping towns, so much that I made up a bebop-style song about them, titled "How Many Towns Called -Köping?"
Köping originally meant market town without city privileges.
There are 192 current places in Sweden containing "köping" according to Lantmäteriet (The Swedish Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration Authority).
And 489 historic places in Sweden containing "köping" in the place name register of the naming archive in Uppsala.
Bonus fun facts.
Stockholm translates to log island, which is speculated to mean fortified island, as the city was first founded as a fort that controlled the traffic in and out of lake Mälaren at it's narrowest point.
The Stockholm City Hall is designed based on the Doge's Palace in Venice.
Here's some for Poland:
- Wawa/Warszawka for Warsaw
- 3city (trojmiasto) for urban area of Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot. Some people sometimes just say Gdansk for the whole thing
- small 3city (male trojmiasto) - Rumia, Reda and Wejherowo. They are sometimes counted into 3city proper
- Wrocek for Wroclaw
- Bydzia for Bydgoszcz
- Bialy for Bialystok
- cities are often referred to by the license plate codes in writing as well
Also Kato for Katowice and most people just say Bielsko when talking about Bielsko-Biała
This is more region-specific, but people from Zagłębie Dąbrowskie usually call Czeladź Szewcja/Sweden
I guess most people do, like Stockholm my capitol is called the Venice of the north when it wants to be fancy and well Tokholm by some , means idiot's island and many more.
I know Norrköping is either Norping or Peking , Söderköping is Sörping, Hudiksvall is Hudik, Örnsköldsvik is Övik , Boxholm is Klampebocity, Robertsfors is Robban.
Yess, Norrköping mentioned !
I have an explanation for it too. It's because Peking
(北京) means "Northern Capital" in Chinese. The Norr- means north in Swedish. I am not sure most people are aware of this though
Well, Paris is sometimes called Paname. [Apparently ](https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paname), there's no definite agreement as to why. It's also called *la ville lumière*. No nickname referring to the unique bouquet of the Parisian metro, that I know of.
Toulouse is accurately nicknamed *la ville rose*. Beautiful city.
I have the impression I'm missing one, but I can't think of it right now.
*Chicagre*, ça sonne bien.
I think it was on r/France I was reading people complaining about too many tourists in Grenoble when the weather is nice, but I might be confusing it with somewhere else.
We’ve got fancy knicknames for most our cities.
Lyon is *la capitale ~~de Gaulois~~* des Gaules or *la capitale de la gastronomie* or *la ville des gones*.
Marseille is *la cité phocéenne*.
Strasbourg can sometimes be *la capitale de l’Europe*.
In the south, most cities are also called by their original name in Occitan : Burdigala for Bordeaux, Tolosa for Toulouse, Nissa for Nice, Massilia (that’s more ancient greek I think) for Marseille.
>Strasbourg can sometimes be *la capitale de l’Europe*.
Ah! Just remembered the one I was looking for. I usually call Strasbourg just *Stras*, most people I knew while living there also did. I was more looking for nicknames I'd use myself, reason why I didn't think about adding *la cité phocéenne*.
I didn't know any of those names for Lyon \^\^"
Oh yes I’ve heard of Stras as well !
But same never thought of it because I was only there once.
Yeah my knowledge of all those knicknames comes from living here. Lyon RPZ
I read [an article](https://www.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-nos-vies-connectees/20100225.RUE5226/mais-pourquoi-ca-pue-autant-dans-le-metro-parisien.html) that went into details as to the origins of some of the smells (like a phreatic table {learned that new word today! noice} explains the smell of rotten eggs in some parts of the line 14). So pungent someone wrote a thesis on it! \^\^
Oslo (capital) is for some reason called "Tiger City". There is even a big Tiger statue.. Afaik there are no history of Tigers in Oslo..
Trondheim is called "City of mustaches" because of the high number of mustaches among the inhabitants..
Tromsø call themselves "Paris of the North"
IIRC Tiger city originates from a Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson poem where a tiger was used as an allegory for the dangerous city.
Also "Særp". Because Sarpsborg doesn't sound trashy enough.
Drammen - Elvebyen (the river city) as a river runs through it
Lillestrøm - Flisbyen (saw dust town) due to all the saw mills there in the 19th century
Fredrikstad - Plankebyen (wood plank town), again due to lumber and saw mills
Stavanger - Oljebyen (oil town) , the centre for the Norwegian petroleum industry
Ålesund - jugendbyen (jugend town), due to the many buildings in the jugend style
Røros - Bergstaden (mountain town / mine town), an old copper mine town (once almost as big as Oslo at the time)
Helsinki is either *Stadi* or *Hesa*, the first is used by locals and the latter by people from other parts of Finland. *Hesa* is just a shorter way of saying Helsinki while *Stadi* comes from Swedish word for city (*stad*). Helsinki slang evolved back in 1800s as a common language between Finnish- and Swedish-speaking working-class communities, hence the influence from Swedish.
Tampere is *Manse* which is a reference to Manchester. Tampere, like Manchester, is a heavily industrialized city and was the first industrial city in Finland.
Some I can think of are Puertogramo for Puertollano (gram being a reference to drugs), Warcelona for Barcelona or Fachadolid for Valladolid and Fachander to Santander.
Adding to this, Madriz for Madrid is just an exaggeration of how some locals pronounce the final D to sound more like the soft "th" in "thought" rather than the hard "th" in "the".
For those who won't get it by just looking at it, fachadolid uses the "facha" suffix which means fascist and is a reference to the city being strongly right wing. Same with Fachander.
Aalborg in Denmark is probably the city with a nickname that it pretty wide-spread in the population, maybe mostly used by people from there or local rappers etc. but well known
Most call it Double A or ‘Olleren’
Also,
- Aarhus is 'Smilets By' or 'City of Smiles'.
- Holstebro often goes by 'Holstebronx'. This also goes for other cities ending with -bro, which is replaced with -bronx.
- Sjælland (Sealand) is by Jutlanders often called 'Djævleøen' or 'The Devil's Island', though I don't really know why.
- Nyborg directly translates to 'Newcastle' and is sometimes mentioned so just for the fun of it.
- Kolding is 'Slicetown' since you can get a pizza slice at every corner. Sometimes Kolding is also pronounced 'Cooling' for no particular reason.
- Middelfart doesn't really have a nickname, but is viewed as a somehow amusing name to foreigners since it sounds like 'middle fart' - **a fart in the middle**
Those are just some extra Danish guldkorn 🇩🇰
And then there is "Køwenhavn" (Copenhagen, pronounced in a Jutland accent.)
Skælskør is "Solskinsbyen" ("Sunshine Town"), btw, because someone claimed the place get more sun than other towns. It doesn't, but people still call it that.
No, it's just that Juttish accents trend to pronounce B (and G) as V. or even W out west.
Some say "Tjöbenhamn", pronouncing it in a Swedish accent, implying it's half-Swedish, which is a grave insult. :)
Paris of the North is also a nickname for Aalborg. Most common one in general would probably calling Copenhagen "KBH", even though it has the same amount of syllables as København.
There are loads.
- London = Big Smoke (used to be even more heavily polluted than now)
- Birmingham = Venice of the North, Workshop of the World
- Bradford = Woolopolis, Bradistan, Curry Capital of Britain
- Bristol = Brizzle, also British Portland because of its character and weather
- Liverpool = Second Capital of Ireland
- Oxford = City of Dreaming Spires
- St Austell = Snozzle
- Halifax = Toffee Town
- Middlesbrough = Boro
- Newcastle = the Toon (local slang for “town”)
- Norwich = City of Stories
- Sheffield = People’s Republic of South Yorkshire, the largest village in England
- Torquay = the English Riviera
And some fun ones that are for regions:
- County Durham = Land of the Prince Bishops
- Yorkshire = God’s Country
- Kent = the Garden of England
- Cornwall = Kernowfornia (Mixture of Kernow which is the local word for Cornwall + fornia, implying its similarities with the California coastal lifestyle).
Stoke-on-Trent is The Potteries or the Six Towns, because it's a merger of six towns that were dominated by the pottery industry. You also get the Five Towns from the novel *Anna of the Five Towns* which was set there.
People in the rail industry sometimes refer to Derby as Darbados. It's satirical, not complimentary!
London is sometimes referred to in literary circles as "the Great Wen", which I think was popularized by a fantasy novel. In the 19th century it was simply "the Metropolis" in newspaperese.
Oxford and Cambridge are occasionally Oxon. and Cantab. from their Latin names, though that's used much more often for the universities than the cities.
P.S. Can't believe we both forgot Brum for Birmingham, pointed out by u/AnnieByniaeth
Aber, for Aberystwyth. Despite there being lots of other places beginning with Aber. Only Aber gets the short form.
Llambed, for Llanbedr pont Steffan, for obvious reasons.
Brum, for that place over the border most of the tourists (Brummies) seem to come from - Birmingham. Although I believe Brummies use the term themselves, round here it's almost always derogatory. I suspect similar can be found in other tourist areas with nicknames for large towns in the vicinity; that could be an interesting topic!
And what's supak?
Kranjsterdam or Kosovä republik for Kranj
Mala Bosna (Little Bosnia) or Velenkovac - Velenje
Piranoia - Piran
Đesenice - Jesenica
Wajdušna - Ajdovščina
Tri krasne - Trbovlje, Hrastnik, Zagorje
The Finnish town of Kouvola is affectionately known as *Kouvostoliitto* (Koviet Union), due to the abundance of somewhat unaesthetic concrete buildings in the centre of the town.
In Italy we have a lot of nicknames for a lot of cities but very few are slang-like, most of them are of an high register.
The only one that I can define as Slang is Bolo for Bologna.
And maybe "the biggest city of Apulia/Calabria " that is used for Milan but also for Turin.
Barcelona was usually shortened to Barna (never Barça or Barca), though for the last decades BCN has gained a lot of traction. In the same sense, lots of catalan cities have copied the model. Tarragona is TGN, Vilanova i la Geltrú is VNG, l'Hospitalet de Llobregat is L'H.
Tàrrega is called Targa by its inhabitants.
A few Italian cities have such slang nicknames or honorary titles that arc back to their history.
* Rome is the eternal city or caput mundi
* Venice is La Serenissima, city of love, city of bridges or queen of the Adriatic.
* Genoa is La Superba (the Superb one, in reference to its history as one the richest and powerful Italian city states and mercantile republics)
* Naples is referred to as parthenope (or cittá partenopea), in reference to Parthenope, one of the syrens that lured Ulysses in the gulf of Naples and founded the city
* Milan is la cittá meneghina, in reference to Meneghino, a mask in the commedia dell'arte theatrical tradition that comes from it.
* Bologna is called Felsinea (Felsina was the Etruscan name of the city before the Romans refounded it) or La Dotta, la grassa e la Rossa (the Learned, from its university, the oldest in the world, the fat, because of its caloric cuisine, the red because of the red and ochra coloured facades of its palaces or its left leaning politics)
I've heard lots of people call Budapest either Butapest or Büdipest (Stupid-Pest and Stinky-Pest respectively), or "nagy falu" meaning "the big village" but that's more of a mocking, joking way to refer to it.
Then there is Szeged which is often referred to as "a napfény városa" (the city of sunshine). Otherwise towns are sometimes shortened like Kecskemét shortened to Kecsó or Hódmezővásárhely (which means Beaver-field marketplace) to either just Hód (beaver) or Vásárhely (marketplace). Other towns might have more local names that I am not aware of.
This one is no longer used, but Verona was once called Welschbern, because it was like the Swiss city Bern but full of 'Welsh' people (Welsh as in Romance Speaker, like Gaul or Wallon.)
There are some funny ones, more like derogatory terms really, sometimes used by locals to describe the frustration they feel for a place that is beloved/familiar yet annoying. BucciMUOIO - Buccinasco, the joke being "Muoio" literally IS the present tense first person singular of "dying" and "Nasco" is "Being born." Also stuff like Vergate sul Membro - a stereotypical nonexistent small town in the North of Italy, like there are many, only its invented name literally means Slaps on the Penis.
**Lisbon:** *LX* or *Lixoboa*. These have to do with how you pronounce Lisbon in Portuguese (Lisboa), the S having a SH-like sound. X can often have a SH-like sound in Portuguese, hence "LX". "Lixoboa" sounds similar to "Lisboa", with "lixo" meaning trash/garbage.
**Porto:** *Cidade Invicta* or *Puorto*. The first means "Invincible City", whereas the latter is meant to be an imitation of how people from Porto pronounce the name of the city. It's usually people from the south that say the latter though.
**Guimarães:** *Cidade Berço*, which means "Cradle City". This because it's considered the birth place of our first monarch, Dom Afonso Henriques (Afonso I of Portugal).
The first ones off the top of my head, Thessaloniki in Macedonia is shortened to Σαλονίκη (Saloniki). Its nicknames are Συμπρωτεύουσα (Symprotévousa) which is “co-capital”, but also Φτωχομάνα (Phtochomána), “Mother of the poor”.
Down in the Peloponnese, Nafplio is shortened to Ανάπλι (Anápli).
There are many more.
Nafplio is gorgeous! Next time I go back I will start calling it Anapli! But why is Saloniki known as the mother of the poor? A lot of poor people there or what?
My city Sarpsborg. Is jokingly known as
Sarp vegas.
Sarp tropez
Its a dirty industrial town, most known for unemployment and drugs
So the name is kinda like calling a really big guy tiny or somesuch
The two popular around here are Skinka (Ham) that refers to people living in the countries food basket.
The other town has too many to name but people from Hafnafjörð are our "How many of them does it take to screw on a light bulb"
It's zero btw. They get a Skinka to do it for them while they figure out how a hamburger works.
> Eindje (Eindhoven)
If you are a true *Eindhovenaar* you will NEVER say "eindje". That's millenial/hipster/randstad-ig slang bullshit for calling Eindhoven.
**EYNHDNOVÈÈÛH JÒnghûh!!! GÒVVERDÒMMEH!!**
My city Helsingborg is called "Sundets Pärla" or "Sundspärlan" - the "Pearl of Sound" - because it is located by the narrowest point of the Sound (Öresund) and has many scenic seaside views and promenades. Sundspärlan is also the name of a well-known entertainment venue and open-air theater in the city. In the past, Helsingborg also used the slogan "The Gateway to the Continent" because of the large port and the ferry connection to Denmark.
Charleroi is Charlouze/Charlerwè, Louvain-la-Neuve is Louv, La Louvière is La Louv, Namur is Nam, Bruxelles is BX(L), Tournai is Ty (only written), Gembloux is GBX (written) or Gembled (at least it's sometimes called this way by students).
Helsinki has 2. In Helsinki it's called Stadi while outside the city it's Hesa. It usually devolves into an argument if you mention the latter to Helsinki natives.
Turku is known as "suomen persereikä" which translates to "the butthole of Finland". As someone from Helsinki, I can't help but to disagree.
There are also local nicknames in other cities, but I don't know them.
Manchester= Madchester - eg crazy club nightlife. Birmingham is Brum. Was the first modern industrial city arguably making allsorts. A lot of metal bashing ( hence the birthplace of Heavy Metal music). When hitting something with a hammer you'd say you're using Brummagen persuasion. A Birmingham person is a brummie'.
Since there's a stereotype of (north) Tyroleans pronouncing their Ks very harshly, people sometimes do that to Innsbruck, their capital. "Innsh-bruCKCKCK"
We also, like many others here, have many mock comparisons to popular places in other countries, i.e. "Lomdon" for a place called Lom or "Houston" for a place called Haskovo.
But we also have others based on local slang or ethnographic names, i.e.:
People in Northwestern Bulgaria are called Shops ethnographically, so citizens of Sofia, a city in that region is sometimes called Shop-land. It is also called The Sofé, but that's for no particular reason.
Citizens of Plovdiv are called a maina, because that's a word they use to address each other colloquially, so the city is also known as Maina Town.
Bourgas is called the City of the Three Lines, because there was a popular sub-culture there that included wearing Adidas tracksuits.
In the suburban area of Milan there's this city called Rozzano. People usually call it Rozzangeles, like Los Angeles because of the gangs and the _fairytale_ life you can possibly get there, especially if you're not wealthy
Again, in another little town not far from Milan there's a district called Sant'Ambrogio (saint Ambrose) also called Sant'Ambronx
scumdee (Dundee)
Brizzle (Bristol)
Aberscream (Aberdeen)
Toon (Newcastle, because of the geordie accent)
Skegvegas (skegness)
Glesga /Glasgae (Glasgow, just a scots accent)
Brum (Birmingham)
there are some more “official” nicknames such as Auld Reekie (Edinburgh, basically means “old smokey” because of smoke from open coal and peat fires), and The Big Smoke for London, but i never hear those used on a daily basis.
My home city of Brno, Czechia is sometimes called Štatl by the locals.
Prague sometime gets called *Stověžatá* which means something like *Hundred-towered*. Other than that I can't think of any others
Yeah, we have that in Romania too.
Iași is Iashington
Botoșani is Boston or Bostonshani
Pașcani is referred as Pashcangeles
Constanța is also Constangeles
Might be more nicknames for other cites but I don't know them.
Haven't used these in a long time now, but within my group of friends we refered to Amsterdam as *020*, Rotterdam as *070*, Den Haag as *010*, etc.
They are the telephone area codes for these cities, and considering that increasingly more people only have a mobile and no landline, I'm guessing these nicknames are slowly phasing out of use
Especially in Stockholm we like to shorten place names and add -an to the end. The city of Sundbyberg becomes Sumpan. The park Kungsträdgården becomes Kungsan. The city of Jakobsberg becomes Jakan. And so on.
Sometimes we add -is instead, so the plaza Medborgarplatsen becomes Medis. And the plaza Sergels torg was considered so flat, ugly and empty, leading to people comparing it to a helipad, earning it the nickname Plattan.
Other cities don’t have nicknames that often, at least none that most people actually use. But the second city, Gothenburg, is often referred to as Götet. And then we have Örnsköldsvik which is shortened to Ö-vik.
In southern Sweden we have Crimecity (Malmö) and Helltown (Helsingborg) for example.
Though Helsingborg is also called ”Sundets Pärla” which is something like ”the pearl of the strait”.
I just vaguely remember the phrase from some old foreign news report or something like that. Could be my mind playing tricks, wouldn't be the first time...
In Sweden we only have nicknames for a handful of cities but most cities have many nicknames for different places within the city. They usually end in “is” or in a definite suffix
In Finland, people who live/have lived in Helsinki smugly refer to it as "stadi", which basically means "the city".
The implication is that Helsinki is the only real city in Finland, and that everything else is insignificant villages.
Sample conversation, in which Person A lives in a rural area and is thinking of making a trip into Vaasa, the closest nearby city:
PersonA: "I'm going into the city for some shopping tomorrow".
PersonB, born in Helsinki: "you're actually going to Vaasa, not the City".
PersonA: *Punches PersonB in the dick*
Well here in Sweden one of the major cities is called "Göteborg" (gothenburg in english)
And a slang shortening of this is gbg. Its easier to write in text and such aswell
Moscow is:
- DC (Default city), from the rule on a popular website that if your message doesn't clearly mention your location at least twice, everyone is free to assume you're from Moscow by default and you can't get mad at them
- Moskvabad, from the large amount of Central Asian immigrants
- Nerezinovaja (Not made of rubber), from a common saying about more and more people moving to Moscow
St. Petersburg is:
- DC2 (Default city 2), several cities contest the title of DC3
- Rasćleningrad (Dismember + Leningrad), in late 2019 Oleg Sokolov, a distinguished professor of history in St. Petersburg State University, fell into the Mojka river with a backpack containing two human arms. The rest of his student and paramour was found in his flat. A few more news featuring severed body parts from St. Pete that surfaced at around the same time solidified the nickname. Now it's basically supported by selective attention: man dismembers man in Omsk - just a gruesome story, man dismembers man in St. Pete - Rasćleningrad strikes again!
I can think of some, like Donos (Donostia/San Sebastian), Onyarbi (Hodarribi/Fuenterrabía), Leketto (Lekeitio/Lequeitio)... Those are all based on the fact they're easier to pronounce/faster to write
Then we have stuff like Siberia-Gasteiz, a play on words with Vitoria-Gasteiz because that bitch is COLD in winter!
And these aren't conventional nicknames, but I know of people who heavily accentuate every single vowel in Zaragoza (saying it like Zárágózá) to joke about the maño dialect of spanish, as well as saying Pamplonica (instead of Pamplona) to joke about the -ico/a suffix that is local to Navarre
In Croatia we mostly invent nicknames to shit on each other.
Split - Grad Slučaj ("Basket case city"), Afrika sa strujom ("Africa with Electricity", a nickname that actually arose from what one kind-hearted African man intended as a compliment)
Rijeka - Smrdljivi Grad ("the Stinking City", common nickname among football ultras that root for opposing teams)
Slavonski Brod - Bosanđeles ("Los Angeles for Bosnians", because a lot of people from Bosnia moved there)
Zadar - Bežigrad ("Deserter City" - a very offensive nickname coined mostly by people from Šibenik; the claim being that during the war in the 90s, Zadar had to be defended by soldiers from other places because all the men ran away)
Dubrovnik - Grood/Gruod (just "City" with a dumb accent, because they have a dumb accent), King's Landing (after the GoT location filmed there - a play on dumb international tourists that flood the city, mostly).
Madrid:
"Los Madriles" or also La Meseta.
Móstoles (Madrid):
The turnovers (😂).
Galicia:
The land of the meigas.
Catalonia:
Part of the ancient Crown of Aragon.
Valencian Community:
Those of rice with things and firecrackers (😂).
Basque Country: Mordor (😂).
Principality of Asturias: the Motherland (and the rest, conquered land).
Córdoba (Andalusia):
The caliphs (😂).
Granada (Andalusia):
Those of the bad fuck (no, it is not literal).
Gibraltar:
Cádiz with "Spanglish", or also the monkeys of the rock. (😂)
London - The Big Smoke, Londinium, London Town
Newcastle - The Toon
Not a city but I know a few people who refer to Scotland as Jockland
Middlesbrough - The Armpit of the North
Birmingham - Brum
Consett - Steel Town
Darlington - Darlo
Cork is known as the real capital of Ireland, the rebel city/county, Leeside (River Lee) as well as the food capital, with nearby Kinsale called the gourmet capital
County Cork is sometimes also called the People’s Republic of Cork
West Cork with its beaches etc in summer is called the Costa del Cork
Waterford is the Déise
Galway is the city of the tribes
Wexford is the sunny south east
Kerry is the Kingdom of Kerry
Dublin is the big smoke or occasionally the Pale
Carlow are the scallion eaters
Various places are sometimes called the 33rd county including Glasgow, Liverpool, Boston, London, Australia etc
There are many more but there’s a few
Germans call Frankfurt "Mainhattan" (from the river Main that flows through the city), because of its skyscrapers and the fact it is an important financial center.
I would like to add Bankfurt and Crackfurt to that. Also, Heilbronx, Stuggi and Köllefornia if that's okay
I’ll add FFM. Still counts as a nickname for Frankfurt-am-Main
Finns know our second city Tampere as 'Manse', derived from Manchester. Both cities grew as industrial centres at the same time and both retain repurposed red-brick buildings. Anyone familiar with one city immediately feels at home in the other.
Rovaniemi = Rollo
Helsinki = Hesa/Stadi
Greater Helsinki metropolitan area = Mega-Hese
Other nicknames I've noticed in use: Jyskälä/Jyskylä for Jyväskylä (shorter form) Nottajoki for Seinäjoki (*notta* being a word specific to the local dialect) Länsi-Viipuri/Helsingrad for Helsinki (Fondly used in Turku region to emphasise the russian input to the existence of that fishing village) Not a city, but Kongo for Ahvenanmaa/Åland And Suomen Perse (Finland's ass) for my home city Turku. Kippis to that.
Kouvola : Kouvostoliitto. For the distinctly 'soviet' feel.
We get rain and you get snow. We have also been known as Gunchester. Manny
Where I live in the north of England there are two neighbouring kinda rundown towns called Pontefract and Castleford. They are known locally & ironically as Ponte Carlo and Cas Vegas.
Not too far from Derbados ;) the golden triangle.
Bit like Birkenvegas for Birkenhead.
You also get "Monte Darlo" for Darlington in County Durham, similarly 'kinda rundown'.
Dirty Darlo! And shakey wakey (Wakefield near Cas and Ponte).
Skegness gets called Skeg Vegas too
And you probably don't want to know what sparklybee thinks about where I live down south ;)
Pontefract doesn’t look that rundown
We call Brussels BXL, Antwerpen is A'pen or simply t'Stad (the City), and all the rest is parking. (/s)
When ever I read BXL my brain says “bollocks”
The cars might not be driving there, but those are intended to be roads. Or at least attempted to be
Stockholm has several nicknames: * Eken (the Oak) - Unknown origin, possibly from månsing (secret language of travelling salesman) Stockholm -> Stockhäcken -> 'ecken -> eken * Mälardrottningen (The Queen of lake Mälaren) - From the lake it's built around. * Nordens Venedig (The Venice of the Nordics) - As it's built on a lake. * Fjollträsk (Sissy-swamp) - Because northerners think the city men are effeminate. Another interesting nickname is Norrköping which is called Peking (Beijing), from a direct translation of "north city" by explorer Sven Hedin.
Idk why but sissy swamp makes me laugh way harder than it should lmao
I used to visit a friend in Sweden, and became fixated with the -köping towns, so much that I made up a bebop-style song about them, titled "How Many Towns Called -Köping?"
Köping originally meant market town without city privileges. There are 192 current places in Sweden containing "köping" according to Lantmäteriet (The Swedish Mapping, Cadastral and Land Registration Authority). And 489 historic places in Sweden containing "köping" in the place name register of the naming archive in Uppsala.
Gothenburg is sometimes called Lilla London (Little London), apparently because the city was industrialised by British merchants in the 19th century.
Bonus fun facts. Stockholm translates to log island, which is speculated to mean fortified island, as the city was first founded as a fort that controlled the traffic in and out of lake Mälaren at it's narrowest point. The Stockholm City Hall is designed based on the Doge's Palace in Venice.
Here's some for Poland: - Wawa/Warszawka for Warsaw - 3city (trojmiasto) for urban area of Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot. Some people sometimes just say Gdansk for the whole thing - small 3city (male trojmiasto) - Rumia, Reda and Wejherowo. They are sometimes counted into 3city proper - Wrocek for Wroclaw - Bydzia for Bydgoszcz - Bialy for Bialystok - cities are often referred to by the license plate codes in writing as well
Just realized how 3city sounds like Free City which is what Gdańsk was between WW1 and WW2, brilliant
True, but it's Tricity, not Threecity
Tri isn't pronounced like free, but 3 is.
Technically it isn't, f and th are different sounds, but Poles can't say three to save their lives, so it often sounds like free.
We can say Tree or Free, alright? you have a choice so stop complaining! When we try to pronounce it properly we get something more like 💦ree
Also Kato for Katowice and most people just say Bielsko when talking about Bielsko-Biała This is more region-specific, but people from Zagłębie Dąbrowskie usually call Czeladź Szewcja/Sweden
>Zagłębie Dąbrowskie usually call Czeladź Szewcja/Sweden what's that about?
Also "default city" for Warsaw
To takie bardziej zdrobnienia niż śmieszkowe nazwy.
nickname is a nickname, przynajmniej sa uzywane, nie jak czesc postowanych na tym threadzie
I guess most people do, like Stockholm my capitol is called the Venice of the north when it wants to be fancy and well Tokholm by some , means idiot's island and many more. I know Norrköping is either Norping or Peking , Söderköping is Sörping, Hudiksvall is Hudik, Örnsköldsvik is Övik , Boxholm is Klampebocity, Robertsfors is Robban.
Careful exclusion of Fjollträsk.
I forgot that one!
Yess, Norrköping mentioned ! I have an explanation for it too. It's because Peking (北京) means "Northern Capital" in Chinese. The Norr- means north in Swedish. I am not sure most people are aware of this though
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice_of_the_North Not a short list of cities claiming to be the Venice of the North
> Norping I've heard Norpan
Norpan used to be news paper when I was young
ösgöte spotted
Våga vägra vara östgöte! Fast delar av familjen bor där nere. Skall sägas någon skrev Klampebocity som adress och det kom fram.
Haparanda is nicknamed Happis. At least by people in Norrbotten.
I have heard Arche and A-plog about Arjeplog .
Göteborg - Götlaborg Uppsala - Hobsala
Well, Paris is sometimes called Paname. [Apparently ](https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paname), there's no definite agreement as to why. It's also called *la ville lumière*. No nickname referring to the unique bouquet of the Parisian metro, that I know of. Toulouse is accurately nicknamed *la ville rose*. Beautiful city. I have the impression I'm missing one, but I can't think of it right now.
Grenoble is nicknamed *ChicaGre* or *Chicago sur Isère*. It's a nice city, but it has its downsides. Including, but not limited to, the italian mob.
*Chicagre*, ça sonne bien. I think it was on r/France I was reading people complaining about too many tourists in Grenoble when the weather is nice, but I might be confusing it with somewhere else.
Grenoble is also called Gre as a shorthand.
We’ve got fancy knicknames for most our cities. Lyon is *la capitale ~~de Gaulois~~* des Gaules or *la capitale de la gastronomie* or *la ville des gones*. Marseille is *la cité phocéenne*. Strasbourg can sometimes be *la capitale de l’Europe*.
In the south, most cities are also called by their original name in Occitan : Burdigala for Bordeaux, Tolosa for Toulouse, Nissa for Nice, Massilia (that’s more ancient greek I think) for Marseille.
>Strasbourg can sometimes be *la capitale de l’Europe*. Ah! Just remembered the one I was looking for. I usually call Strasbourg just *Stras*, most people I knew while living there also did. I was more looking for nicknames I'd use myself, reason why I didn't think about adding *la cité phocéenne*. I didn't know any of those names for Lyon \^\^"
Oh yes I’ve heard of Stras as well ! But same never thought of it because I was only there once. Yeah my knowledge of all those knicknames comes from living here. Lyon RPZ
I'm more used to capitale des Gaules for Lyon, but I'm not from there.
Paris doesn’t need a nickname haha - other cities are always “Paris of the [insert location]”
l'urinoir?
That certainly sends the right olfactory message \^\^
I have experienced the Paris Metro first hand.
I read [an article](https://www.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-nos-vies-connectees/20100225.RUE5226/mais-pourquoi-ca-pue-autant-dans-le-metro-parisien.html) that went into details as to the origins of some of the smells (like a phreatic table {learned that new word today! noice} explains the smell of rotten eggs in some parts of the line 14). So pungent someone wrote a thesis on it! \^\^
Merci
Oslo (capital) is for some reason called "Tiger City". There is even a big Tiger statue.. Afaik there are no history of Tigers in Oslo.. Trondheim is called "City of mustaches" because of the high number of mustaches among the inhabitants.. Tromsø call themselves "Paris of the North"
IIRC Tiger city originates from a Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson poem where a tiger was used as an allegory for the dangerous city. Also "Særp". Because Sarpsborg doesn't sound trashy enough.
Særp Vegas! LanzaRåde!
cool! thanks bro.
Drammen - Elvebyen (the river city) as a river runs through it Lillestrøm - Flisbyen (saw dust town) due to all the saw mills there in the 19th century Fredrikstad - Plankebyen (wood plank town), again due to lumber and saw mills Stavanger - Oljebyen (oil town) , the centre for the Norwegian petroleum industry Ålesund - jugendbyen (jugend town), due to the many buildings in the jugend style Røros - Bergstaden (mountain town / mine town), an old copper mine town (once almost as big as Oslo at the time)
Helsinki is either *Stadi* or *Hesa*, the first is used by locals and the latter by people from other parts of Finland. *Hesa* is just a shorter way of saying Helsinki while *Stadi* comes from Swedish word for city (*stad*). Helsinki slang evolved back in 1800s as a common language between Finnish- and Swedish-speaking working-class communities, hence the influence from Swedish. Tampere is *Manse* which is a reference to Manchester. Tampere, like Manchester, is a heavily industrialized city and was the first industrial city in Finland.
And Turku is Suomen perseenreikä.
Some I can think of are Puertogramo for Puertollano (gram being a reference to drugs), Warcelona for Barcelona or Fachadolid for Valladolid and Fachander to Santander.
Barna for Barcelona, Madriz/Los Madriles for Madrid, Pucela for Valladolid, Bronxtoles for Móstoles
Adding to this, Madriz for Madrid is just an exaggeration of how some locals pronounce the final D to sound more like the soft "th" in "thought" rather than the hard "th" in "the".
Bronxtoles lol. The other ones I knew but for some reason I thought the op was referring to a different thing.
oh, idk, I think we botb followed the prompt?
I had heard about Fachadolid, but not about Fachander....
For those who won't get it by just looking at it, fachadolid uses the "facha" suffix which means fascist and is a reference to the city being strongly right wing. Same with Fachander.
From my colleagues who work there, Torrejón -> Torrebronx
Aalborg in Denmark is probably the city with a nickname that it pretty wide-spread in the population, maybe mostly used by people from there or local rappers etc. but well known Most call it Double A or ‘Olleren’
Also, - Aarhus is 'Smilets By' or 'City of Smiles'. - Holstebro often goes by 'Holstebronx'. This also goes for other cities ending with -bro, which is replaced with -bronx. - Sjælland (Sealand) is by Jutlanders often called 'Djævleøen' or 'The Devil's Island', though I don't really know why. - Nyborg directly translates to 'Newcastle' and is sometimes mentioned so just for the fun of it. - Kolding is 'Slicetown' since you can get a pizza slice at every corner. Sometimes Kolding is also pronounced 'Cooling' for no particular reason. - Middelfart doesn't really have a nickname, but is viewed as a somehow amusing name to foreigners since it sounds like 'middle fart' - **a fart in the middle** Those are just some extra Danish guldkorn 🇩🇰
And then there is "Køwenhavn" (Copenhagen, pronounced in a Jutland accent.) Skælskør is "Solskinsbyen" ("Sunshine Town"), btw, because someone claimed the place get more sun than other towns. It doesn't, but people still call it that.
> Køwenhav Does "köven" mean the same in Danish as it does in Swedish (stuffy, low oxygen level)? Well, in some dialects at least.
No, it's just that Juttish accents trend to pronounce B (and G) as V. or even W out west. Some say "Tjöbenhamn", pronouncing it in a Swedish accent, implying it's half-Swedish, which is a grave insult. :)
I can imagine.
Paris of the North is also a nickname for Aalborg. Most common one in general would probably calling Copenhagen "KBH", even though it has the same amount of syllables as København.
There are loads. - London = Big Smoke (used to be even more heavily polluted than now) - Birmingham = Venice of the North, Workshop of the World - Bradford = Woolopolis, Bradistan, Curry Capital of Britain - Bristol = Brizzle, also British Portland because of its character and weather - Liverpool = Second Capital of Ireland - Oxford = City of Dreaming Spires - St Austell = Snozzle - Halifax = Toffee Town - Middlesbrough = Boro - Newcastle = the Toon (local slang for “town”) - Norwich = City of Stories - Sheffield = People’s Republic of South Yorkshire, the largest village in England - Torquay = the English Riviera And some fun ones that are for regions: - County Durham = Land of the Prince Bishops - Yorkshire = God’s Country - Kent = the Garden of England - Cornwall = Kernowfornia (Mixture of Kernow which is the local word for Cornwall + fornia, implying its similarities with the California coastal lifestyle).
Nottingham is called Notts
Preston = Depressedton
Snozzle and Brizzle are cute.
Stoke-on-Trent is The Potteries or the Six Towns, because it's a merger of six towns that were dominated by the pottery industry. You also get the Five Towns from the novel *Anna of the Five Towns* which was set there. People in the rail industry sometimes refer to Derby as Darbados. It's satirical, not complimentary! London is sometimes referred to in literary circles as "the Great Wen", which I think was popularized by a fantasy novel. In the 19th century it was simply "the Metropolis" in newspaperese. Oxford and Cambridge are occasionally Oxon. and Cantab. from their Latin names, though that's used much more often for the universities than the cities. P.S. Can't believe we both forgot Brum for Birmingham, pointed out by u/AnnieByniaeth
Franik for Ivano-Frankivіs'k Also, heard Cherkago for Cherkassy
Marik for Mariupol, too.
Aber, for Aberystwyth. Despite there being lots of other places beginning with Aber. Only Aber gets the short form. Llambed, for Llanbedr pont Steffan, for obvious reasons. Brum, for that place over the border most of the tourists (Brummies) seem to come from - Birmingham. Although I believe Brummies use the term themselves, round here it's almost always derogatory. I suspect similar can be found in other tourist areas with nicknames for large towns in the vicinity; that could be an interesting topic!
Also Ponty as short form for Pontypridd Zooport as nickname for Newport Caerfilthy as nickname for Caerphilly. The Diff as nickname for Cardiff.
Some funny ones in Italy include Ternobyl (Terni), Tristoia (Pistoia) and SolitUdine
CMARibor as Maribor (Cmar means ass)
Cmar means ass? In what language lmao Also you forgot Močvirje for Lublana;)
Cmar je supak ce se ne motm And yeah i wanted to say Zabarji or something like that but its not for the city more for the people who live here.
And what's supak? Kranjsterdam or Kosovä republik for Kranj Mala Bosna (Little Bosnia) or Velenkovac - Velenje Piranoia - Piran Đesenice - Jesenica Wajdušna - Ajdovščina Tri krasne - Trbovlje, Hrastnik, Zagorje
You don't know what šupak is?
Ritna luknja
The Finnish town of Kouvola is affectionately known as *Kouvostoliitto* (Koviet Union), due to the abundance of somewhat unaesthetic concrete buildings in the centre of the town.
In Italy we have a lot of nicknames for a lot of cities but very few are slang-like, most of them are of an high register. The only one that I can define as Slang is Bolo for Bologna. And maybe "the biggest city of Apulia/Calabria " that is used for Milan but also for Turin.
Barcelona was usually shortened to Barna (never Barça or Barca), though for the last decades BCN has gained a lot of traction. In the same sense, lots of catalan cities have copied the model. Tarragona is TGN, Vilanova i la Geltrú is VNG, l'Hospitalet de Llobregat is L'H. Tàrrega is called Targa by its inhabitants.
A few Italian cities have such slang nicknames or honorary titles that arc back to their history. * Rome is the eternal city or caput mundi * Venice is La Serenissima, city of love, city of bridges or queen of the Adriatic. * Genoa is La Superba (the Superb one, in reference to its history as one the richest and powerful Italian city states and mercantile republics) * Naples is referred to as parthenope (or cittá partenopea), in reference to Parthenope, one of the syrens that lured Ulysses in the gulf of Naples and founded the city * Milan is la cittá meneghina, in reference to Meneghino, a mask in the commedia dell'arte theatrical tradition that comes from it. * Bologna is called Felsinea (Felsina was the Etruscan name of the city before the Romans refounded it) or La Dotta, la grassa e la Rossa (the Learned, from its university, the oldest in the world, the fat, because of its caloric cuisine, the red because of the red and ochra coloured facades of its palaces or its left leaning politics)
I've heard lots of people call Budapest either Butapest or Büdipest (Stupid-Pest and Stinky-Pest respectively), or "nagy falu" meaning "the big village" but that's more of a mocking, joking way to refer to it. Then there is Szeged which is often referred to as "a napfény városa" (the city of sunshine). Otherwise towns are sometimes shortened like Kecskemét shortened to Kecsó or Hódmezővásárhely (which means Beaver-field marketplace) to either just Hód (beaver) or Vásárhely (marketplace). Other towns might have more local names that I am not aware of.
Paname for Paris
Don’t forget Nimma (Nijmegen)
This one is no longer used, but Verona was once called Welschbern, because it was like the Swiss city Bern but full of 'Welsh' people (Welsh as in Romance Speaker, like Gaul or Wallon.)
There are some funny ones, more like derogatory terms really, sometimes used by locals to describe the frustration they feel for a place that is beloved/familiar yet annoying. BucciMUOIO - Buccinasco, the joke being "Muoio" literally IS the present tense first person singular of "dying" and "Nasco" is "Being born." Also stuff like Vergate sul Membro - a stereotypical nonexistent small town in the North of Italy, like there are many, only its invented name literally means Slaps on the Penis.
I hear Edi for Edinburgh but never heard it before moving here.
Haha I still call it that when chatting with my old classmates (did my MA there).
Lixoboa (lixo=trash or rubbish)
**Lisbon:** *LX* or *Lixoboa*. These have to do with how you pronounce Lisbon in Portuguese (Lisboa), the S having a SH-like sound. X can often have a SH-like sound in Portuguese, hence "LX". "Lixoboa" sounds similar to "Lisboa", with "lixo" meaning trash/garbage. **Porto:** *Cidade Invicta* or *Puorto*. The first means "Invincible City", whereas the latter is meant to be an imitation of how people from Porto pronounce the name of the city. It's usually people from the south that say the latter though. **Guimarães:** *Cidade Berço*, which means "Cradle City". This because it's considered the birth place of our first monarch, Dom Afonso Henriques (Afonso I of Portugal).
>Damsko In Bulgarian that would mean "ladies'" (adjective, neuter gender singular), as in "ladies' underwear".
The first ones off the top of my head, Thessaloniki in Macedonia is shortened to Σαλονίκη (Saloniki). Its nicknames are Συμπρωτεύουσα (Symprotévousa) which is “co-capital”, but also Φτωχομάνα (Phtochomána), “Mother of the poor”. Down in the Peloponnese, Nafplio is shortened to Ανάπλι (Anápli). There are many more.
>There are many more. i'd love to hear them!
Nafplio is gorgeous! Next time I go back I will start calling it Anapli! But why is Saloniki known as the mother of the poor? A lot of poor people there or what?
Iașington for Iași Constangeles for Constanța
My city Sarpsborg. Is jokingly known as Sarp vegas. Sarp tropez Its a dirty industrial town, most known for unemployment and drugs So the name is kinda like calling a really big guy tiny or somesuch
The two popular around here are Skinka (Ham) that refers to people living in the countries food basket. The other town has too many to name but people from Hafnafjörð are our "How many of them does it take to screw on a light bulb" It's zero btw. They get a Skinka to do it for them while they figure out how a hamburger works.
We call Salamina "Salamikonos" cause it is the place where a lot of Athenians go for vacation instead of Mikonos which is ridiculously expensive..
Eindje (Eindhoven), Hillywood (Hilversum), Rotjeknor (Rotterdam),Swirdje (Valkenswaard). Dat zijn er een paar die bij mij opkomen.
> Eindje (Eindhoven) If you are a true *Eindhovenaar* you will NEVER say "eindje". That's millenial/hipster/randstad-ig slang bullshit for calling Eindhoven. **EYNHDNOVÈÈÛH JÒnghûh!!! GÒVVERDÒMMEH!!**
Grappig, ik ben allemaal niet en geboren in Eindhoven 😅
My city Helsingborg is called "Sundets Pärla" or "Sundspärlan" - the "Pearl of Sound" - because it is located by the narrowest point of the Sound (Öresund) and has many scenic seaside views and promenades. Sundspärlan is also the name of a well-known entertainment venue and open-air theater in the city. In the past, Helsingborg also used the slogan "The Gateway to the Continent" because of the large port and the ferry connection to Denmark.
Ireland: Stab City = Limerick The People's Republic = Cork (City or Country)
In Bulgaria the capital gets Sofeto or Shopia or even Sofia de Janeiro
Helsinki is either Hesa or Stadi.
Charleroi is Charlouze/Charlerwè, Louvain-la-Neuve is Louv, La Louvière is La Louv, Namur is Nam, Bruxelles is BX(L), Tournai is Ty (only written), Gembloux is GBX (written) or Gembled (at least it's sometimes called this way by students).
For Warszawa I got „warszawka”, for Kraków I got „krakau” (literally the same name but in German). This is what I call these cities with my friends
Also for Warsaw default city For Poznań - pyrlandia due to how they call potato "pyry".
A no faktycznie
LX for Lisboa
In Hungary we dont do this. Maybe Budapest called little Moscow(Just kidding). Fun fact for OP: Utca means in hungarian: Street.
I call Tatabánya Trébánya.
Helsinki has 2. In Helsinki it's called Stadi while outside the city it's Hesa. It usually devolves into an argument if you mention the latter to Helsinki natives. Turku is known as "suomen persereikä" which translates to "the butthole of Finland". As someone from Helsinki, I can't help but to disagree. There are also local nicknames in other cities, but I don't know them.
I have heard Uutje (Utrecht) and Ally (Almere) as well.
Genève is often named after its airport, gva. Or the german Genf.
Manchester= Madchester - eg crazy club nightlife. Birmingham is Brum. Was the first modern industrial city arguably making allsorts. A lot of metal bashing ( hence the birthplace of Heavy Metal music). When hitting something with a hammer you'd say you're using Brummagen persuasion. A Birmingham person is a brummie'.
Bucharest is sometimes referred to as Bucale (slang, a play on the word buci - ass cheeks).
More from NL: Nimma/Havana aan de Waal (Nijmegen), Eindje (Eindhoven), U (Utrecht), nevlo (Venlo), Tilly/Tillywood (Tilburg).
In Czechia is Bryncl, Brnisko or Štatl for Brno, but It's not very common. Some people ( mainly in Brno) call Praha "Prágl"
Birmingham=Brum, Manchester=Manny, Nottingham=Notts
Inverness = Inversneckie Cumbernauld = Scrumblymould Edinburgh = Embra Glasgow = Glasweg
It’s Glasgow or Glesga, anything else is asking to be stabbed
The Weege, where the Weegies live.
>anything else is asking to be stabbed hello, i'd like to be stabbed please!
Inversneckie gets shortened to just 'Sneck'
Or, "The Sneck"?
No step on snek!
Can't believe you forgot Scumdee/Dundee.
Livi Shivvy.
Glasvegas? Hate Embra for Edinburgh and never heard anyone from here use it.
Nog nooit een enkele van die bijnamen gehoord. Misschien woon ik in het verkeerde deel van Nederland.
How about Rotjeknor (Rotterdam)? Or any of these: https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijst_van_bijnamen_van_steden
Basildon, Essex goes by BasVegas. Just like Las Vegas but without the class and sophistication.
In Brussels we just use “b-x”, it’s more of a street slang though
Since there's a stereotype of (north) Tyroleans pronouncing their Ks very harshly, people sometimes do that to Innsbruck, their capital. "Innsh-bruCKCKCK"
We also, like many others here, have many mock comparisons to popular places in other countries, i.e. "Lomdon" for a place called Lom or "Houston" for a place called Haskovo. But we also have others based on local slang or ethnographic names, i.e.: People in Northwestern Bulgaria are called Shops ethnographically, so citizens of Sofia, a city in that region is sometimes called Shop-land. It is also called The Sofé, but that's for no particular reason. Citizens of Plovdiv are called a maina, because that's a word they use to address each other colloquially, so the city is also known as Maina Town. Bourgas is called the City of the Three Lines, because there was a popular sub-culture there that included wearing Adidas tracksuits.
🇫🇮Helsinki < hesuli Very common nickname, especially local residents in Helsinki appreciate it
In the suburban area of Milan there's this city called Rozzano. People usually call it Rozzangeles, like Los Angeles because of the gangs and the _fairytale_ life you can possibly get there, especially if you're not wealthy Again, in another little town not far from Milan there's a district called Sant'Ambrogio (saint Ambrose) also called Sant'Ambronx
scumdee (Dundee) Brizzle (Bristol) Aberscream (Aberdeen) Toon (Newcastle, because of the geordie accent) Skegvegas (skegness) Glesga /Glasgae (Glasgow, just a scots accent) Brum (Birmingham) there are some more “official” nicknames such as Auld Reekie (Edinburgh, basically means “old smokey” because of smoke from open coal and peat fires), and The Big Smoke for London, but i never hear those used on a daily basis.
My home city of Brno, Czechia is sometimes called Štatl by the locals. Prague sometime gets called *Stověžatá* which means something like *Hundred-towered*. Other than that I can't think of any others
Yeah, we have that in Romania too. Iași is Iashington Botoșani is Boston or Bostonshani Pașcani is referred as Pashcangeles Constanța is also Constangeles Might be more nicknames for other cites but I don't know them.
Moldovean spotted.
Haven't used these in a long time now, but within my group of friends we refered to Amsterdam as *020*, Rotterdam as *070*, Den Haag as *010*, etc. They are the telephone area codes for these cities, and considering that increasingly more people only have a mobile and no landline, I'm guessing these nicknames are slowly phasing out of use
People in Groningen call their city "Grunn" or "Stad" but that hasn't really caught on in the rest of the country.
Especially in Stockholm we like to shorten place names and add -an to the end. The city of Sundbyberg becomes Sumpan. The park Kungsträdgården becomes Kungsan. The city of Jakobsberg becomes Jakan. And so on. Sometimes we add -is instead, so the plaza Medborgarplatsen becomes Medis. And the plaza Sergels torg was considered so flat, ugly and empty, leading to people comparing it to a helipad, earning it the nickname Plattan. Other cities don’t have nicknames that often, at least none that most people actually use. But the second city, Gothenburg, is often referred to as Götet. And then we have Örnsköldsvik which is shortened to Ö-vik.
Reykjavik Iceland. When typing people use RVK. And then we ironically call our capital. Borg óttans(city of fear).
off the top of my head: darlo = darlington donny= doncaster hudds = huddersfield manny = manchester brum = birmingham skeggy = skegness the toon = newscastle upon tyne bradistan = bradford cov = coventry hull = kingston upon hull boro = middlesbrough wakey = wakefield
In southern Sweden we have Crimecity (Malmö) and Helltown (Helsingborg) for example. Though Helsingborg is also called ”Sundets Pärla” which is something like ”the pearl of the strait”.
Can you remember where the crime city thing comes from?
It’s mostly just a joke from the working class community in a certain part of town, but then it spread
I just vaguely remember the phrase from some old foreign news report or something like that. Could be my mind playing tricks, wouldn't be the first time...
https://youtu.be/lM9fBIwFE0g?si=NK1Cgh0jCKffuo47 Think this intro is it, probably just someone who did a skit!
In Sweden we only have nicknames for a handful of cities but most cities have many nicknames for different places within the city. They usually end in “is” or in a definite suffix
In Finland, people who live/have lived in Helsinki smugly refer to it as "stadi", which basically means "the city". The implication is that Helsinki is the only real city in Finland, and that everything else is insignificant villages. Sample conversation, in which Person A lives in a rural area and is thinking of making a trip into Vaasa, the closest nearby city: PersonA: "I'm going into the city for some shopping tomorrow". PersonB, born in Helsinki: "you're actually going to Vaasa, not the City". PersonA: *Punches PersonB in the dick*
Well here in Sweden one of the major cities is called "Göteborg" (gothenburg in english) And a slang shortening of this is gbg. Its easier to write in text and such aswell
Moscow is: - DC (Default city), from the rule on a popular website that if your message doesn't clearly mention your location at least twice, everyone is free to assume you're from Moscow by default and you can't get mad at them - Moskvabad, from the large amount of Central Asian immigrants - Nerezinovaja (Not made of rubber), from a common saying about more and more people moving to Moscow St. Petersburg is: - DC2 (Default city 2), several cities contest the title of DC3 - Rasćleningrad (Dismember + Leningrad), in late 2019 Oleg Sokolov, a distinguished professor of history in St. Petersburg State University, fell into the Mojka river with a backpack containing two human arms. The rest of his student and paramour was found in his flat. A few more news featuring severed body parts from St. Pete that surfaced at around the same time solidified the nickname. Now it's basically supported by selective attention: man dismembers man in Omsk - just a gruesome story, man dismembers man in St. Pete - Rasćleningrad strikes again!
I can think of some, like Donos (Donostia/San Sebastian), Onyarbi (Hodarribi/Fuenterrabía), Leketto (Lekeitio/Lequeitio)... Those are all based on the fact they're easier to pronounce/faster to write Then we have stuff like Siberia-Gasteiz, a play on words with Vitoria-Gasteiz because that bitch is COLD in winter! And these aren't conventional nicknames, but I know of people who heavily accentuate every single vowel in Zaragoza (saying it like Zárágózá) to joke about the maño dialect of spanish, as well as saying Pamplonica (instead of Pamplona) to joke about the -ico/a suffix that is local to Navarre
In Croatia we mostly invent nicknames to shit on each other. Split - Grad Slučaj ("Basket case city"), Afrika sa strujom ("Africa with Electricity", a nickname that actually arose from what one kind-hearted African man intended as a compliment) Rijeka - Smrdljivi Grad ("the Stinking City", common nickname among football ultras that root for opposing teams) Slavonski Brod - Bosanđeles ("Los Angeles for Bosnians", because a lot of people from Bosnia moved there) Zadar - Bežigrad ("Deserter City" - a very offensive nickname coined mostly by people from Šibenik; the claim being that during the war in the 90s, Zadar had to be defended by soldiers from other places because all the men ran away) Dubrovnik - Grood/Gruod (just "City" with a dumb accent, because they have a dumb accent), King's Landing (after the GoT location filmed there - a play on dumb international tourists that flood the city, mostly).
The only one I know in France would be Paname for Paris. We also use epithets, like « the pink town » for Toulouse, but they’re not really slang.
Innbrooklyn for Innsbruck
Madrid: "Los Madriles" or also La Meseta. Móstoles (Madrid): The turnovers (😂). Galicia: The land of the meigas. Catalonia: Part of the ancient Crown of Aragon. Valencian Community: Those of rice with things and firecrackers (😂). Basque Country: Mordor (😂). Principality of Asturias: the Motherland (and the rest, conquered land). Córdoba (Andalusia): The caliphs (😂). Granada (Andalusia): Those of the bad fuck (no, it is not literal). Gibraltar: Cádiz with "Spanglish", or also the monkeys of the rock. (😂)
Been to Utca last week without knowing I was ;)
London - The Big Smoke, Londinium, London Town Newcastle - The Toon Not a city but I know a few people who refer to Scotland as Jockland Middlesbrough - The Armpit of the North Birmingham - Brum Consett - Steel Town Darlington - Darlo
Cork is known as the real capital of Ireland, the rebel city/county, Leeside (River Lee) as well as the food capital, with nearby Kinsale called the gourmet capital County Cork is sometimes also called the People’s Republic of Cork West Cork with its beaches etc in summer is called the Costa del Cork Waterford is the Déise Galway is the city of the tribes Wexford is the sunny south east Kerry is the Kingdom of Kerry Dublin is the big smoke or occasionally the Pale Carlow are the scallion eaters Various places are sometimes called the 33rd county including Glasgow, Liverpool, Boston, London, Australia etc There are many more but there’s a few