List of disparaging nicknames for settlements

This is a list of disparaging city nicknames. These pejorative nicknames may be coined for a variety of reasons. Some may be a straightforward desire to slander or disparage the city, while others may be examples of self-deprecating humor. While residents of the cities may see such nicknames as offensive, they may also be reclaimed as positive, even affectionate terms. Still other nicknames may simultaneously serve to attack the city from the outside and as a point of pride for its residents, especially those criticizing local politics.[note 1]

Etymology of these terms varies. Some are simple portmanteaus of the city name and profanity; others may reference a specific aspect of the city, such as an unfortunate incident in its past.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Canada

• British Columbia
  • Vancouver: Blandcouver, Hongcouver, No Fun City, Bamgoober
• Manitoba
  • Winnipeg: Winterpeg
    • Transcona: Trashcona
• Ontario
  • Toronto: Centre of the Universe, [1] Muddy York[note 2][2], Frozen Swamp (since 2016; see Drain the Swamp)

United Kingdom

• Bradley Stoke: Sadly Broke[3]
• Brighton: Skid-Row-on-Sea[4]
• Edinburgh: Auld Reekie[note 3][5]
• Kingston upon Hull: Hull on Earth[note 4][6]
• Liverpool: Liverpuddle[note 5]
• London: The Great Wen, The Smoke
• Manchester: Gunchester
  • Moss Side: Baby Beirut[7]
• Nottingham: Shottingham[8]
• Salford: Dirty Old Town
• Stevenage New Town: Silkingrad.
• Sheffield: People's Republic of South Yorkshire

United States

• Alabama: Alabummer
  • Birmingham: The Tragic City[note 6]
• California: Land of fruits and nuts (referring to its denizens as such, meaning "homosexual" and "mentally ill")[9]
  • Berkeley: Berzerkeley,[10] The People's Republic of Berkeley[11]
  • Davis: People's Republic of Davis[12]
  • Los Angeles: La-La Land[10]
  • Redwood City: Deadwood City[13]
  • Sacramento: Suckramento[14]
  • Santa Monica: People's Republic of Santa Monica[15]
• Colorado
  • Boulder: The People's Republic of Boulder[16]
  • Lafayette: Laugh at It
• Illinois: Illnoise, Suburban Chicago, Land'o'Lincoln (considered disparaging in the pre-Civil Rights South)
  • Chicago: Beirut by the Lake, Chiberia,[note 7][17] Chi-raq,[note 8] Second City,[note 9] Shitcago
• Indiana
  • Indianapolis: India-no-place[18]
• Kansas
  • Dodge City: The Wickedest Little City in America[10]
• Louisiana: Loserana
  • New Orleans: The Big Sleazy
• Maryland
  • Baltimore: "Bodymore, Murderland",[19] The City That Bleeds,[20] Harm City,[20] Mob Town[21][22]
  • Takoma Park: The People's Republic of Takoma Park[23]
• Massachusetts: Taxachusetts
  • Cambridge: The People's Republic of Cambridge[24]
  • Somerville: Slummerville[25]
  • Worcester: Wormtown[26]
• Nevada
  • Las Vegas: Lost Wages
• New Hampshire
  • Concord: The City in a Coma[27]
• New Jersey
  • Asbury Park: The Dark City[28]
  • Dumont: The Dirty D
• New Mexico
  • Gallup: Drunk Driving Capital of America[10]
• New York
  • Albany: Smallbany
  • Amsterdam: Amsterico
  • Auburn: The Prison City
  • New York City: Hymietown,[29] The Modern Gomorrah,[30] New York Shitty[31]
    • Staten Island: The Forgotten Borough[32]
  • Rochester: Rottenchester
  • Utica: The City That God Forgot[33]
  • Yonkers: Junkers
• North Carolina
  • Fayetteville: Torture Town[34]
  • Greensboro: Greensboring[35]
• North Dakota
  • Minot: Mindrot
• Ohio
  • Cincinnati: Cincinasty
  • Cleveland: The Sleepy City
  • Dayton: Little Detroit
  • Youngstown: Murdertown[36]
• Oregon
  • Portland: Little Beirut[37]
• Pennsylvania
  • Philadelphia: Filthadelphia,[38] Filthydelphia,[39] or Killadelphia[40]
  • Pittsburgh: Shittsburgh[41]
• Texas: Texass, The Big Tumbleweed, South of Sane, Land of the Giant Spiders
  • Dallas: Dallass, South Oklahoma
  • Houston: Baghdad on the Bayou[42]
• Utah
  • Salt Lake City: SL,UT
• Vermont
  • Burlington: The People's Republic of Burlington[43]
• Washington, D.C.: Hollywood for Ugly People,[44] Murder Capital of America[45]
• Washington state
  • Aberdeen: Port of Missing Men[note 10][46]
  • Spokane: Spokanistan[note 11]
  • Tacoma: Tackyoma[10]

See also

• Big Smoke (disambiguation), a disparaging nickname for several cities
• Dysphemism
• Lists of nicknames
• Satiric misspelling

Notes

1. For example, a facetious People's Republic moniker
2. And variants, including Dirty Little York and Nasty Little York
3. Scots for Old Smoky
4. A pun on the phrase "Hell on Earth"
5. From which Liverpudlian derives
6. A play on Birmingham's more positive nickname, "The Magic City"
7. Evocative of Siberia and its climate
8. Comparing violence in Chicago to that of Iraq
9. This was coined as a disparaging term, but is largely free of negative connotations today.
10. A reference to a string of murders in Aberdeen in the early 20th century
11. The -stan suffix is evocative of countries perceived to be unstable and possessing a low quality of life.

References

1. "Let's All Hate Toronto". The Lens. CBC Newsworld. Retrieved 2010-04-07. Mister Toronto hurdles through the divide to discover more than he could imagine about the "Centre of the Universe" and the crazy country around it.
2. Gerard, Warren (2004). "Chronicling a City's Past". Imperial Oil Review. Imperial Oil Limited. 88 (450). Archived from the original on 2004-12-17. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
3. "'Sadly Broke' celebrates 20 years". BBC News. 3 January 2007. Retrieved 25 January 2015. A town once nick-named Sadly Broke, because of its reputation as a soulless housing estate with homes in negative equity, has reached its 20th birthday.
4. Brighton's come a long way from Skid Row-on-Sea, The Argus
5. Auld Reekie is the most miserable place to live in Britain, The Times, 27 August 2008 (subscription required)
6. Biggs, Alan (14 September 1999). "Hull on earth as Murphy mauls Tigers". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
7. Webb, Belinda (14 February 2011). "The big society will struggle in Moss Side". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
8. Macdonald, Laurie (27 November 2013). "Shottingham? I think Notts". Inside One Magazine. Milford Scott. Archived from the original on 4 November 2014. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
10. "U.S. City Motto & Moniker List". Tagline Guru. The Byline Group. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
11. Foldvary, Fred E. (9 January 2007). "The People's Republic of Berkeley". The Progress Report. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
12. Fitch, Mike. "Growing Pains: Thirty Years in the History of Davis" Archived 2012-07-22 at the Wayback Machine Chapter Ten: The Political Culture of Davis, Davis, California. "Another of the city's critics was a railroad executive who couldn't hide his annoyance when officials asked his company in the early 1990s to contribute up to $1,000 for a planning project the city was undertaking next to the railroad tracks. "This letter is tantamount to railroad robbery. However, since we are forced to live with the People's Republic of Davis, we will accede to your demands in the interest of the commune welfare," the executive wrote in response, enclosing a check for $500."
13. Judge weighs lawyer's lawsuit: Plan to redevelop downtown challenged, by Will Oremus, Redwood City Daily News. Quote page 7, paragraph #3, '... for a city that has been saddled with the moniker "Deadwood City" in the past.'
14. Jorgensen, Eddie (9 June 2005). "No more Suckramento". Sacramento News & Review. Retrieved 3 January 2015. There was a short period during the 1990s when our great city deserved the moniker “Suckramento”—the only town where White Zombie could fill Arco Arena, and you could still find tickets available to Paul McCartney on the day of the show.
15. Roane, Kit R. (16 September 1996). "Santa Monica Tries to Curb Charity to Homeless". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
16. Cart, Julie (7 September 2002). "Boulder: Soiled and Seething". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
17. Parker, Alex (5 January 2014). "Chicago Extreme Cold: City Dubbed 'Chiberia' as Dangerous Weather Moves In". DNAinfo. Archived from the original on 22 June 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
18. India-no-place No More,Time Magazine, June 11, 1984, accessed July 27, 2012"
19. Siegel, Fred; Smith, Van (2001). "Can Mayor O'Malley Save Ailing Baltimore?". City Journal. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
20. Foxworth, Rodney (3 May 2005). "O'Malley, Ehrlich and Steele Get Kudos, But Blacks Don't Benefit". Baltimore Chronicle. Retrieved 25 January 2015. Baltimore [is] casually referred to by many of its denizens as either 'Harm City' or 'the City that Bleeds' (as opposed to the government-preferred 'Charm City' and 'the City that Reads')
21. Connery, William (May 2002). "Maryland's Mob Town Supplied Links Through Rail and Fort". The Washington Times. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
22. Smith, Van. "Mob Rules". Baltimore City Paper. October 6, 2004. URL retrieved on January 27, 2007. Archived July 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
23. Paley, Amit R. (15 July 2004). "Takoma Park Council Backs Same-Sex Unions". The Washington Post. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
24. "Cambridge Officials Put a Stop to Boy Scout Drive to Aid Troops in Iraq". Fox News. 16 November 2007. Archived from the original on 3 November 2008. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
25. Affordable towns near Boston for would-be home buyers, by David Valdes Greenwood. Boston Phoenix, accessed April 4, 2008. Archived December 24, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
26. "Origins of the Phrase Wormtown". WorcesterMass.com. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
27. Rick Watrous (June 17, 2011). "Concord—City in a Coma no longer". Concord Patch. Archived from the original on April 11, 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
28. "Annual ArtsCAP Event Features Author Hisani Dubose". Atlantic Highlands Herald. 16 June 2010. ...Celebrate ArtsCAP's accomplishments in promoting the arts in Asbury Park and ... help plan further blossoming of art and culture in Dark City.
29. Sabato, Larry J. (1998). "Jesse Jackson's 'Hymietown' Remark – 1984". The Washington Post. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
30. Flannigan, Jenna; Miscone, Michael (18 January 2011). "A history of NYC nicknames". Time Out. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
31. Velsey, Kim (10 October 2012). "Andrew Sullivan Hates Miserable, Money Sucking "New York Shitty"". New York Observer. Retrieved 3 January 2015. In a Daily Beast post written today—entitled, what else? “New York Shitty”—Mr. Sullivan tells us just how much he hates this horrible city.
32. 15 July 1928, New York Times, pg. RE1:Urging Staten Island operators to be cautious about pricing their realty, W. Burke Harmon, President of the Harmon National Real Estate Corporation, yesterday declared that sudden price increases on properties at this time might well result in halting the normal development of what he calls "this forgotten borough that has suddenly stepped into the limelight."
33. Mittel Jr., David A. (June 4, 2008). "The city that God Forgot". The Providence Journal. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011.
34. Johnson, James; Porter, Susan (6 September 2007). "FYV vs. FAY". Fayetteville Free Weekly. Fayetteville, Arkansas. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
35. Rose, Lacy (25 July 2005). "Not Greensboring Anymore". Forbes. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
36. Spotleson, Bruce (18 April 2011). "New museum revives Las Vegas' mob history". Vegas Inc. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
37. McCall, William (19 August 2003). "Portland police, activists get ready for Bush's visit". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
38. Silverstein, Michael (1990). The Environmental Factor: Its Impact on the Future of the World Economy and Your Investments. Longman Financial Services Publishing. ISBN 0884629112. OCLC 20015054. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
39. Gallma, James Matthew (2000). Receiving Erin's Children: Philadelphia, Liverpool, and the Irish Famine. University of North Carolina Press. p. 258. ISBN 0807825344. OCLC 247713435. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
40. Nazaryan, Alexander (March 12, 2014). "The Streets of Killadelphia". Newsweek. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
41. Breen, Mike (9 October 2013). "Hate, with a Passion". Cincinnati CityBeat. Retrieved 3 January 2014. But what followed was a sickeningly hypnotic barrage of pure Twitter hatred, born from passion but spiraling out of control. There were the heated defensive posts that painted Pittsburgh — sorry, “Shittsburgh,” as it was christened by many Reds fans that night — as a hellhole full of inbred brutes
42. "Bayous and Waterways". Citizens' Environmental Coalition. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
43. Nichols, John (15 August 2005). "Being Like Bernie". The Nation. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
44. "Who says Washington is "Hollywood for ugly people"?: We trace a cliche back to its origins". The Washington Post. 6 December 2010. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
45. Eberstadt, Nicholas. "Why babies die in D.C - District of Columbia" Archived 2005-02-18 at the Wayback Machine, Public Interest, Spring 1994. Accessed June 13, 2007. "Across the country and around the world, Washington is notorious as the "murder capital of America" -- the city with the highest homicide rate of any major U.S. urban center."
46. Gibson, Elizabeth (2001). Outlaw Tales of Washington. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press. ISBN 0762711507. OCLC 47922779.