I like nicknames, they define us better than our names, they are clever and funny and they tell so much about our personality and sometimes, about our aspect, although this might be the worst case. I’ve had plenty of nicknames from “Bal” and “Maimu” to “Blondy” but now everyone calls me by using diminutives of my name and when someone calls me “Miruna”, something is definitely wrong.
I know the Internet is full of lists with cities’ nicknames but I decided to make my own, composed of the world’s most important cities and I hope this will be useful for my readers.
Photo by Mike Warot
1. Paris – The City of Love, The City of Light, La Ville-Lumiere
2. Prague- The City of hundred spires, The Golden City, The Mother of Cities
3. New York- The Big Apple
4. Las Vegas- Sin City
5. Chicago- The Windy City
6. Vancouver- The Big Smoke
7. Montreal- La Belle Ville, Frenchtown, The City-Mountain
8. Los Angeles- The city of Angels
9. New Orleans- The Big Easy
10. Philadelpiha- City of Brotherly Love, Philly
11. Amsterdam- Venice of the North
12. Venice- La Serenissima, Bride of the Sea
13. Vienna- The Imperial City
14. London- The Square Mile, The Old Smoke, The Smoke
15. Detroit- Motor City
16. Miami- The Magic City, Little Cuba
17. Memphis –Bluff City
18. Petra- The Rose Red City
19. Pittsburg- Iron City
20. Rome- The Eternal City, City of the Seven Hills
21. Seattle- The Emerald City
22. Bucharest- Little Paris
23. Florence- The City of Lilies
24. Barcelona- The City of Counts, The City of Gaudi
25. Budapest- Pearl of the Danube
26. Toronto- Queen City, Muddy York, The Big Toe
27. Dublin- The Fair City
28. Jerusalem- the Holy City
29. Boston- The Hub
30. San Francisco- Frisco
31. Moscow- The Whitestone, The Forty Forties, Third Rome
32. Edinburg – Auld Reekie
33. Geneva- The Peace Capital
34. Rio de Janeiro- Marvelous City
35. Salzburg- White City
36. Mumbai- The City of Dreams
37. Singapore- The Lion City
38. Naples- City of the Sun
39. Bologna- Red City
40. Torino- City of Four Rivers
41. Genova- The Superb
42. Palermo- The Happy
43. Milano- Fashion Capital of the World, The Drinkable City
44. Cairo- Paris of the Nile
45. Buenos Aires- Paris of the Americas, Queen of the Plata
46. Ushuaia- The End of the World
47. Melbourne- City by the Bay, Bleak City, Europe of Australia
48. Sydney- The Harbour City
50. Sao Paolo- Brazil’s Locomotive, Land of Drizzle, Sampa
51. Dubrovnik- The Pearl of the Adriatic
52. Helsinki- The White City of the North
53. Bordeaux- City of Wine
54. Nice- Angels City
55. Berlin- The Grey City
56. Jaipur- The Pink City
57. Oslo- Tiger Town
58. Warsaw- Default City, Big Village in the Middle of Nowhere
59. St Petersburg- The Mind of Russia
60. Madrid- El Foro, The Forum
61. Athens- The City of Violet Crown
62. Dallas- Big D
63. Hong Kong- Pearl of the Orient
64. Munich- World City with Heart
65. Birmingham- The City of a Thousand Trades, Brum
66. Lisbon- City With a Future
67. The Hague- City of Peace and Justice
68. Calcutta- City of Palaces, City of Love, City of Joy
69. Beijing- The Forbidden City
70. Adelaide- City of Churches
71. Zagreb- Little Vienna
72. Bruges- Venice of the North
73. Marseille- Phocean City
74. Tel Aviv- The City that never stops
75. Bolzano- The Door to the Dolomites, The German One
76. Sanremo- The City of Dreams
77. Tivoli- City of Delights
78. Vicenza- City of Gold
79. Kuala Lumpur- Golden Triangle
80. Cuernavaca- The City of Eternal Spring
81. Tijuana- Television Capital of the World
82. Rotterdam- Manhattan upon Meuse
83. Lima- City of the Kings
84. Manila- City by the Bay
85. Porto- The Invincible City
86. Cadiz- The Little Silver Cup
87. Bilbao- El Bocho
88. Zurich- Little Big City
89. Kiev- The Mother of Rus’ Cities
90. Honolulu- Sheltered Bay
91. Macau- Oyster City
92. Wroclaw- City of Hundred Bridges
93. Beirut- Paris of the Middle East
94. Udine- Capital of the Great War
95. Ancona- Doric City
96. Tehran- The City of 72 Nations
97. Bangalore- The City of Gardens
98. Leipzig- Bimbo Town
99. Split- The Diocletian’s City
100. Grenoble- Capital of the Alps
Do you know other cities’ nicknames?
Nice
What a neat list! Victoria, BC, Canada is known as the “garden city”
Great list! Philadelphia, the city of “Brotherly Love;” Las Vegas, “Sin City,” New York, “The Big Apple.”
Pittsburgh…Steel City not Iron City
Thanks for the tip, Jimmy.
Great list, Miruna! Don’t forget that New York City is also known as “The City That Never Sleeps.”
Thanks for the tip, Nancy!
What’s in a (nick)name? Interesting topic and nice list, Miruna. Of course, you could add hundreds of other cities with beautiful nicknames. Some of my favorites are: Bologna (‘the fat one’), Toulouse (‘the pink city’), Cadiz (‘little silver cup’), Cuzco (‘the navel of the world’) and San Gimignano (‘Manhattan of the Middle Ages’). There are also several lesser known Belgian towns with funny nicknames, like Schaerbeek (‘donkey town’).
And one day I’d like to travel to all the European villages and cities with a nickname related to Venice (there must be at least 25) .
Thank you, Hugo
I had no idea about San Gimignano – Manhattan of the Middle Ages? Wonderful!
Thanks for the tips. I bet those villages and European cities with a nickname related to Venice are beautiful. Would you mind if I wold write a post about them? I think it’s a great idea for an article, bur it’s you idea:).
Of course, you can use the idea. Actually, I wrote something about it in Dutch several months ago. You may not be able to understand all of it, but at least it gives you some of the European cities with a nickname related to Venice:
http://leunstoelreizen.blogspot.com/2012/01/veneties.html
Thanks, it’s very nice of you, Hugo. I’ll let you know when I’ll write the post:).
Nice list!! I’m from nº85 Porto the invincible city
HongKong is not the Pearl of the orient seas – it’s the Philippines
My students came across this site & got a mistake in their assignment…
Hello “princesssillypants”,
First of all this is not a manual of geography, second, Hong Kong is often called “The Pearl of the Orient” (I haven’t called it “Pearl of the Orient Seas”, as you said). It got this nickname from its Colonial Coat of Arms (between 1959 and 1997), depicting a lion with a pearl in its hands.
Auckland – The City of Sails
Christchurch – The Garden City
Gothenburg – “Little London”
Stockholm – “Capital of Scandinavia”
what about istanbul ?
Amazing nicknames
: )….