I like nicknames. They define us better than our names, they are clever and funny, and they tell so much about our personality. The same goes for cities. Whether inspired by their history, architecture, local culture, or physical attributes, these descriptive appellations manage to capture the essence of the place they describe.
From La Serenissima to the City of Brotherly Love, here’s a list of famous (and sometimes controversial) city nicknames from around the world.
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 – Raincity, 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. Philadelphia – City of Brotherly Love, Philly
11. Amsterdam – Venice of the North, Mokum
12. Venice – La Serenissima, Bride of the Sea
13. Vienna – The Imperial City, The City of Dreams, The City of Music
14. London – The Square Mile, The Old Smoke, The Smoke, The Big Smoke
15. Detroit – Motor City
16. Miami – The Magic City, Little Cuba
17. Memphis – Bluff City
18. Petra – The Rose Red City
19. Pittsburgh – Steel City, 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, The Big Muddy York, Hogtown
27. Dublin – The Fair City
28. Jerusalem – The Holy City
29. Boston – The Hub, Beantown
30. San Francisco – Frisco, The City by the Bay, The Golden City, San Fran
31. Moscow – The Whitestone, The Forty Forties, Third Rome
32. Edinburgh – 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; La Dotta, La Rossa, La Grassa (the educated, the red, the fat)
40. Turin – City of Four Rivers
41. Genoa – La Superba (The Superb, The Proud One)
42. Palermo – The Happy
43. Milan – 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
49. Johannesburg – Egoli or City of Gold, Jozi, Joburg
50. Sao Paulo – 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 – Toytown, Millionendorf (village of a million people), World City with Heart
65. Birmingham – The City of a Thousand Trades, Brum
66. Lisbon – City with a Future, City of Seven Hills, The White City
67. The Hague – City of Peace and Justice
68. Kolkata – 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, The Big Orange, The Bubble
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. Kyiv – 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. Bengaluru – The City of Gardens
98. Leipzig – Bimbo Town
99. Split – The Diocletian’s City
100. Grenoble – Capital of the Alps
Any other city nicknames you would like to share with us?
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.
Rome – caput mundi, capital of the world
Jimmy is correct.
-Life in Pittsburgh: Secrets from Steel City – BBC News
-Steel City Blues Festival 2017 March 17-19, 2017 Pittsburgh, PA celebrating it’s 10th year.
and of course…
-The Pittsburgh STEELERS NFL Football team (can you imagine The Pittsburgh Ironers??!!)
Great list, Miruna! Don’t forget that New York City is also known as “The City That Never Sleeps.”
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) .
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.
Pearl of the Orient is actually Penang in Malaysia
Philippines is the Pearl of the Orient, actually. It’s in the National anthem of the country too
Auckland – The City of Sails
Christchurch – The Garden City
Gothenburg – “Little London”
Stockholm – “Capital of Scandinavia”
LIMA : CITY OF THE KINGS. GREAT NAME.
A much more common and better known one for Athens is “the glorious city” (το κλεινόν άστυ)
If you called San Francisco “Frisco” back in 1872, you would have been fined $25, which was lots of money back then. Most people still disapprove of it’s usage.
I agree. San Francisco is NEVER Frisco.
I agree as well, wouldn’t ‘the city by the bay’ be more appropriate
Totally agree. No one who knows San Francisco would ever refer to it as Frisco. It’s a sure sign the person who uses that nickname is clueless.
Alexandria, Egypt: The Pearl of the Mediterranean
And thank you for taking the time to put all these together 🙂
Mogadishu: The White Pearl of the Indian Ocean
Toronto is called “The Big Smoke” not Vancouver.
Thanks for the tip! However, as far as I now both of them are called “Big Smoke”, and Wikipedia confirms.
Gotta agree with the poster. I’ve lived in Vancouver and all over BC for 30 years and have never heard it called the Big Smoke. We call it Raincouver and the Wet Coast though.
Native BCer and never once has that been used. The Rainy City, No Funcouver (in the news re: strict liquor laws), Raincouver, but VanCity ia the most popular.
Also Slurrey for Surrey.
And Wkipedia is wrong! (Not a valid source for facts!) Vancouver doesn’t have the heavy industry to warrant the nickname that is Toronto’s!!
City of Mexico, The City of Palaces, (Von Humboldt assessment) the Venice of Indies
Monterrey, MX, the Sultan of the North (of Mexico)
Guadalajara, MX, The Pearl of Occident (of Mexico)
Puebla, MX, City of Angels
Pachuca, MX, La bella airosa (similar to the windy city, from its winds and altitude)
Veracruz, MX, The Key of Mexico
Yes!! Plus:
La Paz, Mexico, is The Pier of Ilussions.
And Tijuana is better knows as Tequila, sex and Marijuana.
Vancouver is also called Raincity!
and Denver is The Mile High City
Hi
London in not called the square mile. The city of London is the square mile! And also it’s the big smoke not old smoke.
Reference : I’m a Londoner!
Davao City, Philippines is known as “The New Jerusalem”
As a native of San Francisco, people still to this day frown on SF being called “Frisco”. More suitable nicknames for SF: The City, The City By the Bay
What about Shanghai, China? I’ve been here for work 3 times and unable to find the nickname.
Hi, as local Shanghai people, we call it “Modu” – with Mo魔 meaning magic, and Du都 meaning city.
Johannesburg is known as Egoli which translates to the City of Gold.
Most people just call it Joburg.
Splitting hairs.
Best town is Cape Town – *the Mother city*
My understanding is that the Forbidden City is a palace IN Beijing – not the nickname of Beijing itself
Cleveland – “The North Coast”, “The Best Location in the Nation”
I am a Miami native and I’ve never heard it referred to as “Little Cuba”. Interesting… San Diego (California) is “America’s Finest City”
Indianapolis………………… Naptown l
Edmonton, although smaller than most of those cities, is called The City of Champions
Boston is sometimes called the city of champions!
San Francisco is just known as “the city”
Istanbul is known as ‘The Second Rome’ (when it was still called Byzantium) because it was made the capital of the East Roman empire after the West Roman Empire collapsed. It is also know as ‘The city of the seven hills’ becuase it was built on, unsurprisingly, seven hills.
Cape Town is referred to as ‘The Mother City’ because it was the first European settlement in South Africa whilst Johannesburg is known as ‘The city of Gold’ due to the gold mines in the hills by which it is surrounded.
Guatemala, the land of the eternal spring
Aberdeen is know as the
Granite City
Where is Louisville, KY with “The Ville”
Dont forget the graveyard to the west or Louisville
I was looking for something else and accidentally checked my home city….
Warsaw – Default City, Big Village in the Middle of Nowhere???
While I have never heard of ‘Default City’ but I heard the 2nd (offensive term) pronounced by some superiority complex idiots from other Polish cities. I’d suggest checking how many hits you get from Google on your ‘nickname’ vs. very common nickname Warsaw Phoenix City
I agree, Warsaw is my home city as well, and I agree that the nickname you used here is stupid, offensive, and it’s being used only by some people from other Polish cities competing for tourists dollars. Publishing it here is very unprofessional.
Auckland – New Zealand, City of Sails
NO NATIVE of San Francisco EVER calls it ‘Frisco’. To do so automatically outs you as a tourist.
People here just call it ‘The City’. ‘City By The Bay’ is much less used, but also acceptable.
Wales has two monikers to its name: “The Land of Song”, cause of our annual tradition, the Eisteddfod. (Basically, a showcase of songs, dance, acting and poems), and the “Land of Castles” for some of our remaining castles that still stands from the medieval times. 🙂
Odessa-the pearl of the black sea.
Toronto is also known as Hogtown and I call it the Little Apple.
Kansas City, MO is known as the City of Fountains. Rumored to have more Fountains in KCMO than any other city in the world besides Rome.
Seoul: soul of Asia. Hiroshima: city of peace.
Chicago is also called “The Second City”
and New York – The City That Never Sleeps
Doesn’t Las Vegas have that same nickname?
Iloilo City (PH) – City of Love
Bacolod City (PH) – City of Smiles
Washington DC = “The District”
San Salvador, The Valley of the Hammocks (Lots of earthquakes).
Boston’s nicknames: Beantown (most notable and common), The Cradle of Liberty, The Cradle of Modern America, The Athens of America, and The Walking City. I want Boston to have a “Big…” nickname (for example, New Orleans=The Big Easy; NYC=The Big Apple)!
Portland, OR = City of Roses, City of Bridges, Stumptown.
New York is also The City That Never Sleeps, or just The City.
Hollywood = Tinsle town.
Cincinnati = Cinci.
St. Louis = Gateway to the West.
Nashville = Music City.
Brussels – the capital of Europe
Toronto: Hogtown
Lisbon is also ” The Queen of the Sea”
Aveiro in Portugal is ” The Portuguese Venice ”
Also here, Bragança is called ” The Portugal’s Crib”
I never heard calling Lisbon ” The City With a Future”
Nice work! 🙂
Calgary is Cowtown
Nashville – Music City!
How about: Minneapolis-St. Paul “the Twin Cities” …..Reno “The biggest Little City In The World”…….Denver “Mile High City”…..M.O.
Milwaukee was called the Cream City (because of the cream colored bricks once manufactured there)
Venice is also called “the Queen of the seas” because of her history. Another nickname I like is the one my hometown has, if I may add it to the list: Treviso, “the painted city” (urbs picta), due to the considerable number of frescos and paintings that you could find on houses and buildings during the Middle Age.
That’s good to know, Stefano. I would love to visit Treviso one day!
Please correct the spelling of Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh located in Pennsylvania has an “h” on the end after the “g”
Thanks for letting me know, Nancy!
Johannesburg: The City of Gold and Jozi
San Francisco is known as the city by the bay. NOT frisco, that’s actually very insulting to San Franciscans.
Boston is also called bean town.
Sacramento is River City
Fun list. One correction and a possible addition: Vancouver is not “The Big Smoke” — that title belongs to Toronto. Also, my hometown of Winnipeg is known as “Peg City” “River City” “The Peg” and unfortunately “Winterpeg”
Cairo is also known as ‘the Mother of All cities’
Another name for Amsterdam is Mokum. It’s a Hebrew word for Paradise I believe and sounds very cute and nostalgic.
What a wonderful source, Thank you miruna…here are a few Irish ones for starters! Galway = City of the tribes, Kilkenny = The Marble City, Derry = The Maiden City, Armagh = The Cathedral City (Ecclesiastical capital of Ireland), Limerick = The Treaty City. We also have nicknames for counties (there are 32 in Ireland). Louth = The wee county, Meath = The Royal county, Laois = Queen’s County, Offaly = King’s County and Faithful County, Wexford = The Model County (and the Slayneysiders and Yellow Bellies), Wicklow = The Garden of Ireland, Westmeath and Fermanagh both known as The Lakeland County, Kerry = The Kingdom, Tipperary = The Premier County, Clare = The Banner, Waterford = The Déise, Limerick = Shannonsiders or Treatymen, Cork = The Rebel County, Galway = Joyce Country and The Tribesman, Sligo = Yeats Country, Roscommon = The Primroses, Monaghan = The Basket of Eggs (because of drumlin landscape), Armagh = The Orchard County, Derry = The Oak Leaf County,
More….. Cavan known as the Breffni County, Monaghan aka the Farney County, Tyrone as the O’Neill County, Kildare as the Short Grass County and the Lilywhites, Kilkenny as the Cats…the list goes on. Most of these county nicks have GAA (national games of hurling, camogie, handball, rounders and football) links
Kathmandu, capital of Nepal – City of Temples
Vancouver – Lotusland or Vansterdam referring to the city’s laid back attitude toward drug use. There are almost as many pot shops as Starbucks. Other nicknames include Raincity, Vancity or NoFunCity. The Big Smoke is used outside the Lower Mainland, in other parts of British Columbia, but never by Vancouverites.
Nice article! However I’m from Pittsburgh, and it is Steel city -not Iron city. Our history is built on steel production -hence the Steelers is our football team. It’s also known as The City of Bridges and The Burgh. Thanks! PS Iron City beer is/was produced in Pittsburgh, but I have never heard that as a reference for Pittsburgh. Thanks.
Great List!
Proud resident of Fort Worth,Texas a.k.a. “Where the west begins”, “Cowtown”, “the Fort”, and my favorite- “Funkytown”.
And don’t forget St Louis Missouri- “Gateway to the west”.
Fort Worth is also known as Panther City-
Austin – The Violet Crown, The Live Music Capital of the World, Bat City, Waterloo
Atlanta – Hotlanta, the ATL, The City Too Busy to Hate
Kiev – The City
Some cities in Florida:
Hallandale Beach – the City of Choice
Ft Lauderdale – Venice of America
Opa Locka – The Great City
Hollywood Beach – the City of Excellence
Jakarta – The Big Durian
Bandung – City of Flowers, Paris of Java
Berlin is also known as “Arm aber sexy.” = poor but sexy
Source – I’m a Berliner;)
Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei: Venice of South-East Asia
Lhasa(Tibbet) is known as forbidden city not Beijing
Singapore – the Lion City, the Garden City, the Red Dot
Port Elizabeth in South Africa is known as the friendly city 🙂
Who the hell said the nickname for San Francisco is, “Frisco”? To San Franciscans, that is a derogatory word. It is the WORST name you can call San Francisco. The nickname is, “The City”!
Milwaukee known as “Beer City” or “A great City On A Great Lake”carrie (Lake Michigan)
TIBET : ROOF OF THE WORLD
El Paso, Texas is The Sun City. Albuquerque is The Duke City.
Great list. But I have to correct one false listing. Melbourne does not have any of the nicknames you claim.
And by the way, Sydney’s nickname is also Emerald City
The square mile only refers to the “city of London” not London as a whole. This is because the city of London boundaries are only 1 square mile and consist mainly of financial institutions.
New York City: Center of the Universe
Lisbon is the city of the 7 hills.
Never heard that nickname for my city before.
Edmonton, Alberta .. The city of Champions
Calgary Alberta .. Cowtown
Great article!
Lisbon is also known as “the city of seven hills” it is actually the most known nickname, and “Queen of the sea”.
I’m from St. Louis: “The Gateway to the West” …thus the Gateway Arch is there.
Granite City – Aberdeen, Scotland
Tbilisi the capital of Georgia – Warm Place
Adelaide isn’t just the City of Churches. It’s also Radelaide.
Beijing is not known as the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City is the imperial palace complex in Beijing.
Can’t believe I did not see this one on the list Detroit: the Motor City, or Motown!
Cute little list yo. The list needs to grow bigger though. Cheers
Quito, in Ecuador, is know as “La Carita de Dios”, which translates to “God’s face”
Liverpool, UK was called ‘The Pool of Life’ by Carl Jung
Also known as –
The World in one City
The World Capital City of Pop
The Second City of the British Empire
Queen cities:. Buffalo, NY – Queen City of the Great Lakes;. Cincinnati, OH – Queen City of the West; & there are more Queen Cities out there
Cairo: City of the Thousand Minarets
Kuala Lumpur is not known as the Golden Triangle. It is ‘Garden City of Light.’ Golden Triangle is Kuala Lumpur’s main shopping and nightlife district.
Another famous city in Malaysia, Malacca is called “the Historic State.”
Lahore: city of colleges
Macau’s nickname is actually ‘Las Vegas on Steroids’ :v
And how could you forget Bangkok : Sin City of Asia
Good heavens! God bless you for this post! :dd
I have to do project to school and my topie is “Nicknames of European cities/states and how they get them”. At first, I was amazed by this topie because I knew some like Ireland – the emerald isle, Ucraine – the bread basket of Europe, Iceland – land of ice and fire etcetera (yeah, I know they’re states). But I didn’t find anything in Slovak when I started to search for some information (I am from Slovakia). And after two hours full of endless searching, trying new and new options, after two hours filled with suffering and sorrow and desperation, I found this and… I have so much beautiful project (presentation)!!! THANKS! As I said, god bless you! Sorry for eventually mistakes, I don’t speak english as well as you bc I must speak slovak at first. :dd And you also forget Reykjavik, which is called “fuming bay” because Reykjavik in Icelandic actually mean fuming bay. Also Verona is “city of Romeo and Juliet” I think everybody know why, city Braga is called “Portugalian Rome”, Edinburgh “Athens of the North”, Prague “heart of Europe” (Budapest also), Lima “city of kings”, Lisbon “Queen of the sea”, Treviso “Painted city”, Moscow “the first throne” and capital of my country, Bratislava, is called “Partyslava” or “beauty on the Danube”. 🙂
Again, thanks!!! 🙂
Absolutely amazing discovery
Ashgabat City in Turkmenistan is known as “The City of Love” and “The City of White Marble”
Great List!
To add some nicknames of places I’ve been to that haven’t been mentioned, according to locals:
Mexico City is “El Defectuoso” – where everything doesn’t work
Sarajevo is “Jerusalem of Europe” – many religions living together
Cairo is Umm al-Dunya or “Mother of the World” – this is the most common translation
Bangui is “La Coquette” – the beautiful, maybe onceuponatime
Nairobi is “Green City in the Sun” – national park and green spaces within city boundaries
Pretoria is “Jacaranda City” – many in bloom in October/November
Tbilisi is also “The City That Loves You” – may just be a tourism slogan
Dubai is “City of Gold” – big trading centre for the metal
Karachi is “Bride of the Cities” or “City of Lights” – because of the liveliness
Bangalore is “City of Lakes” – although these are drying up
Kolkata is “City of Joy” – after a book
Hong Kong is “Asia’s World City” – financial capital or “Fragrant Harbour” – literal meaning
Bangkok is “The Big Mango” – after the fruit
Brisbane is “BrisVegas” – ironic because of the shoddy nightlife
Though it has mistakes
It’s a pretty good list
i just wanted to ask
why is AMSTERDAM & BRUGES the same ??????????
Hi,
It’s not unusual for two cities to have the same nickname. Amsterdam and Bruges are both called “Venice of the North” due to their layout crisscrossed by canals, and there are more towns in Northern Europe bearing the same nickname.
Great list, Miruna. A few additions:
Bangkok — The Big Mango
Calgary — Stampede City
Denver — The Mile High City
Hollywood– Tinsle Town
Hong Kong — Fragrant Harbor, Honkers
Jakarta — The Big Durian
Milwaukee — Beer City
Osaka — The Nation’s Kitchen
Steamboat Springs (Colorado) — Ski City USA
Tokyo — The Big Mikan
Its not frisco damit!! You will never hear a native say must be the noobs. They even have it in that 80s music video we built this city on rock and roll as the city by the bay.
Jakarta: THE BIG DURIAN
Toronto: Big Smoke, Hogtown, T.O.
I live here and never heard of the ones you’ve listed… but appreciate the work put into your list 🙂
Sarajevo-Jerusalem of Europe
Sarajevo-Golden Valley
Sarajevo-Olympic City
A few U.S. additions and suggestions. A much more common nickname for Boston is Beantown. And Frisco isn’t really a nickname for San Francisco, just a shortened version of it; it’s real nickname is Golden Gate City or City By the Bay. A couple of common U.S. nicknames you forgot are The Mile-High City (Denver) and The Big “O” (Omaha).
Saint Petersburg – mind of Russia?? What that suppose to mean? Never heard of that. Usually we locals call it Piter, some rappers gave it a nickname ‘Saint P’. A lot of elders call it Leningrad, some reffers to Petrograd (as those are former names). Also in literature Saint Petersburg is called the ‘Northern Palmire’ or ‘Northern Pearl’, ‘Museum-city’, ‘The Culture-Capital of Russia’.
And by the way I’m originally from Moscow. Never heard of forty forties before (though I googled that and it may be correct). Usually in literature it’s called White-stonу (made of stone), ‘Not-of-rubber’ (because a lot of people come to live here and there are over-population issues) and The City on seven hills.
Great list. Yes, correct very good and Hamilton is the “river city”. Alternative name for Auckland but not used so much now is “Queen city”.
York in England is known as ‘the city of a thousand ghosts’