From Sin City to Lion City, nicknames for world cities and how they were coined

Publish date: 2024-05-21
The City of Seven Hills and the City of Four Rivers tell us much about the topography of Lisbon, in Portugal, and Turin, Italy, respectively. Rome was also built on seven hills (although not in one day) but is usually called the Eternal City – the Romans believed their empire would flourish forever.Canada’s Vancouver is jokingly known as Rain City and Raincouver – meteorological monikers that certainly weren’t tourist office creations.

Still on the subject of weather (and eternity), a number of resorts and tourist hotspots go with the “not too hot; not too cold” City of Eternal Spring slogan. These are often hill towns in tropical countries or regions that, thanks to their altitude, offer visitors respite from the heat of the lowlands.

Dalat, in Vietnam (1,500 metres above sea level), fits this description, as does China’s Kunming. Medellin, in Colombia, shares the nickname and the entire Central American country of Guatemala is the Land of Eternal Spring.

Dalat is also the honeymoon capital of Vietnam although it’s not quite in the same league for newlyweds as Paris, the City of Love. Philadelphia is the City of Brotherly Love – from the Greek phileo (love) and adelphos (brother).

Las Vegas is the somewhat less wholesome Sin City, although locals, particularly those with vested interests, prefer the term Entertainment Capital of the World. We, of course, know it as the Macau of the West.Speaking of which, imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery and a number of city sobriquets are based on a similarity to another, more illustrious destination. Plenty of places are dubbed the Venice of the North (Saint Petersburg, in Russia, for example), the East (Suzhou, China), the South (Sitangkai, the Philippines) and the West (Nantes, France), not forgetting the Venice of Hong Kong, Tai O.Churches feature in a number of nicknames. Prague is known as the City of a Hundred Spires, although some say the Czech capital is home to between 500 and 1,000 towers, turrets and steeples.

Founded on religious tolerance that resulted in religious diversity during its formative years, Adelaide, Australia, is referred to as the City of Churches. Meanwhile, Oxford, England, is the City of Dreaming Spires, a nod to its charming architecture as described in a Victorian poem.

Another nickname that derives from a poem is the Rose-Red City. Its author, Anglican clergyman John William Burgon, never actually visited Petra (in modern Jordan), but the phrase, “A rose-red city, half as old as time” is today emblazoned on souvenir mugs, fridge magnets and baseball caps on sale at the spectacular archaeological site.Some nicknames relate to food and drink. Bordeaux, France, is the Cité du Vin, or City of Wine, and then there’s the most famous nickname of all. Despite competing theories, it’s generally accepted that Big Apple came to prominence in the 1920s as a reference to the prizes (big apples) awarded at New York horse races.

In 1971, the term was adopted by the tourist office, which wanted to convey an upbeat, jaunty image to contrast with the dark, edgy, crime-ridden reality of the time.

More recently, copycats in Southeast Asia refer to Jakarta as the Big Durian and Bangkok is sometimes called the Big Mango. The colloquial Thai name for the city is Krung Thep, which translates as City of Angels.

Some nicknames hint at aspiration and ambition. Hollywood has been known as Tinseltown since the 1920s. The name evokes the bright lights and glitter of the film industry and, some say, its corresponding lack of substance.

Its Indian sister city, Mumbai, is the City of Dreams, at least to the thousands of wide-eyed migrants who arrive from across the Indian subcontinent every day in search of a better life. The nation’s economic powerhouse has its own glitzy film industry – Bollywood is the “dream factory” within the City of Dreams.One nickname that definitely wasn’t dreamed up by the tourist board is Auld Reekie (Old Smokey). Edinburgh’s 17th-century alias referred to the thick smog, foul-smelling sewage and stench of dead bodies that piled up in the overcrowded old town. Not until the start of the 19th century did the Scottish capital clean up its act and transform itself into the Athens of the North.

Many nicknames are drawn from translations of indigenous names. Egoli is Zulu for City of Gold, an accurate description of Johannesburg, which sits on the edge of the world’s largest known deposit of the precious metal. Cuzco, in Peru, was known to the Incas as the Navel of the Earth in their Quechua language as they believed the city to be the centre of the universe.

A nickname befitting the world’s most haunted locality, York is known as the City of a Thousand Ghosts. Paranormal goings on are the rule rather than the exception in this corner of northern England and there have been more than 500 recorded hauntings ranging from a plague-ridden young girl who appears at an upstairs window to apparitions of Roman soldiers and Seamus the barking (ghost) dog.

Let’s return to Venice. The Italian tourist honeypot boasts a roll-call of nicknames, from La Serenissima (“most serene”) to City of Masks, a carnival reference. The Queen of the Adriatic is sometimes dubbed the City of Canals (there are 150 waterways), the Floating City (117 islands) and the City of Bridges (it has at least 400).

Perhaps it should also be known as the City of Nicknames.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51kuqKzwLOgp52jZL2wv9NmpJqfka%2B2r7GOramarpWhfKK%2B06KapZ1faH55gJRwa2irmaN6pLXTsmSloZ%2BjeqS107Jkp6GToLuiucSsZLCnoqGxbq%2FIraCeq12Wu6V5x6iu