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U.S. City Nicknames

Can you guess the American cities that have these nicknames?
Answer must correspond to the yellow box
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: March 18, 2023
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First submittedJuly 29, 2012
Times taken85,536
Average score62.5%
Rating4.11
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Nickname
City
The Windy City
Chicago
The Big Apple
New York City
The Motor City
Detroit
The City by the Bay
San Francisco
Music City
Nashville
Bean Town
Boston
The City of Angels
Los Angeles
Sin City
Las Vegas
The Biggest Little City in the World
Reno
The City of Brotherly Love
Philadelphia
Steel City
Pittsburgh
The Mile High City
Denver
Nickname
City
The Rubber City
Akron
The City Too Busy to Hate
Atlanta
The Big Easy
New Orleans
Gateway to the West
St. Louis
Derby City
Louisville
Witch City
Salem
The World's Playground
Atlantic City
The Big Pineapple
Honolulu
Cigar City
Tampa
The Conch Republic
Key West
The Emerald City
Seattle
The Mistake on the Lake
Cleveland
+11
Level 20
Aug 30, 2012
I'm slightly disappointed in myself for being unable to figure out Salem
+13
Level 84
Jan 1, 2018
I put Wichita - thinking it had something to do with the Wizard of Oz, Kansas and all that.
+7
Level 77
Mar 22, 2020
And it sounds like "Witch"-ita.
+14
Level 28
Nov 19, 2013
I live in Philly and lived in this area my whole life....the City of Brotherly Love is a JOKE!!! More like Killadelphia, just being honest. Philly is a great city in itself and is overflowing with history, but if our forefather could see the ratchetness going on nowadays, they'd puke.
+7
Level 47
Jan 1, 2018
As a Philly native, this is unfortuanatly true. (Especially when it comes to football: it gets super violent)
+4
Level 56
Jun 24, 2020
Yeah and Wilmington, the city in Delaware that's practically just a glorified suburb of it has one of the highest murder rates in the entire country
+1
Level 57
Mar 23, 2021
It's quite upsetting, honestly. Philadelphia is so rich in history, but today it's more of a mini Chicago.
+2
Level 43
Jan 28, 2023
Chicago native here, its not really that bad as long as you do the logical things like stay out of bad areas and don't go walking at night.
+1
Level 60
Oct 20, 2023
As a rule, I always root for the sports team whose fan base is the most likely to destroy their city in celebrations. In other words... big Philly fan
+7
Level 68
Dec 29, 2020
It's not a joke, it's literally what the name means in Greek. The first city by this named was founded in Lydia by Attalos II Philadelphos, who succeeded his brother Eumenes II, whom he loved brotherly, as King of Pergamon in 159 BC.
+1
Level 76
Mar 26, 2023
I believe they mean that it's a joke in that it's laughably inaccurate, like calling a big burly guy "Tiny."
+3
Level 38
Jul 5, 2014
Is the creator of this one from Pittsburgh or something?
+8
Level 90
Jun 4, 2015
Not likely, or he wouldn't have accepted it without the H at the end. We Pittsburghers are proud of our H.... But yeah, we do love laughing at Cleveland too.
+7
Level 61
Jul 13, 2017
I swear, this site has conditioned me to spell Pittsburgh wrong. I avoid putting the H at the end on other sites now, just because I'm so used to not including it to avoid having it goof up the next answer for me.
+3
Level 56
Jun 24, 2020
If that nickname was coined by themselves, they really do hate themselves. Well, I guess the Cavs do kinda suck
+3
Level 57
Jan 20, 2021
Bkemp2001 same, I just naturally spell things incorrectly now because it accepts them, its kind of annoying
+1
Level 90
Apr 23, 2021
The long crusade to accept Pittsburgh only with its proper ending consonant finally came to fruition awhile ago. Thank you, Quizmaster!
+3
Level 78
Apr 17, 2015
Shouldn't Cleveland be the rock and roll city?
+5
Level 88
Jun 27, 2019
No, it's correct.
+4
Level 55
Jul 13, 2019
Forest City would be most common (and a much less pejorative epithet).
+2
Level 78
Dec 29, 2020
Sixth City as well. Nobody uses it, but there are a few businesses in Cleveland that use Sixth City as part of their name.
+4
Level 57
Oct 5, 2020
Cities can have multiple nicknames.
+3
Level 82
Aug 21, 2015
I only missed Key West... for some reason I was thinking of guessing that, but didn't. oh well.
+1
Level 55
Jan 13, 2016
No mile high city?
+2
Level 67
Jun 17, 2017
There is actually.
+7
Level 68
Apr 8, 2016
Does Key West even count as a city?
+5
Level ∞
Sep 18, 2017
Here in America, basically everything is a city.
+2
Level 43
Apr 13, 2016
If you're looking for another: Cincinnati has the unfortunate nickname of "The Queen City"
+8
Level 74
Dec 29, 2020
Why is that unfortunate?
+2
Level 27
Dec 31, 2020
Yeah, why ??
+2
Level 57
May 1, 2017
Rip City = Portland

Big Tomato = Sacramentoo Ca.

+3
Level 56
Jun 24, 2020
Fun fact: Rip City was only used by a Portland Trailblazers commentator and grew in popularity. When later asked why he said it, he had no idea.
+3
Level 78
May 9, 2017
As a former resident of the Conch Republic I appreciate the (currently) 18% of you that recognize us :P
+4
Level 60
Jan 2, 2018
I recognize your government as legitimate
+3
Level 82
Nov 30, 2018
a gymnocracy? Government by strippers?
+6
Level 67
Jun 17, 2017
Am I the only one who thinks Reno's nickname is a bit, well, meaningless?
+3
Level 88
Oct 27, 2020
Atlantic City's is a very outdated big dream.
+2
Level 27
Dec 31, 2020
The city is hanging on by a thread. Gambling is the money source and there's very little infrastructure outside of that.
+1
Level 75
Mar 23, 2021
I just checked it out on google earth for the first time. It must be such a weird experience for lifelong monopoly players to turn off Baltic onto Tennessee, then take a quick jaunt over to St. James Place - and so on. There must be a lot of terrible tours doing all of this. And I'd bet there are a lot of people taking a lot of photos of street signs in unlikely locations.
+2
Level 61
Jul 13, 2017
There's something wrong with my brain. I couldn't figure out why Oahu wouldn't work. It didn't work because that's the island, Honolulu is the city. Duh.
+3
Level 74
Sep 14, 2017
Nobody really from Boston would be caught dead calling it Beantown. Ugh. It does, however, bring to mind this little bit of doggeral:

This is good old Boston,

The home of the bean and the cod,

Where the Lowells talk only to the Cabots,

And the Cabots talk only to God.

+3
Level 67
Dec 30, 2020
To say they "wouldn't be caught dead" is a bit of exaggeration. I lived in Boston for five years, and I heard the term from locals on rare occasions.
+5
Level 66
Dec 12, 2017
I hate it when I type an answer correctly, but because the quiz accepts an incorrect spelling, I am stuck with extra letters that I have to delete before I can type the next answer. Worse yet, I don't always notice this right away. Pittsburgh was the offender in this case. Nothing like being accidentally penalized for knowing how to spell correctly.
+2
Level 60
Jan 1, 2018
Got Tampa, but forgot Los Angeles
+2
Level 56
Jan 1, 2018
QM, you should really accept Eugene, OR, and Wichita, KS for Emerald City, at the very least. There's also a town in North Carolina (Greenville) with that nickname. But having grown up in the midwest, I was very confused when Wichita didn't work.
+3
Level 65
Jan 1, 2018
What, not one city here in Texas? What about the Live Music Capital of the World? The Bayou City? The Rose Capital of the World?..to name just a few.
+10
Level 74
Jan 1, 2018
I was a bit disappointed there are no cities in Wyoming here
+5
Level 70
Oct 14, 2018
So many to choose from! Also Delaware also getting the snub is unconscionable.
+5
Level 44
Feb 24, 2018
the rose capital of the world is in TExas? Portland Oregon comes to mind for that one, so does Prescott, AZ which has famous rose gardens at least in Arizona anyways.
+2
Level 64
Jan 1, 2018
Philadelphia is honestly an amazing city great people great times
+2
Level 88
Jun 27, 2019
During daylight.
+3
Level 46
Jan 1, 2018
Minneapolis - City of Lakes

Minneapolis/St Paul - Twin Cities

Seattle actually tried to change their nickname to "MetroNatural" not sure if that's quiz worthy or not.

+2
Level ∞
Jan 1, 2018
Metronatural was a slogan, not a nickname. But, believe it or not, the city of Seattle actually paid a firm $200,000 to come up with it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metronatural

+2
Level 82
Jul 27, 2020
if they need a new one I'll do it for 20 bucks. Let me know if you need my PayPal.
+4
Level 82
Jan 1, 2018
Pretty well-known nicknames not included:

Tracktown USA = Eugene

Azelea City = Mobile

Surf City USA = Huntington Beach

America's Finest City = San Diego

Insurance Capital of the World = Hartford

Charm City = Baltimore

Glass City = Toledo

+4
Level 60
Jan 2, 2018
Never heard of any of those but surf city.
+3
Level 44
Feb 24, 2018
I only know Hartford CT from that list LOL
+2
Level 27
Dec 31, 2020
Don't really have a desire to go to California, but San Diego, Napa Valley and Monterrey would be on the list.
+1
Level 52
Mar 26, 2023
Both Santa Cruz and Huntington Beach lay claim to being "Surf City USA"
+1
Level 76
Mar 26, 2023
The only one of those I've heard of is Baltimore, and that's only because I live there.
+1
Level 59
Mar 26, 2023
Some of those are great, including Eugene, Huntington Beach, and definitely Baltimore.

I would have thought that Corning NY would be Glass City.

+4
Level 57
Jan 2, 2018
No Space City?!? 4th Largest city in the US and its not on here
+2
Level 59
Jan 3, 2018
Is Cleveland really that bad...?
+2
Level 61
Oct 20, 2018
No, it's a great city.
+3
Level 88
Jun 27, 2019
🎵 They're not Detroit🎶

https://youtu.be/oZzgAjjuqZM

+2
Level 78
Dec 29, 2020
Cleveland got the nickname because Municipal Stadium was thought to have been built in 1931 in a bid to get the 1932 Olympics, which were in LA, and had been awarded to LA in 1923 (the stadium was not built for that purpose). Municipal Stadium has since been torn down and replaced by Progressive Field (baseball, different location) and First Energy Stadium (football, same location).
+2
Level 27
Dec 31, 2020
I want to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before making a judgement.
+5
Level 83
Jul 20, 2020
think this quiz needs the yellow box its easy just to guess fairly big cities once you have got the obvious ones .
+2
Level 46
Oct 5, 2020
Nice quiz!
+4
Level 52
Dec 29, 2020
Trust me - they are not too busy to hate in Atlanta.
+3
Level 75
Dec 29, 2020
Being that it is the 5th largest, let's add Phoenix, the Valley of the Sun.
+5
Level 78
Dec 29, 2020
I feel like maybe this one should've been a yellow box malarky. I only knew like five of the nicknames but I just typed in famous cities and got 17
+2
Level 68
Dec 29, 2020
Same, went from having 8 to like 19, so I think this should be a yellow box quiz.
+2
Level 84
Dec 29, 2020
Good quiz, but I was really hoping to see Scranton: The Electric City!
+2
Level 59
Dec 29, 2020
YES! I'm from there.
+3
Level 50
Dec 29, 2020
Chillicothe, MO -- The Home of Sliced Bread

(Because this is where it was first offered commercially, pre-sliced!)

+2
Level 59
Dec 29, 2020
I grew up in NJ and never heard of that nickname for Atlantic City.
+3
Level 59
Dec 29, 2020
I was surprised that Charm City (Baltimore) didn't make the list.
+2
Level 67
Dec 30, 2020
Chicago is also called the City of Big Shoulders and Hog Butcher to the World, which are way sweeter nicknames than the most famous one.
+2
Level 27
Dec 31, 2020
"Hog Butcher" - that's a good one !
+3
Level 57
Jan 20, 2021
Definitely needs a yellow box, other than the more obscure ones, I got 2/3s of the quiz by just guessing large cities in the US
+1
Level 67
Jan 21, 2022
Surprised to not see anything from Texas on here
+1
Level 55
Mar 18, 2023
Nobody in Atlanta calls it "The city too busy to hate"
+1
Level 67
Mar 26, 2023
I would say that Orlando is the world’s playground
+1
Level 59
Mar 26, 2023
I agree with other commenters that it would be best to use only nicknames that are commonly used by residents of that city. That would mean removing Cleveland, Atlantic City, Atlanta, and maybe others.

There are some good suggestions above for additions. Another, which I would suggest as a former resident who commonly heard this nickname, is Tucson: the Old Pueblo.