Question of the week: Los Angeles nicks’?
As someone who blogs about Los Angeles on a daily basis, it gets a little tiring referring to it in the same ‘ol boring ways.
L.A., SoCal, and the Southland are the most common ones I’ll use when I can’t get more neighborhood specific. Others I’ve found online include:
- City of Angels (of course)
- Lalaland (mildly annoying)
- Lotusland and/or Lotusville (where’d these come from?)
- Double Dubuque (according to LA Almanac.com, popular in the years after WWII as a put-down)
- El Pueblo (espanol for “the town”)
- City of Quartz (after Mike Davis’ book)
- Hollyweird and Tinseltown both refer to the showbiz side of things here
- The Big Orange
- City of Flowers and Sunshine (probably from a 60s era postcard)
Have I missed anything? Or are there any new nicknames for Los Angeles that need to be added to the popular vernacular?
…sources: LA Almanac and Doug’s List of Lists… photo snatched from eekthree’s Flickr page…
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i like lost angels but that seems pretty common too. and i still refer to long beach as long bitch…that stems from the years i spent at good old CSULB.
Hell A and/or Smell A (particularly appropriate near the port)
I don’t mind LaLaLand.
(On a slightly related note, my mother calls it MaliBooHoo.)
During the Gold Rush years, everything south of Santa Barbara was known as “The Cow Counties”, due to the fact that northern Californians thought the only thing SoCal was good for was to raise beef for them to eat.
1. Hell-Ay.
2. Los Angles (because everyone here has got one).
Peace out.
In the old days, promotional material promoted our cheap water and power for manufacturers with Los Angeles aspiring to be “The Akron of the West.”
I’ve heard people jokingly pronounce it “Los-Ang-Guh-Leez.” Petros on AM 570 calls it “The City of La Ciudad.”
I think I’ve heard “The Grid.” Maybe in a William Gibson novel. Or maybe I’m just making things up…
Remember, we’re the City of Angels for a reason.
And, don’t confuse a nickname with the City’s slogan.
What about the segmentation by area code ?
The 818.
The 310.
The (shudder) 909.
etc.
Many people on the eastside used to call it el centro, though that’s mostly downtown specific. How about we steal Frisco’s thunder and just call it the city?
No, no trying to be like SF. They have no thunder to being with – they call themselves “The City” because they sooooo want to be THE city. It’s cute.
I’d never call it “City of Quartz” because Mike Davis writes bound collections of crap with zero basis. Barf. Sensationalism at its faux-intellectual best.
Los Angeles. L.A. Those are the only two names you’ll ever hear coming from me – as a born and bred Angeleno. The other names seem more regional. Lalaland refers to a part of Los Angeles which I can identify but with which I do not identify. Area codes are also regional – either within the city boundaries or in the greater-LA area.
YEah, for me it’s just Ellay. Lalaland is extremely irritating, as is Hollywierd or Holly-anything when used for the whole city. I’ve heard a few mildly clever nicknames over the years… “Smog Central”, “A Hundred Suburbs in Search of a City” (not relevant any more, TG), “Shakytown”, and a few of my OC friends show off their absolute lack of regional knowledge by referring to everything between the 605 and the 405 as “skid row”. Damn.
Mike: Was “the grid” from Snowcrash?
Reader suggestions in summary (for LA in specific/general:
lost angels
Hell A (or Hell-Ay)
Smell A
Los Angles
The Akron of the West
“Los-Ang-Guh-Leez”
The City of La Ciudad
The Grid
The City
Ellay
Smog Central
A Hundred Suburbs in Search of a City
Shakytown
David: By gum, I think you’re right. One of my absolute favorite novels.
David (Part 2): I know “the grid” is definitely used in Snow Crash to describe the Metaverse, but maybe not as a nickname for Los Angeles. Either way, I’ll start using it myself.