San Francisco Forum: What nickname/abbreviation is acceptable, if any?

Makes me mad when people refer to Cali. Calif is ok :-)

I second RamblinSal's comments.

In the not to distant past (darn well better not be, as I remember it....), air travel was a more exotic thing, and the airline industry and frequent air traveler's practice of calling cities by their airport designator codes became in at least some people's minds a way to give their speech a certain cachet of worldliness or being well-traveled. Now air travel is more like being herded aboard greyhound buses (or in the post 9/11 world, the buses with metal-mesh covered windows you see the San Francisco Sheriff's Department hauling prisoners down Highway 280 between the Hall of Justice in San Francisco and the county jails in San Bruno) it's more a case of being your choice of outdated, ignorant, or lazy.

Similarly I believe the term "Frisco" originated with sailors and the merchant marine as describing one of their favored ports of call. I don't know if it was an independent development or possibly post-WW II cross pollination that certain motorcycle groups also started using the name. Now unless you have a history as a career seaman (not just a short stint) or sport the colors of one of the traditional motorcycle groups, or have a close affiliation to somebody who does, considering the decline of the maritime industry in San Francisco and the general lack of motorcycle gangs using the term "Frisco" is again a case of being outdated, ignorant or simply an affectation.

"Frisco" is what my Dad called SF when he was a soldier in WW 2. All the GI's who shipped in and out of there, used that term most of their life, and after they returned to their homes in the US. Perhaps those who use that term, heard if from parents.

One of my kids, who has lived in SF for 12 years would never call it that.

I will bet that this has come up on the Chicago board related to "Chi-town".

And I agree with SkateboardGirl - "Cali" marks you as a visitor.

Born in Pasadena. Grew up in California. Call it Cali all the time and most of my high school classmates and cousins call it that on occasion, too. Nearly all were born here.

Not sure when that started but as Los Angeleno (also known as a SoCalo), I know lots of people who are natives who use the word Cali. I think perhaps it started out of email-speak and moved into general conversation. Or maybe I heard it from an "outsider" (now that I'm thinking about it, I realize my family in Hawaii uses it too, almost exclusively) but certainly, my Californian-born family count as native Californians who don't find it the least problematic to abbreviate the state's name as Cali.

Some of my family call it Califas as an affectionate or humorous term.

I wouldn't use "Cali" if someone from another state asked me where I was from. But we use Cali all the time to refer to our state, locally. "So now you're governator of Cali, Arnie, watcha gonna do now?"

So it does *not* mark someone as a non-native. Second generation Californian here, as well. That means my family has been living here since 1921.

People use terms differently, but I know better than to use San Fran or Frisco around a San Franciscan (my dad, a WW2 veteran still uses it - even around our family members from the Bay Area, I think he means it in a positive way).

Anyway, dón't be so sure that when someone says Cali that means they weren't born and raised here.

I too was born in California (Santa Monica). I never heard California referred to as "Cali" until recently. I thought its popularity began with L.L. Cool J's song "Goin' Back to Cali"

I think "cali" grates more on Northern Californians than those in the southland. To me, and obviously a few others, it's right up there with Frisco.

I cringe when I hear "Frisco" and "Cali," but it always seemed like a petty issue to jump on peoples' backs about. That said, they are terms I never hear Bay Area locals use. I occasionally hear "Cali" used in Southern California, but when I was going to grad school at USC in the late 80's, I never remember hearing it.

Shortly after I came to Northern California in the late 70's, I picked up a tourist guide about San Francisco. In the very first paragraph it warned the reader to "Never call it Frisco." So I never did. It's more of a religious issue than a rational issue. People here simply accept that you never call San Francisco: "Frisco." (Or put the word "the" in front of a highway number.)

I do think it grates on people from Northern California more than Southern Californians (in fact, urban dictionary seems to support that - someone claims the entire town of La Jolla uses it, ha). It's running about 52-48% against using it as a positive term for California on urbandictionary.

I know I've heard it way before LL Cool J.

It's possible the term was invented outside California (like the word California itself), but certainly some natives use it.

Right now, in SoCal, there's a great deal of discomfort/politicization attached to being termed a non-native (especially if one is a native), particularly in light of Arizona politics. Just wanted people to know that many natives do use the term (and not in a disrespectful way), although clearly, San Franciscans seem to be more irritated by nicknames than SoCalos.

I think some Los Angelenos get offended by having it referred to as LaLaLand, but many use that term as well (this is one where if you're an outsider, best not to use it here, although mostly people will laugh and know what you mean).

And I hardly ever meet anyone from out of town who calls it The City of Angels, but I know people here who do.

Do you local San Francisco residents mind that TripAdvisor hyperlinks San Fran as they do other full city name destinations? I'm not sure anyone really notices that some destinations are hyperlinked in blue, but I notice. It just seems like TA is sort of rewarding folks for using the wrong name.

I plan to ask TA to hyperlink Yosemite without the rest of the title: Yosemite National Park. And I'll repeat my correction request about their erroneous hyperlink for another city. Should I ask about removing the "SanFran" hyperlink?

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adding ~ it doesn't look like San Fran was hyperlinked in this thread. I don't know why, but I've seen it linked in the past. Usually the first mention of a destination in a forum thread is hyperlinked. Most interesting..........