What’s In a Name?

e Weird and Wonderful Nicknames of Nashville & New York

Music City

Nashville’s reputation as a musical hub is almost as old as the city itself. The Music City nickname is believed to have originated with an a cappella group from Fisk University— known as the Fisk Jubilee Singers—who toured throughout the U.S. and Europe. The story goes that when the group performed for Queen Victoria in 1873, she said that they must have come from “a music city.” However, the nickname is primarily credited to David Cobb, a radio announcer for WSM-AM. Cobb coined the nickname during WSM’s Grand Ole Opry broadcast, which featured live musical performances from Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.

Athens Of The South

Philip Lindsley, a classical scholar who served as the president of the former University of Nashville from 1824-1850, was the biggest promoter of this nickname (originally the “Athens of the West”) in a bid to associate Nashville with the educational and cultural sophistication of Athens, Greece. An aspirational title to begin with, Nashville soon grew into it, becoming known for its many prestigious institutions of higher education: Vanderbilt University, Belmont University, Fisk University, Lipscomb University, and Aquinas College to name a few. By 1897, as Tennessee approached its Centennial Exposition, Nashville had embraced the “Athens of the South” sobriquet. For the Exposition, the city constructed a full-scale replica of the Athenian Parthenon, which remains a popular visitor attraction today.

Buckle On The Bible Belt

The Bible Belt refers to a broadly defined geographic and cultural region in the south and southeastern United States known for its prevalence of Protestantism. Nashville has often been referred to as the “buckle” (i.e., the informal capital) of the Bible Belt because of its high number of churches, seminaries, and other religiously affiliated educational institutions. Beyond this, Nashville is also the epicenter of the U.S.’s quickly growing contemporary Christian music scene and is home to the headquarters of multiple religious printing and publishing houses that produce everything from Bibles and hymnals to multi-media entertainment.

Nashvegas

This tongue-in-cheek nickname juxtaposes the glitzy, fun, over-the-top aspects of Nashville with those of Las Vegas. The neon lights and pulsing nightlife of Nashville’s main drag, Broadway, certainly rival those of the Las Vegas Strip. Chock full of clubs, bars, music venues, ritzy hotels, and tourist attractions, both destinations are sources of seemingly endless entertainment for revelers, weekend warriors, and wedding parties alike. If they’re lucky, visitors may also catch a glimpse of one of the several celebrities that call these cities home (in all likelihood, it will be Elvis).

The Big Apple

One of the most popular and seemingly nonsensical monikers, the “Big Apple” is first credited to John J. Fitz Gerald, an NYC newspaper reporter covering horse races in the 1920s. He referred to New York’s high-caliber horse racing circuit as the “Big Apple” in his columns after overhearing stable hands using the term. Jazz musicians in the 1930s also began using the nickname to refer to New York’s preeminent jazz scene and big-time venues. But the name officially entered popular culture thanks to a 1970s advertising campaign aimed at boosting tourism in New York. Creator Charles Gillett, a jazz fan, incorporated the Big Apple phrase and apple imagery into the campaign to woo tourists and rebrand the city’s then-reputation of crime and decay. Today, the Big Apple arguably remains the city’s most recognizable designation.

Gotham

Writer Washington Irving was the first to refer to New York City as “Gotham” in the 1807 satirical literary publication Salmagundi, which poked fun at New York culture and politics. The name was a reference to Gotham, Nottinghamshire, an English village whose residents—according to an old folktale—feigned foolishness and madness to avoid interference by King John. The nickname stuck and was subsequently incorporated into the names of several New York businesses over the next century. In 1940, comic writer Bill Finger was sifting through the phone book when he came across an entry for Gotham Jewelers. He decided that “Gotham” would be the perfect name for the noirish, fictionalized version of New York that would serve as the setting for his newly created superhero character—Batman. The hero that Gotham deserves.

The City That Never Sleeps

Although there is some debate, this nickname is largely credited to an Indiana newspaper, the Fort Wayne Daily News , that referred to New York as “the city that never sleeps” in a 1912 article. Several decades later, the name was revived in the theme song for Martin Scorsese’s 1977 film New York, New York . The song—which was made popular by Frank Sinatra and is played every New Year in Times Square after the ball drops—goes: “I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps.” The name refers to the city’s vibrant nightlife, along with its spate of 24-hour services, such as the subway system, cabs, bodegas, diners, and the Staten Island Ferry.

The Empire City

New York’s designation as the Empire City (and the state’s parallel designation as the Empire State) is most commonly attributed to George Washington. In a 1785 letter to New York City’s mayor, Washington praised the state for its role in the Revolutionary War effort and referred to it as the “Seat of the Empire.” In 1789, Washington would take the presidential oath at Federal Hall in New York City, which served as the first meeting place for Congress. The Empire label has become one of New York’s most enduring and lends its name to the Empire State Building, New York license plates, and—most importantly—Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ hit single “Empire State of Mind.”