San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

in the United States has seen many nicknames over the years. Some are nicknames that have faded in use, while others have evolved over time. The following is a list of notable nicknames: * 415 - referring to the

area code A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, re ...

that serves the city of San Francisco (as well as most of

Marin County Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is a ...

). * Baghdad by the Bay - title of a book of essays by

Herb Caen Herbert Eugene Caen (; April 3, 1916 February 1, 1997) was a San Francisco humorist and journalist whose daily column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, and offbeat puns and anecdotes—"A continuous love let ...

, and a nickname he used for the city because of the cosmopolitan cultural diversity it shares with the medieval city of

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesipho ...

* Fog City aka "City of Fog"- in reference to San Francisco's famous fog * San Fran - Used by non-native residents and those outside of the Bay Area, particularly on the East Coast and in Europe. Curtis Sparrer from Bospar gives the reasons why it is not acceptable to say 'San Fran'. *Frisco - also the nickname of the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, disparaged by

and some locals, including

Emperor Norton Joshua Abraham Norton (February 4, 1818January 8, 1880), known as Emperor Norton, was a resident of San Francisco, California who, in 1859, proclaimed himself "Norton I., Emperor of the United States". In 1863, after Napoleon III invaded M ...

, who passed a law against the use of the term. The word is still used today particularly by San Francisco’s Black community. *

Gay Mecca A gay village is a geographical area with generally recognized boundaries that is inhabited or frequented by many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBT) people. Gay villages often contain a number of gay-oriented estab ...

* Golden Gate City - in reference to the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco P ...

* SF * SFC (San Francisco City) * Sunset City * The City - used by native San Franciscans and people in the Bay Area. * The City by the Bay - refers to

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, California, San Jose, and Oakland, Ca ...

* The City that Knows How * The Golden City - in reference to the California Gold Rush and golden brown grass on hillsides in the dry season * The Paris of the West - popular in the early 1900s, but no longer in common use

References

{{reflist Culture of San Francisco

Nicknames A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...