Sure it’s “The Big Apple” and “The City That Never Sleeps,” but apparently New York City is so much more. I mean really, really more than that. Ninety-six things more than that to be precise.

According to the book Names and Sobriquets of U.S. Cities and States (2nd edition, 1970), New York City has 98 legitimate phrases that can be substituted for the city’s official title in everyday speech.

Collected by authors Joseph Nathan Kane and Gerard L. Alexander, the names span the entire history of the city–some dating back to when it was a Dutch settlement. For example, the nickname “Father Knickerbocker” calls attention to the type of pants the Dutch settlers wore.

Not only am I impressed that the city has collected such a plethora of monikers, but I also find myself floored that after the first ten or so people were still determined to come up with more ways to reference the same city. I hear St. Paul is a nice place, too, guys.

Anyway, the typical NYC synonyms can be found at the heart of this list. But there are some entries that really make me wonder what in the world people were thinking like “The Wonderful Town” and “The Cleanest Big City in the World.”

To read more of these wacky and sometimes nonsensical names, read the full list here.

[via Neatorama]

Image: Stella Smith

Tags: New York City, NYC, city nicknames, NYC nicknames, The Big Apple, The City That Never Sleeps, Names and Sobriquets of U.S. Cities and States

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