# Abbreviations of place names



## Cecilio

I have noticed that in colloquial American English it is very typical to use abbreviated forms of place names. For example:

- NY: New York
- Frisco: San Francisco
- LA: Los Angeles
- Cali: California

Is this also common in other languages or countries?

The only example I can think of in Spain is "Barna", which is sometimes used as a short form of "Barcelona".


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## Etcetera

In Russian, abbreviated forms of place names aren't very common. 
St. Petersburg is often called just Peter (Питер). Some natives find this disgusting, but I don't see anything wrong about it. The diminutive Питер was widely used by writers, journalists and literary critics ib the 19th century.
Leningradskaya oblast' (Leningrad region) is very often just Lenoblast'.
Yekaterinburg is sometimes shortened to Ye-burg (Е-бург), but this form is very, very informal because of some connotations...
Novosibirsk may be called N-sk (Н-ск). This abbreviation reminds of the so-called "город Н.", where the action takes place in some 19th century novels.


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## Ilmo

In Finland, the capital *Helsinki* is quite often called *Hesa.*
The secong largest town *Tampere* is called *Manse*, which is an abbreviation of *Manchester*; they say that this Finnish industrial town is in some way the "Manchester of Finland".
The abreviation *Frisco* (*San Francisco*) is quite well known also in Finland, thanks to the seamen.
We have Finnish names for many of the best known capitals, and for instance *Kööpenhamina* (Copenhagen) is often abbreviated *Köpis.*
I've heard some people speaking about *Nyk* and meaning *New York.*
Even *L.A.* is sometimes used, pronounced in that case *El-ei*
I guess those are the most of them. at least no other names cross my mind at the moment.


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## jester.

In my region, the city of Aachen is often abbreviated as AC.

That is the abbreviation used on the number plates of the cars in this region.

But I doubt that anyone who is not from here would understand it.


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## Setwale_Charm

jester. said:


> In my region, the city of Aachen is often abbreviated as AC.
> 
> That is the abbreviation used on the number plates of the cars in this region.
> 
> But I doubt that anyone who is not from here would understand it.


 
 You have given away the secret by now


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## moldo

In the Netherlands the fans of the Rotterdam soccer club Feijenoord call Amsterdam (the city of Ajax), 020 because they do not want to say the name of that place.
020 is the city telephone code of Amsterdam.


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## Outsider

Lx: Lisbon
Fx: Funchal


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## Cecilio

Outsider said:


> Lx: Lisbon
> Fx: Funchal



Are these just written forms or are they also used in oral language?


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## Whodunit

For German:

NY (New York) is understood when written.
LA (Los Angelos) is understood when spoken or written.
HH (Hamburg) is understood when written.
DD (Dresden) is understood when written.

Towns starting with Bad Li... are often referred to as "Bali."


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## Cecilio

Whodunit said:


> NY (New York) is understood when written.
> LA (Los Angeles) is understood when spoken or written.
> HH (Hamburg) is understood when written.
> DD (Dresden) is understood when written.
> 
> Towns starting with Bad Li... are often referred to as "Bali."



I have heard some hip-hop songs where they say NY (pronun. [en-why]) to refer to New York, but I'm not sure if it's a very common use.


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## pickypuck

Portu = Portugalete.
Sanse = San Sebastían de los Reyes.


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## Thomas1

In Polish We don't use many of them, perhaps locals have some abbrevations of their cities' names but they are not widely used. The few I know are:
Wawa -- Warszawa
Wrocek -- Wrocław

Also, when a city has a compound name people very often use just one of the words that make up the whole (most often the first part).

Tom


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## Whodunit

Cecilio said:


> I have heard some hip-hop songs where they say NY (pronun. [en-why]) to refer to New York, but I'm not sure if it's a very common use.


 
I was speaking about German, not English.


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## jazyk

When spoken, I think only BH (Belo Horizonte, in Brazil) is used.


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## Outsider

Cecilio said:


> Are these just written forms or are they also used in oral language?


Just written.


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## spakh

Gaziantep= Antep
Şanlıurfa= Urfa
Kahramanmaraş= Maraş
Afyonkarahisar= Afyon (karahisar means black fort)

I think these towns can be good examples. 
gazi, şanlı and kahraman are titles given to those cities as a reference of their inhabitants' glamorous struggles (and their great success) against bloody French invasion in south-eastern Turkey after the WWI. They mean great, glorious, dignified, etc.


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## sound shift

There are lots of local abbreviations in spoken, colloquial, English, for example:

Donny (Doncaster)
Macc (Macclesfield)
Ilson (Ilkeston)

Don't tell me you haven't even heard of the official versions!


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## ronanpoirier

jazyk said:
			
		

> When spoken, I think only BH (Belo Horizonte, in Brazil) is used.


We have POA for Porto Alegre, but it seems that the only ones who know that are us  It's rarely used at the spoken language but it's understood anytime. But people from other states don't understand eve nthe writen form.


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## MingRaymond

In Chinese, there are many of them.

For example, the city Guangzhou(廣州) is 粵, Shanghai(上海) is 滬. For provinces, Guangxi (廣西) is 桂, Fujian(福建) is 閩. Nearly every provinces have abbreviations, some of them have more than one.

In Hong Kong, people like to creat trendy names for places. It is abbreviations too. For example, 尖沙嘴 becomes 尖嘴，旺角 becomes MK(from the English name Mong Kok).


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## Ilmo

In *Sweden*, on the coast of Bay of Botnia, there is a small (and old) town with a rather long name *Örnsköldsvik*, that may be difficult to pronounce even for the Swedes themselves. That is for sure the reason that the natives themselves call their home town in a short way only *Övik*.

Örnsköldsvik means literally *Cove of Eagle's Coat of Arms.*
Övik means only *Island Cove.*


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## Chazzwozzer

*Turkish:
**NY:* New York
*LA:* Los Angeles
....

*İst: *İstanbul
*Ank:* Ankara:
*Ant:* Antalya
...


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## Anatoli

In Russian we seldom abbreviate but there are some common exceptions:

Санкт-Петерб*у*рг- П*и*тер (Петерб*у*рг)
   Sankt-Peterburg (St. Petersburg) - Piter (read: Pe-ter), also Peterburg (dropping Sankt)
Владивост*о*к - Вл*а*дик 
   Vladivostok - Vladik
Н*и*жний Н*о*вгород - Н*и*жний
   Nizhni Novgorod - Nizni
М*у*рманск - М*у*рман (I heard this long ago, not sure if it's still used?)
   Murmansk - Murman


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## olivinha

Brazil:
Rio = Rio de Janeiro
Sampa = São Paulo 
Belô = Belo Horizonte
 
US:
Tijuana = TJ


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## samanthalee

MingRaymond said:


> In Chinese, there are many of them.
> 
> For example, the city Guangzhou(廣州) is 粵, Shanghai(上海) is 滬. For provinces, Guangxi (廣西) is 桂, Fujian(福建) is 閩. Nearly every provinces have abbreviations, some of them have more than one.
> 
> In Hong Kong, people like to creat trendy names for places. It is abbreviations too. For example, 尖沙嘴 becomes 尖嘴，旺角 becomes MK(from the English name Mong Kok).


 
Chinese abbreviation for their province is the most illogical of all other languages. We have
Guangzhou = Yue
Shanghai = Hu
Guangxi = Gui
Fujian = Min
Hainan = Qiong
Anhui = Wan
Hebei = Ji
Hubei = Er
Henan = Yu
Hunan = Xiang
Jiangxi = Gan
Shangdong = Lu
Shangxi = Jin

by the way, they are used on car plates too...


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## Cecilio

That's interesting. Why do you have abbreviations which are so different from the original word, like "Min" from "Fujian"? Do people in general know these abbreviations and use them in everyday conversation?


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## samanthalee

Hmm...I have no idea why it is so...

I guess people in China will know these abbreviations. But us in Singapore just have vague knowledge of them.

These abbreviations are usually used as adjectives. For example "Yue Drama" is the name we give to the Chinese Opera form well-loved in Hong Kong, because it originates from Guangzhou. (In English it is called Cantonese Opera because Guangzhou used to be spelled as Canton in the old days, like Beijing was Peking)


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## Encolpius

I know this

Budapest = Bp. (only written)
Amsterdam = Adam
Bratislava = Blava (spoken)


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## federicoft

In Italian provincial codes are often used in written form. 

e.g. 
Rome - RM
Milan - MI
Naples - NA
Turin - TO

Probably there are some slang abbreviations used in spoken language, but I can't think of any right now.


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## Ajura

Manila-MLA.


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## mcibor

Thomas1 said:


> In Polish We don't use many of them, perhaps locals have some abbrevations of their cities' names but they are not widely used. The few I know are:
> Wawa -- Warszawa
> Wrocek -- Wrocław
> 
> Also, when a city has a compound name people very often use just one of the words that make up the whole (most often the first part).
> 
> Tom



I know that some people from Szczecin, when writing to other people from Szczecin refer to our town as Sz-n.
But it's not Poland-wide.

I heard also 
Jadę do Zakopca instead of Jadę do Zakopanego
But it's not very common.

PS. LA and NY is known in Poland


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## filoutjie

I can think of a few in South Africa: Port Elizabeth = P.E., Durban = Durbs., Bloemfontein = Bloem., Amanzimtoti = 'Toti.  Johannesburg = Jo'burg. We also sometimes called it Johies and I think I've heard it called Jozi.


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## ThomasK

I think in Flanders we do not abbreviate names of towns or cities while speaking. There is a tendency to shorten them in informal written texts, I think: BxL, A'pen (Antwerp), G'bergen (Geraardsbergen). But this is quite different from what Americans do. 

I cannot think of other abbreviations now...


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## OldAvatar

In Romania, there are 41 counties. The abbreviations has entered into the common language from the ones used in car number plates and they are similar with the ones from USA, formed by two letters, except Bucharest which has only one letter.


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## Mišo

Our capital city has nice nickname - Blava.


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## kusurija

jester. said:


> In my region, the city of Aachen is often abbreviated as AC.
> 
> That is the abbreviation used on the number plates of the cars in this region.
> 
> But I doubt that anyone who is not from here would understand it.


In former Czechoslovakia (and some time later) was in use these "abbreviations" on the number plates of the cars:
Banská Bystrica: BB, BC
Bardejov: BJ
Benešov: BN
Beroun: BE
Blansko: BK
Bratislava(hl.m.=capital, abbr.: Blava): BA, BL
Bratislava-vidiek: BH, BY
Brno-město: BM, BS, BZ
Brno-venkov: BI, BO
Bruntál: BR
Břeclav: BV
čadca: CA
česká Lípa. CL
české Budějovice: CB, CE
Český Krumlov: CK
Děčín: DC
Dolný Kubín: DK
Domažlice: DO
Dunajská Streda: DS
Frýdek-Místek: FI, FM
Galanta: GA
Gottwaldov: GT, GV(newly: Zlín: ZL)
Havlíčkův Brod(abbrev.:Havlobrod) HB
Hodonín: HO
Hradec Králové: HK, HR
Humenné: HN
Cheb: CH
Chomutov: CV
Chrudim: CR
Jablonec nad Nisou: JN
Jičín: JC
Jihlava: JI
Jindřichův Hradec: JH
Karlovy Vary(abbr.:Vary): KV, (KR)
Karviná: KA, KI
Klatovy: KT
Kolín: KO
Komárno: KN
Košice-město: KE
Košice-vidiek: KE
Kroměříž: KM
Kutná Hora: KH
Levice: LV
Liberec: LI, LB
Liptovský Mikuláš: LM
Litoměřice: LT
Louny: LN
Lučenec: LC
Martin: MT
Mělník: ME
Michalovce: MI
Mladá Boleslav: MB
Most: MO
Náchod: NA
Nitra: NI, NR
Nové Zámky: NZ
Nymburk(abbr.:Nbk) NB
Olomouc(abbr.: Olmík): OC, OL, OM
Opava: OP
Ostrava (abbr.: Ova):  OV, OS, OT
Pardubice(nickname: Puchov): PU, PA
Pelhřimov: PE
Písek: PI
Plzeň-město: PN, PM
Plzeň-jih: PJ
Plzeň-sever: PS
Poprad: PP
Považská Bystrica: PX (cf.říbram)
Praha(abbr.ha)hl.m.=capital) AB, AC, ...-AZ
Praha-východ: PH, PY(Brandýs nad Labem-Stará Boleslav)
Praha-západ: PC, PZ
Prachatice: PT
Prešov: PO
Prievidza: PD
Prostějov: PV
Přerov: PR
Příbram: PB
Rakovník: RA
Rimavská Sobota: RS
Rokycany: RO
Rožňava: RV
Rychnov nad Kněžnou: RK
Semily: SM
Senica: SE
Sokolov: SO
Spišská Nová Ves: SN
Stará Ľubovňa: SL
Strakonice: ST
Svitavy: SY
Šumperk: SU
Tábor: TA
Tachov: TC
Třebíč: TR
Uherské Hradiště: UH
Ústí nad Labem: UL, US
Ústí nad Orlicí: UO (not 魚! )
Veľký Krtíš: VK
Vranov nad Topľou: VV
Vsetín: VS
Vyškov: VY
Zlín: ZL
Znojmo: ZN
Zvolen: ZV
Žďár nad Sázavou: ZR
Žiar nad Hronom: ZH
Žilina: ZA, ZI
...
other abbreviation: Poděbrady: Pdy...


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## javiskefka

The capital city of the United States, Washington, DC (which stands for District of Columbia), is commonly called just DC.  Locally we also say 'The District'.


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## Dymn

Catalonia:

Written abbreviations:
Barcelona - BCN
Tarragona - TGN
L'Hospitalet - L'H
Sabadell - SBD

Spoken abbreviations:
Barcelona - Barna
Sant Cugat - Santcu
Santa Coloma - Santaco (often spelled as Santako?)
Castelldefels - Castefa


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## Messquito

As what is mentioned above, Chinese likes to assign a single syllable for a place.
For province abbrevs, they:

1. Assign a name of an ancient state or one of the ancient nine provinces in the same area:
e.g.
Ancient states:
山西省(Shangxi), used to be where the Jin state was during the Warring States period, that's why it's called 晉(Jin) now as it's short name
Other examples: 山東省(Shangdong)-->魯(Lu), 湖北省(Hubei)-->鄂(Er),
Nine provinces:
河北省(Hebei)-->冀(Ji)
河南省(Henan)-->豫(Yu)

2. Take a character out of it's official name,
e.g. 北*京*市（*京*）, *遼*寧省（*遼*）, etc.

3. Choose a representative river/mountain in the area,
e.g. 湖南省(Hunan) is famous for 湘江, so it has 湘(Xiang) as it's abbreviation.
Other: 福建省(Fujian)-->閩(Min), 廣東省(Guangdong)-->粵(Yue), 廣西(Guangxi)壯族自治區-->桂(Gui), 安徽省(Anhui)-->皖(Wan), 海南省(Hainan)-->瓊(Qiong), 江西省(Jiangxi)-->贛(Gan), 重慶市(Chongqing)-->渝(Yu)

As to Taiwan, we assign abbreviations to our place names, too, but usually only when we refer to them in group:
北北基地區(The area of Taipei 台*北*, new Taipei 新*北* and Keelung *基*隆)
桃竹苗地區(The area of Taoyuan *桃*園, Xinju 新*竹* and Miaoli *苗*栗)
中彰投地區
雲嘉南地區
高屏地區
宜花東地區
澎金馬地區

We Chinese-speaking people also assign one-character abbreviations for country/continent names:
港澳台(Hongkong, Macau and Taiwan)
中＝中國
韓＝韓國
印＝*印*度(*In*dia)
馬＝*馬*來西亞(*Ma*laysia)
菲＝*菲*律賓(The *Phi*lipines)
越＝*越*南(*Viet*nam)
加＝*加*拿大(*Ca*nada)
紐奧＝*紐*西蘭與*澳大*利亞(*New* Zealand and *Au*stralia)
俄德法美日奧義英(*俄*羅斯、*德*意志、*法*蘭西、亞*美*利哥、*日*本、*奧*地利、*義*大利、*英*格蘭) (*a*R-Russia, *Deu*tsch, *Fra*nce, A*me*rica, *Ni*hon, *Au*stria, *I*taly, *Eng*land)
以巴衝突（*以*色列和*巴*勒斯坦的衝突）(*I*sraeli-*Pa*lestinian conflict)
兩伊戰爭(Lit. double *I's* war)（*伊*拉克、*伊*朗戰爭）(*I*ran-*I*raq war)
歐美（*歐*洲及*美*洲)(*Eu*rope and A*me*rica)
亞＝*亞*洲（*亞*細亞）(*A*sia)
非＝*非*洲（阿*非*利加）(A*f*rica)
澳＝*澳*洲（*澳*大利亞）(*Au*stralia)

Also, for some frequently occurring states in the US:
加州＝*加*利福尼亞州(*Ca*lifornia)
德州＝*德*克薩斯州(*Te*xas)
賓州＝*賓*汐法尼亞(*Penn*sylvania)
華府＝*華*盛頓哥倫比亞特區(*Wa*shington D.C.)
佛州＝*佛*羅里達州(*F*lorida)
科州＝*科*羅拉多州(*Co*lorado)
康州＝*康*乃狄克州(*Con*necticut)
北卡＝*北卡*羅來納州(*North Ca*rolina)
南卡＝*南卡*羅來納州(*South Ca*rolina)

And we do have a set of Romanized abbreviations for places in Taiwan, but most of us don't even know:
TPC= Taipei City
CIH= Chia Yi County


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## DrChen

As for France, I can only think of the nickname we French people give to Paris :
Paname.
It is not an abbreviation at all tho  
Sorry guys, I thought maybe it could possibly be interesting, by any tiny chance?


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## ilocas2

Dymn said:


> Barcelona - Barna



So Barça is only nickname for FC Barcelona, not for the town?


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## Dymn

ilocas2 said:


> So Barça is only nickname for FC Barcelona, not for the town?


Exactly. If someone calls the city "Barça", it's a foreigner


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## ularkusut

in my country, Indonesia, usually we never say it in short word, because the word already short. but when we write, we can use a short word.
ex:
Jakarta : JKT
Bandung : BDG
Pekanbaru : PKU
Batam : BTH (not BTM )
Medan : MDN
Surabaya : SBY
Padang : PDG
Bali : Bali
Tanjung Pinang : Tj. Pinang
Semarang : SMG
Pontianak : PTK

and so many other.
but we never say the short word, we only use those word at texting.


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## Stoggler

In the UK, we don't have many shortened versions that are often used (at least nationally), but Birmingham is one, and it's often called Brum.  Aberystwyth is called Aber locally.

Some counties have shortened versions, e.g. Nottinghamshire - Notts; Staffordshire - Staffs.  Or the 'shire' element of the name is missed off completely if the context makes it clear.  And a lot of the counties have abbreviated forms that are (or more likely, were) used in (some) written language: e.g. Oxfordshire - Oxon, Sussex - Sx.

A town I lived in for a little while three or four years ago, Littlehampton, is often (humorously) referred to as LA by locals.  And the city of Chichester /ˈtʃɪˌtʃɛstə/ is sometimes called Chi /tʃɑi/.  These names are only used locally so wouldn't be understood outside a small radius.


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## Encolpius

Maybe I was confused by the word abbreviation, but in Czech there are many names consisted of 2-3 words, but you seldom use that in colloquial Czech. 

Hradec Králové - Hradec
České Budějovice - Budějovice
Mladá Boleslav - Boleslav
Karlovy Vary - Vary
...


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## bibax

České Budějovice - Budějce
Valašské Meziříčí - Valmez


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## Encolpius

bibax said:


> České Budějovice - Budějce (never heard)
> Valašské Meziříčí - Valmez (have known)



I also recall: 
Ústí nad Labem - Ústí
Mariánské Lázně - Mariánky

I wonder if there was something for "Gottwaldov"


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## franknagy

Encolpius said:


> I know this
> 
> Budapest = Bp. (only written)
> Amsterdam = Adam
> Bratislava = Blava (spoken)


Debrecen = Db. (only written, and used only the inhabitants of this town)


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## bvphat

In Vietnamese, we also use short word for city/location... too:
Ha noi: HN
Viet Nam: VN
Ho Chi Minh City: TPHCM
Da Nang: DN
Hai Phong: HP


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## HilfswilligerGenosse

In Germany, it is not idiomatic to abbreviate *any* city name in common speech. I have read, though, that the locals of the small town "Radevormwald" call their town "Rade" (-vormwald means "in front of the forest") 

The city of Kaiserslautern was called "K-Town" by American soldiers, though. And in football journalism, you often refer to the cities by a river or region: 
"Die Weserstädter" would mean Werder Bremen, for example. "Die Kraichgauer" for 1899 Hoffenheim. But this is limited to football journalism. 

What we Germans *do* like is calling a country by the name of its capital: Washington hat ein Einreiseverbot für sieben muslimische Staaten erlassen. 
Teheran hat eins auf den Deckel bekommen. 
London will aus der EU aussteigen. 

And another thing we Germans love is to build swear words/derogatory sentences out of car licence plates. Especially by children, but even adults do it on long journeys: 
FFB (for Fürstenfeldbrück) can become _Führerschein für Bekloppte_, _Fürsten, Freiherrn und Barone_ or _Fahrer fährt blöd_
RV (for Ravensburg) is interpreted as _Rindviech_
BC (for Biberach) as _Bauernclub_
GF (for Gifhorn) as _Gefährlicher Fahrer_
etc. etc.


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## ger4

I can't think of any examples of commonly used abbreviations of German town or city names either but it is quite common to abbreviate the name of the _Bundesland_/federal state of _Nordrein-Westfalen/Northrhine-Westfalia_ to _NRW_. Another example (only used in casual speech): _Mecklenburg-Vorpommern > Meck-Pomm._


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## apmoy70

We tend to prefer avoiding abbreviations of place-names in Greek, the one I can think of is *«Θεσ/νίκη»* for *«Θεσσαλονίκη»* [θesaloˈnici] (fem.) --> _Thessalonika, Salonika_ used only in writing.


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## franknagy

Let me continue with county names.
Hungary used to have 63 counties. Trunks and very small remainder maintained the name and state until 1950.
The reform resulted in 19 merged counties, and hyphenated names:
the longest is "_Borsod--Abaúj--Zemplén_ megye". Its abbreviation is "*BAZ*megye".


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## Wilma_Sweden

Ilmo said:


> In Finland... *Kööpenhamina* (Copenhagen) is often abbreviated *Köpis.*


This was news to me, but I love it and will adopt it henceforth.  I go there occasionally, it's only 40 kms away as the crow flies. 

There are several slang names for Stockholm, not abbreviations, and its inhabitants are often called 08'ers (nollåttor) after the dialling code for Stockholm. 

We understand LA for Los Angeles but only if pronounced in English!


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## franknagy

Ilmo said:


> We have Finnish names for many of the best known capitals, and for instance *Kööpenhamina* (Copenhagen) is often abbreviated *Köpis.*



*Köpés* means in Hungarian* sputtle.*
If we insert spaces among the syllables of Bukarest we get the sentence:* "Buk a rest." = "The sluggrnd fails."*


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## Red Arrow

ThomasK said:


> I think in Flanders we do not abbreviate names of towns or cities while speaking. There is a tendency to shorten them in informal written texts, I think: BxL, A'pen (Antwerp), G'bergen (Geraardsbergen). But this is quite different from what Americans do.
> 
> I cannot think of other abbreviations now...


I have never seen anyone shorten the name of a city here. It's probably a local thing.

The only abbreviations we use in speech are "de VS" (=the United States) and "LA" (pronounced in English).
Pretty much everyone in the province of Antwerp refers to the city of Antwerp as _'t stad. _(literally "the city" but with the wrong article) This might not look like a nickname since it might refer to any city, but no, it ALWAYS refers to Antwerp. Even if you're in Brussels or something.

I live in Leuven and people are also starting to say_ 't stad_ here (referring to Leuven, not Antwerp) and some people from Antwerp find this rather offensive.


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## Wilma_Sweden

franknagy said:


> * "Buk a rest." = "The sluggrnd fails."*


??? Please forgive me for not understanding 'sluggrnd'. You could make a similar thing with Bukarest in Swedish, just changing the accent of the first syllable: "Bukarrest" = Abdominal arrest = arrest by police of an abdomen, or the premises where such abdomens are held while in police custody...  Completely nonsensical of course, just a product of my overactive pun gene...


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## Frank78

Holger2014 said:


> I can't think of any examples of commonly used abbreviations of German town or city names either but it is quite common to abbreviate the name of the _Bundesland_/federal state of _Nordrein-Westfalen/Northrhine-Westfalia_ to _NRW_. Another example (only used in casual speech): _Mecklenburg-Vorpommern > Meck-Pomm._



There is "L.E." for Leipzig.


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## franknagy

Wilma_Sweden said:


> ??? Please forgive me for not understanding 'sluggrnd'..


Correction: Sluggard , lazy pupil.


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## Kotlas

Cecilio said:


> I have noticed that in colloquial American English it is very typical to use abbreviated forms of place names. For example:
> - Frisco: San Francisco


One more example:
St. Petersburg, Florida (USA) is called 'St. Pete' by local residents.


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## sound shift

Informally, Birmingham is often referred to as "Brum" - but as there is no "u" in "Birmingham", I'm not sure whether "Brum" counts as an abbreviation.


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## Stoggler

Isn’t Brum a contraction of Brummagem, the local traditional name of the city?


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## Red Arrow

♫ Brum, Brum gets things done. Super cruising superhero. Brum, Brum, here he comes ♪

It all makes sense now!


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## ilocas2

Encolpius said:


> I wonder if there was something for "Gottwaldov"



I found *Gotík* and *Gotyš*


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## Ghabi

Cecilio said:


> Why do you have abbreviations which are so different from the original word, like "Min" from "Fujian"?


They're not "abbreviations" in the strict sense, but are more like nicknames based on the ancient names of the places, hence the non-resemblance.

As bound morphemes, these "abbreviations" are not used by themselves in speech: one won't say "I went to Min last year". But they afford users of the language monosyllabic substitutes, and are thus widely used in news headlines which call for brevity.

For example, for "Fujian merchants" one can coin the disyllabic word mǐnshāng 閩商 (which would be readily understood), instead of using the tetrasyllabic word fújiàn shāngrén 福建商人.


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## sound shift

Stoggler said:


> Isn’t Brum a contraction of Brummagem, the local traditional name of the city?


Come to think of it, it is.


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