Many people travel to a new city and they suddenly realize have no idea how to refer to the people who live there. What are people living in Glasgow or Sydney called? It’s a quirk of language that some of these adjectivals and demonyms are totally and utterly bizarre, with inexplicable or long forgotten roots. Here are some of my favorite terms for the inhabitants of cities from around the world.
What are some of your favorite city dweller adjectives?
Amalfi, Italy – Amalfitan
Bergamo, Italy – Bergamasque
Birmingham, England – Birminghamian (“Brummie”)
Buenos Aires, Argentina – Porteño
Cambridge, England – Cantabrigian
Cape Town, South Africa -Capetonian
Copenhagen, Denmark- Copenhagener
Cracow (Kraków), Poland – Cracovian (Krakovian)
Glasgow, Scotland – Glaswegian
Istanbul, Turkey – Istanbulite
Las Vegas, Nevada – Las Vegan
Madrid, Spain – Madrileño
Manchester, England –Mancunian
Memphis, Tennessee – Memphian
Newcastle, England – Novocastrian (“Geordie”)
Oslo, Norway – Oslovian
Parma, Italy – Parmesan
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Carioca
Sydney, New South Wales – Sydneysiders
Warsaw, Poland – Varsovian
Interesting Terms. Learned many names the first time. Never Birmingham people were called “Brummie”. By the way what are people from Melbourne called?
Thanks for the list
These are pretty interesting. I always get a giggle at some of the nicknames. My favorite you listed is Las Vegan. Sounds like a Latino group who refuse to harm animals.
This is so fun! I think about this a lot when I arrive in a new city. I tend to just (at least in my head) add -ian on the end (like Budapestian, lol), but clearly that’s not an accurate tactic. :)
ha, probably not :)
People that were born in Freiburg, not just live here, call themselves Böbbele.
Cool addition! Thanks Andrew
I didn’t know most of these! I’m going to have to start paying more attention to find interesting ones :)
They’re fun, aren’t they?
Halifax: Haligonian
Donald
Travergence
Excellent, thanks for the addition!
Halifax, Nova Scotia: Haligonian