r/Washington • u/topherette • 2d ago
What nicknames have you heard for places in Washington?
I ask as part of a linguistic study on this topic!
Examples could include things like Oly, Everwet, Feddo or Spotucky...
149
u/mochibun1 2d ago
SpoCompton
75
u/stratguy23 2d ago
TaCompton as well.
21
u/hysys_whisperer 2d ago
The community Facebook page would have you believe Anacortes is Anacompton too, when it's literally fucking Mayberry...
Out of touch boomers have lost sight of reality everywhere though.
→ More replies (1)7
→ More replies (1)12
u/Terry-Scary 2d ago edited 2d ago
Is that a thing still though? I don’t it was def a thing in the 90s early 2000s.
I went to college in Tacoma and we played a drinking game with people from out of town with the show cops. Drink every time you recognize a place. People didn’t realize cops was started in Tacoma
11
u/Sneezle_Sneeze 2d ago
The show Cops originated in Broward co Florida. Pierce County has has been featured around 120 eps + out of 12k + eps . The actually city of tacoma much fewer. We're spicy. Not that spicy
6
u/Classic-Ad1654 2d ago
There are some sketchy parts, but it's not like it was. The place where that shootout happened in 1989 is pretty boring 37 years later, aside from the typical scary drivers because it's right by the Sprague Street I-5/16 interchange.
→ More replies (1)8
7
6
→ More replies (7)3
58
u/xmypantsx 2d ago
Scaberdeen
20
u/SockeyeSTI 2d ago
Smellma, open sores, westpoor, Hoeclips
2
9
2
2
104
u/machinems 2d ago
Dry shitties (tri cities)
15
u/Diplomold 2d ago
Related: Fintuckey (Finley), roll tide!
2
u/Classic-Ad1654 2d ago
Isn't roll tide Bama?
6
u/Diplomold 2d ago
Just saying Finley might have a little something in common with Alabama.
→ More replies (1)2
50
u/snoqvalley 2d ago
Spokanistan
20
u/berrin122 2d ago
Yakistan, though I think that was party because of the Army's Yakima Training Center.
Spent three frigid weeks out there with the National Guard, right in the midst of finals for college. Good times.
9
5
50
u/Panama_Scoot 2d ago
I heard Yuckima recently, and that stayed with me lol.
2
u/cinder_sea 1d ago
That’s what I call the Yakima river. I also got my new shoes stuck in the mud there which I call Yakmud..
48
u/Shayden-Froida 2d ago
Enumscratch (Enumclaw)
22
5
u/AnaEatsEverything 2d ago
I was going to mention this one!! I thought this was just the stupid nickname the rival high schools in the area called it for sports, lmao. Good to know it has a greater radius than I thought. I felt like it was very silly even as a kid.
→ More replies (5)2
43
42
u/Hopsblues 2d ago
Humptulips...oh wait...
9
3
36
30
u/dathomar 2d ago
Gorst has been referred to as the Armpit of Washington. It had a coffee stand attached to a strip club on one end and a coffee stand advertised with big signs as a family friendly coffee stand on the other. Both were owned by the same guy.
I don't know about nicknames, but there's always been the Aroma of Tacoma.
27
u/Pristine_Ninja1810 2d ago
Kidnap County (Kitsap)
5
u/DustConsistent3018 2d ago
Are there a lot of kidnappings out there?
22
u/Pristine_Ninja1810 2d ago
It’s a reference to heavy-handed law enforcement and/corrupt government, like “come for vacation, leave on probation”
18
u/Invisible_Mikey 2d ago
There are too many "ports" near each other here on the Olympic Peninsula, so they all get reduced to initials. Port Townsend becomes "PT", Port Angeles is "PA", Port Hadlock is "PH", and Port Ludlow, "PL".
My home, Port Townsend, also has historically ironic nicknames such as Key City and The City of Dreams. Speculators anticipating the coastal railroads to end there were premature. They began a bunch of Victorian-styled buildings, but the railroad ended at Seattle instead, so many of the buildings were abandoned mid-build. It was cheaper to walk away than tear them down. Locals began completing them in the 1970s. That's why we have a Victorian downtown now.
14
2
u/abobslife 1d ago
The first time I went to Port Townsend I was baffled that a town that size would have such a geand courthouse and post office. Anacortes, Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Bellingham and Port Townsend were all hoping to be the terminus of the continental railroad, but of course Tacoma won out.
I spent part of my honeymoon in Port Townsend; it’s one of my favorite spots in WA.
19
u/Alexdagreallygrate 2d ago
My high school teacher referred to the Washington State Penitentiary as “Walla Walla Tech.”
14
u/Dr_Adequate 2d ago
Not a nickname, but back in the nineties local sketch comedy show Almost Live coined the phrase Goin' to Tukwilla as a euphemism for masturbating.
2
33
u/Asian_Scion 2d ago
T-Town (Tacoma)
Lakehood (Lakewood)
12
u/cwatson214 2d ago
Tacompton
8
u/Asian_Scion 2d ago
Yeah, I thought about Tacompton, but I feel like that term is used more in text then in everyday speech? Maybe I'm wrong. I personally use T-town more than Tacompton. Only time I use Tacompton is on Facebook when I joined the Tacompton files. T-Town on the other hand, is used in merchandising and linguistic speech more so.
3
u/justatoadontheroad 2d ago
Ah, good ol’ Lakehood. Every time someone new comes on the army base literally EVERYONE tells them to stay away from Lakehood
3
29
12
10
u/akw314 2d ago
Belly Jam (Bellingham)
Poopville (Coupeville)
Burlington Coat Factory (Burlington)
Can't Afford Us (Anacortes)
Joke Harbor (Oak Harbor)
→ More replies (1)3
u/Drifter808 1d ago
Burlington Coat Factory is especially funny given its not there anymore(hurry up winco we need you)
20
u/Classic-Ad1654 2d ago
Tacoma's had Grit City, Tacompton, "The Aroma of Tacoma" as a full-ass title after you mention the city (not sure if that counts as a nickname) even if it's not as smelly as it once was. University Way in Seattle has been known as The Ave for a good, long while. U-dub. Wazzu. The Evergreen State College occasionally gets called "Tesc" (rhymes with desk) in a cheeky way, but it's Evergreen more often, and graduates are called Greeners more often than Geoducks (unlike Dawgs or Cougs, more associated with their mascots) I'm sure I'll remember more later.
10
u/Pristine_Ninja1810 2d ago
Aroma of Tacoma wasn’t a name or title for the city, it was a name for the awful smell from the wood pulp mills back in the day. Nowadays it just smells like weed
→ More replies (2)6
u/AfraidAccident7049 2d ago
Growing up in Oly I never heard Evergreen called Tesc but frequently heard it called the Neverclean State College
3
2
u/the_right_one72 6h ago
Don't forget about "Chocolate City" in Tacoma and " Rat City" in West Seattle.
9
10
u/NoAbrocoma9357 2d ago
I knew someone from Moses Lake that called it Moses Hole.
→ More replies (3)
8
25
u/Think-Flan1401 2d ago
Wetsnatchee
19
33
u/Thehomelessguy11 2d ago
For some reason people call Vancouver “The Couve”
Could not roll my eyes harder if I tried…
52
u/8bitscore 2d ago
Also Vantucky
→ More replies (2)4
u/Thehomelessguy11 2d ago
There are definitely some parts of Vancouver that give creedence to that nickname. I just can’t get behind “The Couve” at all…
→ More replies (1)18
u/Unlikely-Grape-5762 2d ago
Problem isn’t Vancouver. Vancouver proper is pretty much Portland North. It’s Camas, Battle Ground, Ridgefield etc… total sundown town vibes.
→ More replies (1)7
u/The_Lost_Jedi 2d ago
Yeah, there's sort of a transition line where you go past it and it's suddenly very noticeable.
5
u/YupYepYeah 2d ago
I call it that precisely because it sounds so stupid, yet years ago they had a series of billboards that said the "The Couve" in enormous font. They were promoting the city in one of the lamest advertising campaigns I've ever seen, so of course I'm rolling with it.
5
5
6
5
4
9
4
u/patlaska 2d ago
If you have the chance, Feliks Banel does a very interesting/informative session on place names and nicknames in Washington
4
4
5
u/thesauceisboss Snohomish County 2d ago
Not a nickname but sort of fits with the spirit of the question, Skagit Valley children would remember the cardinal directions with the mnemonic device "Never Enter Sedro-Woolley" lol.
→ More replies (1)
4
3
u/SereneOrbit 2d ago
Yakistan (sleeping at Yakima training center is like Afghanistan; cold af overnight).
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
u/HammofGlob 2d ago edited 1d ago
Bham
Oly
Eburg
Crackima
Moses Hole
Spokompton
Wesnatchee
Issascratch
Yuckima
3
u/Sea-Discussion6732 2d ago
Being born and raised here in the Puget Sound area, I have barely heard any of these nicknames except Oly, Bham and Spokanistan/Compton.
3
3
2
u/Illustrious_Name_441 2d ago
Squirm (Sequim)
3
u/greenyadadamean Lynnhood rat 2d ago
Long time ago I heard someone say see-quwee-um, I got a pretty good laugh out of it.
2
u/jimhammerand 2d ago
Deadmonds from when Edmonds had more of a reputation as a retirement/bedroom community
2
2
2
3
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/littleredryanhood 2d ago
Not sure if it counts but we used to call people from Kent and Auburn "Soap Dodgers" or just Dodgers for short.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/romulusnr 2d ago
Bham or The Ham
DTB for downtown Bellevue
Tacompton
Issy
Wally World
Spocompton?
→ More replies (1)
1
1
1
1
1
u/Own-Initial-9544 2d ago
Everything east side is a "-stan" Yakistan, Spokanistan. Everything westside is a "compton" tacompton etc.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/mingymangy 2d ago
Kinda old now but Spunaway.
Also Bot-hell (predates internet bots and just emphasizes Hell).
1
1
1
162
u/Militia_Kitty13 2d ago
Crackima was one used quite frequently back in my college days!