10 Florida Nicknames That Confuse Everyone Who Isn’t From Here
In 1982, the Keys’ mayor seceded from the Union, and the Conch Republic was born.
Florida’s nicknames often come with grand stories like that.
Here’s what they mean, so you’re never the one asking “Where?”
1. Magic City
Miami’s nickname, the Magic City, came from a man who had never visited Miami.
By the end of summer 1896, the year the city incorporated, Miami already had the name.
Ethan V. Blackman, a publicist and minister, picked the name after Henry Flagler described the community’s promise to him in a letter.
Flagler’s Royal Palm Hotel opened on January 17, 1897.
2. Hogtown
Locals tie the nickname Hogtown to a 19th-century settlement in and around what’s now Westside Park in Gainesville.
The University of North Florida’s marker text says it was originally a village of Seminoles who raised hogs.
The village had fourteen inhabitants in 1824.
Gainesville was founded in 1854, a few miles east of Hogtown.
During the Second Seminole War, a settler’s fort was built at the Hogtown settlement.
Shortly before that war, men from Hogtown and Spring Grove formed a volunteer mounted rifle company, the Spring Grove Guards.
3. Cigar City
Visit Tampa Bay says hand-rolled cigars quickly became the area’s primary industry, earning Tampa Bay its nickname, Cigar City.
Cigar rolling in Ybor City started in 1886.
Vicente Martinez Ybor founded the neighborhood that year.
At the peak, about 200 cigar factories were operating.
Ybor City became the cigar capital of the world by 1900.
Cigar City at Its Peak
Cigar City’s industry turned out about 500 million cigars in 1929 alone, the Museum of Florida History says.
Spread across 365 days, that works out to about 1.4 million cigars every day.
4. River of Grass
The Everglades has a nickname that doubles as a book title, River of Grass.
Historically, wet-season water moved into a slow-moving, shallow river 50 miles wide.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas published The Everglades: River of Grass in 1947.
A revised edition followed in 1987.
The book has become the definitive description of the natural treasure she fought so hard to protect.
5. Sunshine City
The nickname Sunshine City was already on a postcard around 1950.
That card credited St. Petersburg with 360 days of sunshine a year.
The State Archives of Florida holds it.
The city’s visitor page now says 361.
St. Petersburg also holds a Guinness World Record for the most consecutive days of sunshine.
That stretch began in 1967.
6. Conch Republic
The nickname Conch Republic began as a protest in the Florida Keys.
According to the Conch Republic’s history, it was born on April 23, 1982, when the Keys’ mayor seceded from the Union in response to a blockade that treated the Keys like a foreign country.
If you see Conch Republic on a flag or a T-shirt, you’re looking at a 1982 protest.
Psst! How much do you know about nicknames and the stories behind them? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Nickname IQ
Answer nine questions on nicknames and the history behind them. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
St. Petersburg says it holds a Guinness World Record for consecutive days of sunshine. How long did the stretch last?
7. City of Five Flags
Pensacola's nickname, the City of Five Flags, refers to the flags that have flown over it.
The city's description lists the Spanish, French, British, Confederate and American flags.
Don Tristan de Luna and Spanish settlers established Pensacola in 1559.
8. Space Coast
By the mid-1960s, realtors and advertisers were using the nickname Space Coast for a section of Florida's Atlantic coast.
Communities noted their proximity to Cape Canaveral, and promoters marketed the area as a place to enjoy the beach and see a rocket launch.
Brevard County's government still uses the nickname on its official website.
The county, with approximately 600,000 residents, is home to 16 municipalities as well as Kennedy Space Center and Patrick Space Force Base.
9. Gators
The nickname Gators belongs to the University of Florida (UF) teams, and the school's student newspaper points to a 1911 report in the Florida Pennant.
That report said the Florida team was dubbed the Alligators on a trip to South Carolina.
A UF historian says the name likely came from a club started by one of the players.
10. Florida Man
Florida Man is the one nickname on this list that doesn't belong to a place.
It's a meme label for strange headlines about different people.
Some say Florida's public records law helps keep those headlines coming.
Florida's sunshine bill passed the Legislature in 1967.
Police reports and mug shots are readily available to reporters, though the law explains only part of why Florida gets so many strange stories.
The meme itself traces to a Florida tag on a website in the mid-2000s.
Then came a 2012 face-eating incident in Miami that made international headlines.
A Twitter account launched several months after that.
8 Florida Roads Locals Refuse to Drive Once Season Starts
Season changes how locals drive long before the calendar does.
This list covers the roads locals refuse to drive once season starts.
8 Florida Roads Locals Refuse to Drive Once Season Starts
8 Common Florida Wildlife Encounters, and What the State Tells You to Do About Them
Alligators draw the headlines, but they aren't the only animal worth knowing how to handle.
These are the wildlife encounters, and the official advice for each one.
8 Common Florida Wildlife Encounters, and What the State Tells You to Do About Them
