text: how did new york city get the nickname "gotham"?   gotham was first used in reference to new york city by washington irving in the satirical piece salmagundi (1807). gotham was at that point already known to refer to a place with "foolish inhabitants." somehow the name stuck to nyc, even though it had originally been a nickname for nottinghamshire (a village in england where, apparently, wise men acted as fools in order to avoid paying for the king's upkeep).