Nicknames of Chicago
This article lists nicknames for the city of Chicago, Illinois. Windy City Second City "Second City" originates as an insult from a series of articles in The New Yorker by A. J. Liebling, later combined into a book titled Chicago: The Second City (1952). In it, Liebling writes about his hatred for Chicago and contrasts it to his hometown New York City. He complains about Chicago's economic decline, rampant organized crime and political corruption, declining population, outdated schools of thought, and general dependency on the cities along the east coast. The Chicago-based improv comedy group The Second City references Liebling's book in their self-mocking name. In 2011, Chicago announced its adoption of the slogan "Second to None", a protest stance indirectly referring to Liebling's publications. The slogan was replaced with another in 2022. An etymology popularized by tour guides suggests that it refers to rebuilding the city following the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. Chi-town "Chi-town," "Chi-Town," or "Chitown" ( ) is a nickname that follows an established pattern of shortening a city's name and appending the suffix "-town," like "H-Town" refers to Houston. Despite many mentions by well-known figures in popular works, such as C. W. McCall's song "Convoy,"