Who says Frisco?

I grew up in "The City" and am a 4th generation San Franciscan or maybe more, still doing the family tree research, and not having much luck since all my family's records burned in the 1906 fire. I just cringe when I hear people refer to The City as Frisco. Everyone I grew up with and everyone I know from San Francisco feel the same. It is only outsiders and transplants that refer to The City as Frisco and it is considered to be disrespectful, lazy, and ignorant, NOT cool. It may seem petty, but as long as I have lived it has been that way and I am 61 years old now.

My mom is from there, but we have lived in Hawaii for over 40 years. She still bristles when she hears "Frisco", I think the problem is not so much that it's an abbreviation, so much as the parts of the word aren't even together in the proper name. (San) Fr(anc)isco = Frisco. Whereas, "Philly" is at least reminiscent of "Phill(adelphia)" and "Sac" is from "Sac(ramento). As for people not saying the T in the latter, it is probably a local thing, but I always pronounce it, mostly because I also speak Spanish and the T is pronounced in the root language (even when I say it without proper Spanish pronunciation).

If my town (Kane`ohe) were to be abbreviated like SF is, it would be "Keohe" or "Nehe" or something completely different than the two words which make up the word (bamboo man), and that would just be wrong. Some of us refer to it as "K-town", but only on our bumper stickers! We don't say it or write it, per se, mostly because so many of our towns begin with "K" that it would only lead to confusion.

I can see why San Franciscans are opposed to Frisco.

I have actually found that people who move from other places to San Franscisco, are the ones that think they are above everyone else just cuz now they live in "San Fran" or "DA SCO" a couple more for ya.

I get the occasional roll of the eyes when I tell people where I am from. They presume I come with SF SMUG( there was hilarious Southpark epsisode where the smugness of George Cloney was going to collide with the Smugness of SF and cause a disaster)


Folks who grew up here or have been here for years don't really care what you call it. Its the newbs and hipsters that get annoyed. This city seems to welcome ya regardless.

What ever you call it, glad you came and come back soon......

People who don't live here use that unfortunate disrespectful term. Natives and REAL Locals call it "town" or by it's proper name .
"Frisco" is vulger & disrespectful . This town was named after Saint Francis of Assisi- one of the most loving kind Holy Men ever!
Built with Gold rush money by Goldminers, Sailors, Bootleggers , Sinners, Gamblers, Chinese railroad workers, Ex-slaves, Whorehouse Madams, Jewish fine craftsmen (Lacemakers,Tailors and glass & mirror bevelers- like the Gumps and the Magnins) and people seeking religious and sexual freedom from the East. Living all together - "the city of Fruits and Nuts".
This city is not stable. It is ALWAYS transcient. It is Earthquake prone and after big ones ALOT of people leave. People come here to transform themselves , become something they could not be anywhere else or to get rich. Golddiggers , Beatniks,Hippies, Eastern Religious groups ,homosexuals, all manner of deviants ,immigrants from Mexico (who think California still belongs to Mexico) and immigrants from all of America's many many many wars, Dot-Com-ers and now Techies or whatever this new group is ( but PLEASE don't call them "Hipsters"! Anything but that! The very last thing this new group is is "hip". More like Young Techno-Corporate Capitalists .)
People who live here have always respected the tolerant and non-judgemental " Live and Let Live" attitude of San Francisco so they would NEVER use such vulgar slang to address this town they LOVE that gave them FREEDOM and allowed them to just be themselves.
The new young people who have now moved here do not show much respect nor show much love nor understanding of where they actually are, it's history or who was here before they came.
In the Mission the true locals (or anyone not 20something working in IT ) are perceived like movie extras, like a painted set in their "download " of SF to feel "hip" against .Meanwhile they have taken over like locusts , jacking up the rents so that real locals can no longer afford to even live here.
Soon it will be just them and their iPhones and all the failed restaurants, and all that was truly "cool" and artistic about this town will be gone and then the BIG ONE will hit and they will all get very scared and run back home to Pittsburgh or wherever the hell they come from - like they always do. You just have to be patient and wait it out.......

I hear that the SF Angels call themselves the "Frisco Hell's Angels." Probably as yet another attempt to annoy the general populace.

The term Frisco originated in Frisco, on the docs, the Hells Angels, and such. To say that only out-of-town yokels call it Frisco, is simply not true. It seems like the people that have the most problem with the name Frisco is the people that moved in from out of town. The same people that are ruining the city. Swallow your pride and accept Frisco, or you may end up with "San Fran".

I think you people need to calm down. They have been calling San Francisco "Frisco" since the gold rush of 1849. It is part of your heritage. It is a term that originated in San Francisco and it will stay there. Even the Hell's Angels, workers on the docks, and the rest of the working class (that has been driven out of town) call it that. I will continue to cal it "Frisco", not due to ignorance, but because many people from there have such a knee jerk reaction against that moniker. I think it is time you embraced your heritage, and the abbreviated name for "The City"... FRISCO!!

The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway known as the “Frisco” began
operating in 1876, but the nickname is as old as the American West.
Herb Caen, the Pulitzer-winning San Francisco Chronicle columnist,
was adamant that no one call his fair city by such a sliced up moniker.
Instead, "Caress each Spanish syllable, salute our Italian saint.
Don't say Frisco and don't say San-Fran-Cis-Co," he advised.
"That's the way Easterners, like Larry King pronounce it. It's more
like SanfrnSISco." Yet, cultural forces from Otis Redding ("headed
for the Frisco bay") to Pink Floyd (the unofficial Darkness Over Frisco
live album) to Google (search "Frisco" and see what comes to the
top of the page) keep the name associated with San Francisco.
Here's the thing with "Frisco": Nicknames are supposed to embody
some overall characteristic, not just act as a lazy surgery of the
city’s name. There's a reason we don't call New York "Nork" when
we're feeling saucy. It’s the "The City That Never Sleeps" for poetic
reasons. Just because "Frisco" sounds like a place (and it is,
in Texas and Colorado), doesn't make it a good nickname. No one
would get on the I-5 and head south for "Agles."
(Pro tip: If an out-of-town friend calls it Frisco, avoid the soapbox.
San Franciscans have a rep for being uptight jerks about the nickname.
Don't play into the stereotype. They'll eventually notice you never
call it that anyway.)

I was in San Francisco in the 1950s and 1960s and always was under the impression that
"Frisco" was commonly used to refer to the city, without offending anyone. I guess that with the years, the meaning of certain words have changed. Back then, there was a word that meant: "merry, bright and lively," according to an old dictionary. That word is "gay," which has an entirely different meaning, nowadays.