“Nicknames are important branding strategies used by civic boosters, and Chicago’s namesakes are frequently employed to market the city and its surrounding region as ‘The Jewel of the Midwest’ and ‘Heart of America.’ At the same time, urban monikers can arise from the wider public and they have sometimes been used to draw attention to negative qualities of Chicago life.”
Source: news.aag.org
Is it Londonderry or just Derry? Xinjiang or Eastern Turkestan? The Sea of Japan or the East Sea? Persian Gulf or Arabian Gulf? Names and nicknames have political and cultural overtones that can be very important. As the author of this AAG article on the Chicago’s nickname, Chiraq says, “city nicknames are more than a gimmick; they can define geographies of violence, marginalization, and resistance.”
GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION 
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