Why Is Gotham A Nickname For New York?

Why Is Gotham A Nickname For New York?

The batman signal can be seen on very many occasions gracing the skies of the Gotham city from a spotlight signaling in the skies. This is from the fictional comic of the batman series. New York City got the Gotham city nickname from this fictional comic story. Gotham city is a fictional city in the famous DC comics that is considered as batman’s home. Apart from the Gotham city, New York also has other nicknames such as; ‘the city that never sleep’, ‘the less humble city of the universe’ and the most commonly known nickname of ‘the big apple’. All these nicknames have some source where they stemmed from.

The nickname Gotham city, picked on after it was made famous by Washington Irving who was the first to refer to New York City by this nickname around the year 1807 in his article. The nickname then gained popularity especially in the nineteenth century and soon New York City was being referred to as Gotham city by many writers and publishers and consequently most of the city’s inhabitants.

The name Gotham, according to the writer of the batman comic series, was gotten from the department store named Gotham jewelers, before juggling between coast city and civic city. However, the name Gotham did not originate from the comic book or the jewelry store. The name Gotham was used to refer to a fictional village in Nottinghamshire, England. The village, according to the English folklore, was a town inhabited by foolish people.  In essence, there are many similarities between the fictional Gotham city and New York City that elicits the reference of New York City as the Gotham city. These include similarities such as; the founding of the two cities, whereby New York City was founded by the Dutch while Gotham city by the Norwegians, and both being taken over by the British. The nickname picked on from the fictional comic depiction of a similar city.