This partial list of city nicknames in Texas compiles the aliases, sobriquets and slogans that cities in Texas are known by (or have been known by historically), officially and unofficially, to locals, outsiders or their tourism boards. The Texas state legislature has officially granted many Texas cities honorary designations as the state's "capital" of something.[1] City nicknames can help in establishing a civic identity, helping outsiders recognize a community or attracting people to a community because of its nickname; promote civic pride; and build community unity.[2] Nicknames and slogans that successfully create a new community "ideology or myth"[3] are also believed to have economic value.[2] Their economic value is difficult to measure,[2] but there are anecdotal reports of cities that have achieved substantial economic benefits by "branding" themselves by adopting new slogans.[3]
Some of the nicknames are positive, while others are derisive. The unofficial nicknames listed here are those that have been used for such a long time or have gained so wide a currency that they have become well known in their own right.
Execution Capital of the World/Death Penalty City (Texas' execution chamber is located in Huntsville, and Texas often leads all US states in executions per year; death row was located in Huntsville but later relocated)[54][55][56]
^The nickname is used in the title of a book, Abilene, The Key City, by Juanita Daniel Zachry, published in 1986 by Windsor Publications in cooperation with the Texas Sesquicentennial Committee for Abilene.b/OL2714832M/Abilene,-the-key-city
^Peter Applebome (November 21, 1988). "25 Years After the Death of Kennedy, Dallas Looks at Its Changed Image". New York Times. Archived from the original on September 6, 2017. Retrieved February 10, 2017. Few American cities have come under the kind of national scorn that befell Dallas in the days and weeks after President Kennedy died here. The city found itself widely condemned as a city of hate.
^Jerry Organ (2000). "Dallas to Dealey". The Kennedy Assassination. Archived from the original on 2015-07-07. Retrieved 2012-10-30.
^"Economic Development". City of Deer Park, Texas. Archived from the original on 2013-01-23. Retrieved 2012-12-21. Why the "Birthplace of Texas"? Deer Park is the site where initial treaty documents securing Texas' independence from Mexico were drafted following the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836.
^City of El Paso websiteArchived 2009-07-12 at the Wayback Machine, accessed June 15, 2010. "Mild weather and below average cost of living has attracted several new residents and businesses to the Sun City."
^Oliver Knight and Cissy Stewart Lale (1953) Fort WorthArchived 2019-05-01 at the Wayback Machine, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, page 109: "Fort Worth in 1880 was being hailed as the Queen City of the Prairie."
^Katherine Ling, Buoyed by fresh petrodollars, 'Energy City' dares to hopeArchived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, Greenwire (E&E Publishing), June 2, 2008. "Battered by the petroleum industry's decline in the 1980s and hit hard by Hurricane Rita in 2005, the self-proclaimed "Energy City" has struggled for years with high unemployment, crime and pollution."
^ abA Changed OasisArchived 2009-01-07 at the Wayback Machine, Short Grass Country website. "In a deft switch of wording, San Angelo changed its slogan from The Wool Capital Of The World to The Wool Capital Of The Nation. The Chamber of Commerce office confirmed the change. While I waited, the telephone tape said over and over, 'San Angelo is the oasis of West Texas'..."
^Hall, E., "Transcript of letter from E. Hall to James F. PerryArchived 2019-07-09 at the Wayback Machine", December 9, 1835. Accessed May 24, 2019. University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History. "[I] have been surrounded by applicants for Texas service and have provided 50 to sail in Scho Santiago for Brasoria and hope they will be provided with facilities to go to San fillipe or San Antone."
^Ayala, Christine, "No, Obama, it's not called 'San Antone'"Archived 2019-07-09 at the Wayback Machine, Dallas Morning News, May, 2016. "The use of "San Antone" is most common in music, featured in songs from Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and George Strait, to name a few."
^ abBrief HistoryArchived 2021-09-24 at the Wayback Machine, City of Weatherford website. "Named by the State Legislature as the Peach Capital of Texas, Weatherford and Parker County growers produce the biggest, sweetest, juiciest peaches in all of Texas... Known as the Cutting Horse Capital of the World, Weatherford is home to dozens of professional trainers [and] hall-of-fame horses."