Nashville has collected more nicknames than most American cities, and they don’t all point in the same direction. Some are earned from a century of genuine cultural identity. Some are marketing. Understanding which is which tells you something real about the place.
Music City USA
The primary nickname, the one on the airport signs and the tourism literature. It dates to a 1950 WSM radio broadcast when announcer David Cobb improvised “Music City USA” while introducing a Grand Ole Opry program to a national audience. The country music industry infrastructure, recording studios, publishing houses, labels, and the Grand Ole Opry itself, justified the name when it was coined and still justifies it today.
Athens of the South
This one is older and less often heard, but it reflects a real strand of Nashville’s identity. In the mid-19th century, Nashville built an unusually dense collection of universities and academies for a Southern city of its size. Vanderbilt (1873), Fisk (1866), Belmont, Tennessee State, Lipscomb, Meharry Medical College, the accumulation earned Nashville a reputation as a center of education in the region.
The physical embodiment of the nickname is Nashville’s full-scale replica of the Athenian Parthenon, built in Centennial Park in 1897 as part of Tennessee’s Centennial Exposition and made permanent in 1931. It houses a 42-foot gilded statue of Athena, the tallest indoor sculpture in the Western Hemisphere.
Cashville
A more recent nickname, reflecting the city’s transformation from a mid-size Southern capital into a place where serious money moved. Nashville’s surge as a corporate relocation destination, Oracle, Amazon, healthcare conglomerates, private equity firms, plus the luxury real estate boom and the bachelorette party economy, gave the city this harder-edged name. It’s used with some irony by longtime residents watching the city price itself beyond what it once was.
Nashvegas
Originally a mild mockery from locals who found the neon-lit Broadway strip and the explosive bachelorette party culture a bit much. Over time it became a term of affection, especially among newcomers who genuinely love the party energy. The name captures the commercialized, glittery side of the city, the pedal taverns, the rooftop bars, the cowboy boot boutiques, without quite endorsing it.
NashVegas (Alternate Capitalization)
Sometimes you’ll see it written without the stylized capitalization, and it carries slightly different weight. It is more likely to be used by a visitor describing their wild weekend than by a local describing their city.
The Buckle of the Bible Belt
Nashville’s density of churches, estimated at 700 to 800-plus congregations in Davidson County alone, and its role as headquarters for several major Protestant denominations (Southern Baptist Convention, National Baptist Convention, Churches of Christ) put it at the center of American evangelical culture. Thomas Nelson, the country’s largest Christian publisher, is headquartered here. This nickname is used matter-of-factly, without particular irony.
Which Ones Actually Get Used
In daily local conversation, “Music City” is the default. “Athens of the South” shows up in real estate listings and civic speeches. “Cashville” gets used when someone is complaining about housing prices. “Nashvegas” is the word a visitor uses when they’re packing for a bachelorette weekend or recovering from one.
The city itself uses “Music City” almost exclusively in official tourism contexts. The airport code is BNA, Berry Field Nashville, not MCV. The CVB is the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp, and their brand is simply “Nashville | Music City.”
Sources
- Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp, official branding materials
- Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum, WSM Radio history
- Metro Nashville Government, historical records on Centennial Park and Parthenon
- Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, relocation data 2024
- Tennessee Secretary of State, religious institution records