W shortened pronunciations, as many speakers find the phrase "double-u double-u double-u" inconveniently long. In other Germanic languages, including German (but not Dutch, in which it is pronounced wé), its name is similar to that of English V . In many languages, its name literally means "double v": Portuguese "duplo vê", Spanish "doble ve" (though it can be spelled "uve doble"), French "double vé", Icelandic "tvöfalt vaff", Czech "dvojité vé", Finnish "kaksois-vee", etc. Former U.S. president George W. Bush was given the nickname "Dubya" after the colloquial pronunciation of his middle initial in Texas, where he spent much of his childhood.
Windy City (nickname) words, the Windy City is not a nickname Chicago gave itself, but rather something that the city has embraced over time. Chicago's wind is often called "The Hawk". This term has long been popular in African American Vernacular English. "The Baltimore Sun's" series of columns in 1934 attempted to examine the origin of the phrase, "Hawkins is coming", for a cold, winter wind. The first recorded Chicago citation is in the "Chicago Defender", October 20, 1936: "And these cold mornings are on us—in other words 'Hawkins' has got us." In the 1967 song, "Dead End Street", Chicago native Lou Rawls