Survey: A third of Americans don't care that SF hates the name 'San Fran'

A survey by Bospar, which has an office in SF, asked, among other things, Americans whether or not they would stop using 'San Fran' if they "learned that 'San Fran' sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard to the people of San Francisco." less A survey by Bospar, which has an office in SF, asked, among other things, Americans whether or not they would stop using 'San Fran' if they "learned that 'San Fran' sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard to ... more Photo: Tom Stienstra / Tom Stienstra / The Chronicle Photo: Tom Stienstra / Tom Stienstra / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 29 Caption Close Survey: A third of Americans don't care that SF hates the name 'San Fran' 1 / 29 Back to Gallery

It looks like Americans are really struggling to settle on a nickname for San Francisco.

A survey by Propeller Insights and the PR firm Bospar - which has an office in "Fog City" - asked Americans what nicknames they used for "The City," providing options such as "Baghdad by the Bay" and "Golden Gate City." "San Fran" was the most popularly used nickname in survey results.

Two-thirds of those polled from across the country said that they would stop calling San Francisco by the widely loathed shorthand if they "learned that 'San Fran' sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard to the people of San Francisco."

The other third, it seems, doesn't care how SF residents feel about the notorious nickname.

That wasn't the only interesting result to come out of the survey. For example, men (41 percent) were almost twice as likely as women (24 percent) to keep saying "San Fran." Millenials and Gen Xers are the mostly likely to keep using it, too, while the majority of Baby Boomers would likely cut it out if they knew it was annoying to locals.

A significant number of San Francisco residents (20 percent) are still using that name, too, according to the survey. And there's a pesky 9 percent of residents sometimes calling it "Frisco."

WATCH: What annoys people most about Bay Area life (story continues below)

But the majority of San Franciscans (65 percent) call San Francisco by the name it was given over 170 years ago.

"It is vitally important to call the city 'San Francisco' over 'San Fran,'" Charles Fracchia, cofounder of Rolling Stone magazine and president emeritus of the San Francisco Museum & Historical Society, said in a press release about the survey.

"Utilizing the full name of any person or place gives it dignity, and I believe 'San Francisco' deserves to be referred to in its full name."

To Bospar, the results of this survey mean that "The City by the Bay" has a branding problem when it comes to the usage of nicknames like "San Fran" and "Frisco."

"When we tell these people that San Franciscans don't really use those nicknames, they usually respond with 'Well, I've never read that,'" Curtis Sparrer, a principal of Bospar, said in a press release about the survey.

Although "San Fran" and "Frisco" are some of the nicknames that get the most negative attention, they weren't the most hated by the people polled in this survey.

The nickname that was off-putting to the largest percentage of survey respondents was "Baghdad by the Bay," which was coined by legendary Chronicle columnist Herb Caen. 79 percent of S.F. residents and 73 percent of visitors to The City responded that they didn't like that nickname. Many won't stand for "The Golden City" either.

And nearly 49 percent of respondents said they disliked the nickname "Fog City," which would likely sadden Karl.