THE Australian National Dictionary Centre is on the lookout for names people give their favourite places – like “Freo”, “the Gong” and closer to home, “Quangers” or “Tuggers”.

The centre, based at the ANU, is launching its first ever annual appeal for contributions for the Australian National Dictionary, a dictionary of Australian words and their origins, to be published by Oxford University Press Australia and New Zealand and this year’s theme is “nicknames for places”.

The ANDC is collecting the unique names people have for the places they live in, drive through and visit.

ANDC editor Mark Gwynn said: “The informality and humour commonly found in Australian English obviously extends to naming places as well.

“If there’s a place in Australia that hasn’t received a nickname yet, it’s only a matter of time.”

Some describe attributes of a place, like “the Top End” or “the Apple” but more are abbreviations – think “Freo” (for Fremantle) or “the Gong” (for Wollongong) and others are derogatory, such as “Brisvegas” (for Brisbane).

“If you have a nickname for your special place, we want to hear from you,” said the ANDC director, Dr Amanda Laugesen.

Contributions from the public can be made facebook.com/ozwords or Twitter @ozworders.