The Volokh Conspiracy - Gotham City:

I was curious why New York City is sometimes nicknamed Gotham, and learned that the source is apparently (to quote the OED):

The name of a village, proverbial for the folly of its inhabitants ('wise men of Gotham'). (There is a village so named in Notts., but it is not certain that this was the place alluded to.) transf. Applied to (a) Newcastle, (b) New York.

Washington Irving apparently either pioneered or popularized the label in the early 1800s.

	[Eugene Volokh, September 24, 2008 at 8:00pm] Trackbacks Gotham City: I was curious why New York City is sometimes nicknamed Gotham, and learned that the source is apparently (to quote the OED): The name of a village, proverbial for the folly of its inhabitants ('wise men of Gotham'). (There is a village so named in Notts., but it is not certain that this was the place alluded to.) transf. Applied to (a) Newcastle, (b) New York. Washington Irving apparently either pioneered or popularized the label in the early 1800s.