an insulting name to California for Nevada. In Nevada there is no California, hence no-cal. an easy way to distinguish californians between Nevadans is we use the hyphen, which is only proper Also Nor-Neva and So-Neva can be used, depending on your region of Nevada. Reno=Nor-Neva, Las Vegas=So-Neva. Neva is the chosen nickname for Nevada, due to the hotel Cal-Neva on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe, in which the border goes through the hotel.