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I am trying to embrace “The Nut.” Really, I am. But I’ve been living in the East Bay city of Walnut Creek for longer than most of these kids who have started calling it “The Nut” have been alive. I bought my starter home here (and am still living in it). My son was born here. And I really love our mall. For as long as I can remember, Walnut Creek has been the Dub C, the W.C., or simply the Creek. The last time our town possessed walnut groves was in the freaking 1950s. Still, even I can see that “The Nut” is inevitable. The nickname has been a topic of discussion on TikTok and Reddit for a few years now. (On the latter, people are starting to call nearby San Ramon “The Moan.” I can’t.) Advertisement Article continues below this ad Locals and even city officials are now embracing the moniker. During an Aug. 18 meeting, Walnut Creek Mayor Kevin Wilk told the City Council that he’s hearing the name more and more around town, and he even shouted out a millennial entrepreneur who’s been selling hats and T-shirts emblazoned with “The Nut” over the past few months. It’s worth noting that a KRON4 report on the moniker shared on Instagram has generated over 94,000 likes and around 1.6 million views as of Friday. Like me and others over 35, Wilk is attached to “The Creek.” But “The Nut” is growing on him now. “If people are talking about Walnut Creek, then whatever they want to call it, great,” Wilk told me over the phone. “If they’re enjoying it, I absolutely believe that it’s said with the most lighthearted intentions and not as derogatory.” It might be a little derogatory but in the most innocent of ways, insists Joey Trautner, the founder of the Walnut Creek Spotlight newsletter and a seller of “The Nut” merch. Trautner, who was born and raised in Walnut Creek and is now raising his children here, told me he used to get into debates online when he would see people calling his town the Nut. Advertisement Article continues below this ad “It was mostly people from outside Walnut Creek,” he said. “But then I asked my wife, who’s a high school teacher, and she was like, ‘Yeah, it’s the Nut now. Everyone calls it that. Nobody calls it the Dub C.’ I think the name is a little tongue-in-cheek. It hits with Gen Z and even older people, even my parents. I think they prefer the Creek, but they get it.” Trautner, who attended Northgate High School and works full time in construction management, started his newsletter back in 2023 as a way to share the city’s happenings, from festivals to restaurant openings, in one place. He built a presence on Instagram, too, and a few months ago, he decided to test the popularity of “The Nut” with some canvas hats embroidered with the nickname in black. He posted them to his TikTok, and a bunch of people hit him up almost immediately. “I didn’t think people would actually want this,” he told me. “But I was meeting people at Jamba Juice and Black Bear Diner. I was dropping off hats at people’s houses. There was so much demand.” Advertisement Article continues below this ad In July, on a whim, he signed up for a booth at the Locust Street Festival and promoted it in an Aug. 1 Instagram post that got nearly 15,000 views. He also told people he’d be selling not just hats but also “The Nut” T-shirts, which are made by a company out of Concord. Still, Traunter “was afraid nobody was going to buy” from him. “But even before the booth was set up, I had people coming up to me saying, ‘Hey, can I get a hat now? I’m worried they’re going to sell out,’” he said. Luckily, his dad and wife came out to help. That’s where Wilk met Trautner and took a photo with him wearing one of the hats. “There was a line of people eight-deep trying to get the shirts,” the mayor told me. “Then I’m walking around Locust Street later that evening, and I see a bunch of people wearing the shirts and the hats.” Trautner’s Instagram dashboard has amassed 745,000 views in the past 30 days. And the demand for his merch has grown so much that Trautner has launched a Google sign-up to monitor sales and is building up inventory. He’s added camo hats that say “The Nut” upside down, very on-trend — and he plans to sell them at the upcoming Oktoberfest that’s happening on Sept. 25 and 26. Advertisement Article continues below this ad BECOME A FRIEND. GET OUR AD-FREE APP. Is he sold on the name, though? “I definitely call it the Nut now,” he said. “I just think the Nut is a fun nickname that people have embraced and made their own.” It might take me a little longer. Advertisement Article continues below this ad — Steph Curry silently sold Atherton estate for $29.1M earlier this year — Inside the 'hectic' business of one of SF's top thrift stores — Marin County's famous spinning space craft home is on the market — Why 'unusually large' swarms of dragonflies are everywhere in the Bay Area Get SFGATE's top stories sent to your inbox by signing up for The Daily newsletter here.