Alastair et al,

As someone who currently lives in (the rest of ) New York and has lived in various other parts of the United States, I can reliably tell you that when the majority of people I deal with say New York, they mean New York City. The rest of us are generally referred to as living in New York State.

Gael Grossman

Please will one of our US members give me as definitive an answer as is possible.  Over in the UK, when one says "New York", 99 times out of 100 we mean New York City - probably more like 999 times out of 1000. (Indeed, I wouldn't mind betting that, even among educated Brits, a very substantial portion wouldn't know the difference between NYC and NY).  But I've always understood that US citizens will nearly always refer to the city as New York City.
I ask because, in the Carrington extracts of Carrie Kipling's diaries, Carrington, when he is paraphrasing and not using Carrie's own words, tends to use 'New York' rather than New York City.  Is he just being an ignorant Brit?  Or might Carrie quite frequently have referred to the city merely as 'New York'?
Alastair Wilson