Names for metropolitan areas

[hbelkins]

From the "Chicagoland Control Cities" thread.

Assuming all control cities should be in another metro area (unlike Aurora which is in Chicagoland),

I always found the term "Chicagoland" to be a bit unusual as a description of the metropolitan area.

The Cincinnati area is called "Greater Cincinnati."

Any other unusual monikers for big cities and their adjacent suburbs?

[mukade]

The LA area is sometimes called the Southland: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Los_Angeles_Area

South Bend/Elkhart/Niles area is Michiana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiana

Kentuckiana is used around Louisville and Evansville.

[mgk920]

The Milwaukee, WI metro area is often called 'Milwaukeeland'.

Also, the immediate Appleton, WI area (Kaukauna through Neenah plus a few contiguous developed suburban areas on either side) are the 'Fox Cities' while urbanized areas along the US(I)-41 corridor from Oshkosh through Green Bay are collectively the 'Fox Valley'.

Mike

[US81]

This may be more regional than strictly metropolitan, but I am amused by "the Ark-La-Tex" and "Ark-La-Tex-oma"  for the Shreveport - Texarkana area.

[1995hoo]

In North Carolina:

Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill are collectively "the Triangle." (Research Triangle Park is a particular area within the Triangle to the southeast of Durham.)

About an hour to the west of there you find Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point, which are collectively "the Triad" (sometimes "the Piedmont Triad").

[3467]

The Quad Cities of Davenport ,Bettendorf,Moline,East Moline and Rock Island.......
Formerlly the Tri-Cities which is what Pasco,Kennewick and Richland WA are called
Peoria calls it self the River City and Bloomington -Normal calls itself the twin cities which I think someplace in MN is also known
Chicagoland reflects its strangely insular nature while at the same time being at the core of the Midwest.

[mukade]

Within the greater Chicagoland area is Northwest Indiana which is known as the Calumet Region or simply "da region".

On the INDOT city maps, the Indiana suburbs of Louisville are called the Falls City area.

[CentralCAroadgeek]

There's the obvious Bay Area up here in Northern California.

The Phoenix area is known as the Valley of the Sun.

Then there's also the Brazosport and the DFW Metroplex in Texas.

[Alps]

This is the Tri-State Area, not the New York Metro.

[Brandon]

Within the greater Chicagoland area is Northwest Indiana which is known as the Calumet Region or simply "da region".

There are lots of different parts to Chicagoland:

NW Indiana (aka Calumet Region)
Southland (everything south of 87th Street (Will/DuPage County line) and west of the state line)
North Shore (the coastline north of Chicago including Winnetka, Evanston, and Highland Park)
NW Cook (the part of Cook County north of DuPage County)
Joliet/North Will County (includes Bolingbrook, Romeoville, and Plainfield)
South Cook (south Cook County suburbs, south of Chicago)
Fox Valley (Elgin, St Charles, Geneva, Batavia, and Aurora)
Chain of Lakes (Lake/McHenry border area along the Fox River)

[KEVIN_224]

There's no real name for greater Hartford. I've heard the city itself be called The HART-beat a few times, but that's it.

[Marc]

Here's a couple that come to mind:

Memphis, TN = the Mid South
Dallas/Fort Worth, TX = DFW Metroplex (or the Metroplex for short)

[SP Cook]

West Virginia, of course, has no metro areas, but varrious names for collective regions have developed:

The most problematical one is Huntington and Charleston as a group.  Huntington, WV, Ashland, KY, and Ironton, OH, as a group are generally "The Tri-State", which is also used for Cincinnati and can thus be confusing.  Something therefore "The River Cites" is used.  Charleston is "The Kanawha Valley", but the two together have never been a good name.  Ohio and Kentucky object to "Charleston-Huntington" and anything longer is too long.  Marshall University's research corporation used to be called "The Advantage Valley" and they encouraged that for a while, but, since the area isn't a valley, and has no particualar advantages, this fell out of favor.  "I-64 Corridor" is more often heard as anything now.

The Parkersburg area, including Marietta, OH, uses "The Mid-Ohio Valley", which is only correct if you look at the Ohio in WV terms.  In Ohio terms the "mid" point would be Ironton, and in the whole river, its Louisville.

The Bluefield area has uses "The Bluefields", "The Two Virginias" or "Four Seasons Country".    Beckley area uses "The Plateau".  Fairmont - Clarksburg - Morgantown (generally always in that order, which isn't geographically nor populationally in order, Fairmont belonging in the middle either way) has made plays off "Research" or "Technology" to try to emulate NC's success, but no one has bought it.  "F-C-M" or "The Monongalia Valley" have been used, although the latter is confusing since the area below Pittsburgh, just to the north, uses it more for that area. 

[NE2]

Arcata-Alanland: The Goat Meadow

[Jim]

Albany, New York: primarily "The Capital District" or the more recent variation "The Capital Region", and sometimes the "Tri-Cities" (with Schenectady and Troy).

[english si]

Bournemouth-Poole-Christchurch (sometimes, erroniously called the South East Dorset conurbation) is looking for a better name with an official campaign to unite the conurbation (long youtube video). Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton isn't looking for a better name, but ought to have one.

The towns of Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton form the city of Stoke-on-Trent (Hanley being considered the city centre). Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme (which was blocked from becoming part of the city due to being a lot bigger than the other towns) together form "The Potteries", which is the best name for a conurbation I've heard, though I quite like the <river>side names like Tyneside, Teesside, Wearside.

[agentsteel53]

Riverside and its surrounding municipalities are known as the Inland Empire. 

the suburban area west of Burbank is known as the San Fernando Valley, or just "the Valley".

east of downtown San Diego is known as "east county", and north of San Diego is "north county", but these also encompass rural areas.

between San Jose and San Diego on 101 is Silicon Valley, and the corresponding region near Boston is called Route 128 (not I-95!).

[empirestate]

I always found the term "Chicagoland" to be a bit unusual as a description of the metropolitan area.

The Cincinnati area is called "Greater Cincinnati."

Any other unusual monikers for big cities and their adjacent suburbs?

I grew up in "Greater Rochester" and understood it to be a generic way of referring to a city and its suburbs together, so I was going to ask what you found so unusual about "Greater Cincinnati". But now I'm wondering how many other cities I've actually ever seen the term used?

[Brandon]

Arcata-Alanland: The Goat Meadow

Only adjacent to the Perkins Union, and then only when the Perkins Union isn't in Alanland, and then only in leap years.

[1995hoo]

I always found the term "Chicagoland" to be a bit unusual as a description of the metropolitan area.

The Cincinnati area is called "Greater Cincinnati."

Any other unusual monikers for big cities and their adjacent suburbs?

I grew up in "Greater Rochester" and understood it to be a generic way of referring to a city and its suburbs together, so I was going to ask what you found so unusual about "Greater Cincinnati". But now I'm wondering how many other cities I've actually ever seen the term used?

The term "Greater New York" was commonly used in the 1890s in conjunction with that city's consolidation when Brooklyn became part of New York City.

I've heard the term used many times as to other cities in the manner you describe–not as any sort of "official" name, just as a convenient term that's shorter than "[city name] metropolitan area," especially when the metropolitan area might span multiple states or include other cities of a decent size.


Returning to the original topic, the urban areas of far southeastern Virginia are variously referred to as "Hampton Roads" (after the body of water that dominates the geography down there) or  "Tidewater" (though traditionally in Virginia history that term had a broader meaning). Given that the area includes Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton, and Newport News, a shorter name for the entire area clearly makes sense, although there's some disagreement down there over which short name is more appropriate. Some people find the nautical term "roads" confusing, too.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Bloomington -Normal calls itself the twin cities which I think someplace in MN is also known

Minneapolis-St. Paul, if I read it correctly.

[hbelkins]

I always found the term "Chicagoland" to be a bit unusual as a description of the metropolitan area.

The Cincinnati area is called "Greater Cincinnati."

Any other unusual monikers for big cities and their adjacent suburbs?

I grew up in "Greater Rochester" and understood it to be a generic way of referring to a city and its suburbs together, so I was going to ask what you found so unusual about "Greater Cincinnati". But now I'm wondering how many other cities I've actually ever seen the term used?

Nothing unusual about "Greater Cincinnati." I thought "xx-land" was unusual, and Greater Cincinnati was the first other metro area name that came to mind.

[A.J. Bertin]

I grew up in "Greater Rochester" and understood it to be a generic way of referring to a city and its suburbs together, so I was going to ask what you found so unusual about "Greater Cincinnati". But now I'm wondering how many other cities I've actually ever seen the term used?

I grew up in the Detroit suburbs and often heard the term "Metro Detroit" used. Now I live in Grand Rapids and have often heard "Greater Grand Rapids", but I usually just say "the Grand Rapids area". I used to live in a suburb but now live in the city proper.

[tdindy88]

Speaking of Cincinnati, the Kentucky portion of the metro area is typically refered to as Northern Kentucky, at least in the metropolitan scene. Geographically it probably includes the next couple or so tiers of counties to the south, but the top three are the main ones (Boone, Campbell and Kenton.)

I read further up Kentuckiana being refered to as both Louisville and Evansville areas. While I've definently heard the term for the Louisville area, I don't remember hearing it for Evansville. There, I've always heard "Tri-State area" with a nod given to Illinois as well as Indiana and Kentucky.

Also from Indiana: Wabash Valley to refer to the Terre Haute area, though that's regions boundaries probably extend beyond the Terre Haute metropolitan area. And while in Muncie, I heard East-Central Indiana a lot, but again that was beyond the Muncie area and included the counties around Delaware.

[kphoger]

Riverside and its surrounding municipalities are known as the Inland Empire. 

the suburban area west of Burbank is known as the San Fernando Valley, or just "the Valley".

I have Frank Zappa to thank for my knowledge of those two terms.