Former names you use without meaning to

[vtk]

I think we referred to our dial-up service as Prodigy through several name changes.  One of the later names was AT&T Yahoo! Dial, which I thought sounded clumsy.

[1995hoo]

How can you keep up with name changes these days anyhow?  Look at the amphitheater near Tampa adjacent to the FL State Fairgrounds.  In just a matter of ten years it went from the Ford Amphitheater to the Ask Gary Amphitheater and now some new name ( I cannot remember what it is now nor do I even care) as I saw when I was in Tampa a few weeks ago.

That's nothing, in a 23-year period; the sports arena home to the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers originally opened as the Core-States Center.  It would later become the First Union Center (aka FU Center) then the Wachovia Center and, more recently, the Wells-Fargo Center.  The name changes were due to, you guessed it, bank mergers.

I still call it the FU Center because that name seems like the perfect Philadelphia name!

[Pete from Boston]

How can you keep up with name changes these days anyhow?  Look at the amphitheater near Tampa adjacent to the FL State Fairgrounds.  In just a matter of ten years it went from the Ford Amphitheater to the Ask Gary Amphitheater and now some new name ( I cannot remember what it is now nor do I even care) as I saw when I was in Tampa a few weeks ago.

That's nothing, in a 23-year period; the sports arena home to the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers originally opened as the Core-States Center.  It would later become the First Union Center (aka FU Center) then the Wachovia Center and, more recently, the Wells-Fargo Center.  The name changes were due to, you guessed it, bank mergers.

For the same reason, the Boston Garden, which everyone called "The Garden," was replaced by a building named over less than 20 years the Shawmut Center (never signed), FleetCenter, TD BankNorth Garden, and now TD Garden.  Everyone calls it "The Garden."

[kphoger]

I keep wanting my wife's initials to be CML, even though her last name hasn't been Lind since we got married in 2006.

[vtk]

I keep wanting my wife's initials to be CML, even though her last name hasn't been Lind since we got married in 2006.

Interesting point. Now that I think about it, I might want to informally continue to use my current initials even after my last name changes due to marriage (hypothetically), partly because they are the same as my dad's initials (with a "2" appended for that reason).

[Rushmeister]

Market Square Arena has been gone since 1999 and the site was parking lots up to this year where the land's finally being developed for condos and a corporate headquarters. The new arena is Bankers Life Fieldhouse but used to be called Conseco Fieldhouse, I bet there are still some people who call it that.

We just call it "the fieldhouse" in my household.  Perhaps that's harkens back to the pre-Conseco days when it was known simply as Indiana Fieldhouse.


And now for some others I just can't seem to stop using...

US 231 south of Lafayette will always be IND 43 for me; likewise US 231 north of Montmorenci is IND 53. 

Also, Klipsch Music Center (or whatever-the-heck it's called now) has been and always will be "Deer Creek".  For me, that one will never change. (Unless it's replaced by a subdivision someday.)

[kphoger]

Several of us at work use terms that no longer exist in the computer programs that use the functions. For example, there is a signal hit we send to cable boxes called "Initialize/Reboot" or something similar, and its code is I2. Several of us still call it a Lukewarm because that used to be its long description. It throws newer people off, because nowhere on the screen is there the word Lukewarm.

Similarly, our parent cable company's dispatch department used to be called OSC, but they changed their name to Comm Center a few years ago. Here at the Wichita location, they kept a jar for quarters: every time someone was caught using the old name, they had to put in a quarter, then eventually they spent the money on donuts or something. Anyway, most of us in my office still call it OSC. New technicians get confused when we give them the number to call OSC, they dial the number, and then none of the menu options is for OSC.

[Katavia]

With the recent re-branding of Hess stations to Speedway, this might be a repeat of when Amoco stations were renamed BP. All of the old-timers I know refer to the stations by their former name instead of the ones that replaced them.

And Accel to Circle K over in my area

[Max Rockatansky]

I refuse to call the Sears Tower anything else.  Also I really try to make a point of calling stadiums by their original names if they had one pre-sponsorship.

As for roads I use a lot of old alignments rather than the current ones.  Examples would be; CA60 vs me calling it Old US 60, Mohave 10/AZ66 vs Old US 66, ect, ect, ect.

[jp the roadgeek]

Entertainment Venues: Still call the XL Center in Hartford and the MassMutual Center in Springfield the <city> Civic Center, the DCU Center in Worcester The Centrum, the Izod Center the Brendan Byrne Arena, the XFinity Theater in Hartford The Meadows, the Comcast Theater in Mansfield, MA Great Woods, and Six Flags New England Riverside Park. 

Utilities: Eversource as CL&P, Frontier as SNET, Verizon as Bell Atlantic. 

Occasionally still tempted to call Macy's Filene's or G Fox.  My grandmother used to call Sears by its proper name but in a conglomerated form: Searobuck 

[Rothman]

I've weaned myself from "Riverside Park," if only because of how transformed the park was after Six Flags took over.  In its later years, Riverside could not be described as anything other than a complete dump.

[Pete from Boston]

I've weaned myself from "Riverside Park," if only because of how transformed the park was after Six Flags took over.  In its later years, Riverside could not be described as anything other than a complete dump.

I had a certain affection for Riverside.  It was completely unglamorous, and to me there was a certain charm in that. I saw the Ramones play there, and a rinky-dink, run down amusement park seemed to be the ideal setting for them.

[Rothman]

I've weaned myself from "Riverside Park," if only because of how transformed the park was after Six Flags took over.  In its later years, Riverside could not be described as anything other than a complete dump.

I had a certain affection for Riverside.  It was completely unglamorous, and to me there was a certain charm in that. I saw the Ramones play there, and a rinky-dink, run down amusement park seemed to be the ideal setting for them.

I contributed to how unglamorous it was once:  Vomited in front of one of the food courts after riding the Rotor.

[hbelkins]

Bruce Jenner. 

[jeffandnicole]

A hospital near me recently merged with others and has a new name (Inspiria).  Everyone calls it by the old name (Underwood Memorial).  Even the nurses and everyone inside uses the old name.  Recently my wife was in there for something and overheard a conversation.  The person asked where he was.  The nurse responded with the hospital's old name.

My mom is apparently the only one that insists on using the new name!

[spooky]

I refuse to call the Sears Tower anything else.  Also I really try to make a point of calling stadiums by their original names if they had one pre-sponsorship.

As for roads I use a lot of old alignments rather than the current ones.  Examples would be; CA60 vs me calling it Old US 60, Mohave 10/AZ66 vs Old US 66, ect, ect, ect.

I would say you are in the wrong thread, but I doubt there is a "Former names you use and mean to" thread.

[noelbotevera]

I still call the DC metro stations pre renaming by their former name (for example - U Street I still call U Street / African American Civil War Memorial / Cardozo).

Same for NYC - I refuse to know that the IRT 1 line was changed to the new South Ferry station and I still call World Trade Center as only that and not Chambers Street.

I also still refuse to acknowledge the M being moved to IND 6th Avenue from BMT Nassau Avenue line. I still acknowledge the V and W line, as well as the R40 rolling stock.

[renegade]

Bruce Jenner. 

"Former names you use without meaning to" ...
I've never meant to use that name, or the new one, for that matter ...

[Darkchylde]

Old 50 instead of Blue Parkway/MO 350.

Non-highway, Rite Aid's still K&B to me, even decades after they bought it.

[1995hoo]

I still call the DC metro stations pre renaming by their former name (for example - U Street I still call U Street / African American Civil War Memorial / Cardozo).

....

Its original name when it opened was U Street/Cardozo. The memorial came along later. I don't know anyone who's ever used the long name you mention–everyone's always called it just plain U Street.

The Union Station stop was originally Union Station—Visitor Center, named for the now long-defunct National Visitors' Center. Various other ones have been renamed in various ways over the years, some of them extended and then re-truncated (Vienna is a good example of that).

[Rothman]

I still call the DC metro stations pre renaming by their former name (for example - U Street I still call U Street / African American Civil War Memorial / Cardozo).

....

Its original name when it opened was U Street/Cardozo. The memorial came along later. I don't know anyone who's ever used the long name you mention–everyone's always called it just plain U Street.

He's allegedly 11 years old.  I'm with you on this, though.

[kj3400]

I still call it Baltimore Arena instead of 1st Mariner or what it is now, Royal Farms Arena.

[1995hoo]

I still call the DC metro stations pre renaming by their former name (for example - U Street I still call U Street / African American Civil War Memorial / Cardozo).

....

Its original name when it opened was U Street/Cardozo. The memorial came along later. I don't know anyone who's ever used the long name you mention–everyone's always called it just plain U Street.

He's allegedly 11 years old.  I'm with you on this, though.

Heh. I should have mentioned that even the train operators (when you can understand them at all, that is) generally don't use the long names. Orange Line operators pretty much always said "Orange Line to Vienna" regardless of the stop having technically been called the absurd "Vienna/Fairfax—GMU" for a long time (never mind that GMU, especially, is several miles away on the far side of Fairfax....under that naming theory, why not add "Seattle" to the Reagan Airport stop since you can fly there nonstop?). In a less extreme example, most mornings my commute takes me to Foggy Bottom, which has always been named "Foggy Bottom—GWU." Most train operators omit the "GWU," though a few do say "George Washington University."

I have not paid enough attention to the automated announcements on the new 7000-series trains to have noticed what they say, though I have noticed the automated announcements tend to get cut off when the train operator hits the button to close the doors. I especially noted this the week before last when I went over to the ballpark: I wanted to hear how the automated announcements pronounce "L'Enfant Plaza" since the train operators are notorious for saying it as "LaFont Plaza." I didn't get to find out because the operator cut off the announcements every time.



Returning to old names for places, last night someone asked me about Mont-Tremblant, the ski resort in Quebec (technically the resort is now just plain "Tremblant," so I guess it's another example of this since I never omit the "Mont-" from the name). I made multiple references to the nearby town of St-Jovite even though it hasn't existed as an independent municipality since 2002. I'll always call it St-Jovite. Among other reasons, it helps distinguish between the village of Mont-Tremblant, the resort that most people now think of as the village, and the town down on the Trans-Canada Highway. But of course this is an example of a place I intentionally call by its old name.

I still call it Baltimore Arena instead of 1st Mariner or what it is now, Royal Farms Arena.

I call it the Baltimore Civic Center, which was its pre-1986 name.

[roadman65]

I do not think that people will ever refer to the new names of NYC's East River Crossings.  Heck everyone in the Big Apple do not even say the full name of both tunnels.  Its either the Midtown Tunnel or the Battery Tunnel.  Plus when I lived in North Jersey I never even heard the name Queensboro used for the bridge as it was always the "59th Street Bridge" especially in traffic reports.

[kkt]

1995hoo reminded me of another one.  I still call Reagan Airport, National Airport, unless I'm thinking about it.  I bet Reagan would be unhappy to be memorialized in a facility serving DC.