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[ilpt4u]

Southern IL is pretty much Southern IL -- but there is the other name of "Little Egypt"

The city of Cairo, the Lake of Egypt, a local paper is The Daily Egyptian, etc etc -- just a few references to "Egypt" around -- of course, mostly due to the Mississippi, which is basically the USA's Nile River

[jp the roadgeek]

Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach is called South Florida.

Yet, the University of South Florida is in St. Pete.  I've never referred to or thought of that area as South Florida.  Just from West Palm south and The Keys.

[mgk920]

The Appleton/Green Bay/Oshkosh, WI area, alternatively 'Northeastern Wisconsin' or the 'Fox Valley/Fox River Valley'.

TV station WFRV (Channel 5 in Green Bay) stands for 'Fox River Valley'.

The Green Bay metro area is also sometimes self-referred to as 'The Bay Area'.

Mike

[Sam]

Here in Albany, it's the "Capital District" or you say you are from the city you are in (Albany, Schenectady, Troy).  If you are in a suburb, you say the "Albany area" to outsiders.

Here it's the "Finger Lakes region" (or "Western New York" or "Central New York"). Never "upstate".

[Rothman]

Here in Albany, it's the "Capital District" or you say you are from the city you are in (Albany, Schenectady, Troy).  If you are in a suburb, you say the "Albany area" to outsiders.

Here it's the "Finger Lakes region" (or "Western New York" or "Central New York"). Never "upstate".

Hm.  I know people still use the division around here, though, if not in specific reference to the region.  More of a separation from the City and Lon Guyland.

[SD Mapman]

Spearfish, SD:

Outsiders: Western SD (or "flyover country" if they know nothing at all).

Us: West River, The Hills, or the Northern Hills depending on who we're talking to and how specific we want to be.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Looking at a national or regional map, most people (myself included) will refer to areas of a state by cardinal direction (Northern Illinois, Southeastern Michigan,...) or by a specific region (Upper Midwest, Pacific Northwest,...) which covers a broad portion of a state or region. Most people would label my area of the country as Western Colorado. 

In a lot of these areas, the locals will call their part of the state by a more specific name that describes their area, but most outsiders won't know it by that. 

For Example:

AREA:                   OUTSIDERS CALL IT:             LOCALS CALL IT:

Cincinnati, OH        SW Ohio                               The Tri State
Cleveland, OH        NE Ohio                                The North Coast

What do you and your local area residents call your part of the state that might not otherwise be well known to visitors / outsiders?

Columbus, OH       State Capital       Central Ohio

[Quillz]

I'm in "the Valley." Non-local parlance would generally just be "SoCal" or "the Southland."

I'm moving up to the Eureka area early next year, which seems to be "the Redwood Curtain," "Eurtweaka," or the "Cannabis Coast," depending on who I've talked to.

[jwolfer]

Orlando, FL is known as Central Florida. 
Tampa, FL (and St. Pete) is called the Bay Area.
Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach is called South Florida.
Fort Myers and Naples area: SW Florida.
Fort Pierce and Vero Beach is locally known as "The Treasure Coast."
Melbourne, Cocoa Beach, and Titusville area is the Florida Space Coast (aka Space Coast.)


All of Union and Middlesex Counties in NJ were known as North Central Jersey.  I also believe Somerset and Hunterdon Counties too were included in that as well.

Jacksonville area is known as North Florida( as opposed to Gainesville/Ocala/ Lake City/Live Oak which is North Central Florida and the Panhandle is the Panhandle to those out of state its all North Florida) sometimes Jax area is Northeast Florida...another tourism board monicer  for Jax area is First Coast. All regions of Florida have some kind of "Xxx Coast"name.  Like Sarasota is the Culture Coast.. A bit pretentious if you ask me

LGMS428

[jwolfer]

Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach is called South Florida.

Yet, the University of South Florida is in St. Pete.  I've never referred to or thought of that area as South Florida.  Just from West Palm south and The Keys.

When USF started in the1950s it was the first State University South of Gainesville.. Thus the name...

UF was THE state university( for white men)... Florida State(originally Florida Normal School or something like that) was the teachers college for women.. Florida A&M was the state university for blacks..

(Just to be absolutely clear I in no way endorse segregation or think it was wonderful.. Just giving some hisorical perspective. And yes my family has been in Florida since the 1820s ...i am an evil hated white Southern male)

You will notice it is very rare to hear the full name University of South Florida. The only place you see it is on the degrees.  I went to the University fo North Florida(UNF) for my undergrad degree. A frw years ago the alumni magazine had an article about de-emphasizing the directional components of state universities.. Thus USF, UCF, UNF, UWF, even FIU,FAU and FGCU are more commonly seen than full names

LGMS428

[The Nature Boy]

I live in the Augusta, Maine area, I'm not sure if outsiders have a name for it but it's locally called "Central Maine" (despite not really being central within the state).

Similarly, I've heard of Bangor being part of "Eastern Maine" (both the Eastern Maine Medical Center and the Eastern Maine Community College are located here). Geographically, it's more toward the center of the state, but I can see how it makes sense. There aren't many towns east of here...

To add confusion for outsiders (or people "from away" in local parlance), there's also DOWN East Maine, which encompasses Hancock and Washington Counties. Though I have seen "Down East" in business titles as far south as Brunswick. Someone from Bar Harbor or Calais would never claim to be from Eastern Maine (despite being eastern in geography) but would instead claim to be from Downeast Maine.

[Thing 342]

Locals usually call the Newport News / Norfolk / VA Beach / et al area by the name of Hampton Roads, or occasionally the Tidewater if they're a bit older. Anyone referring to it as SE Virginia is likely to be from out-of-state.

[Bickendan]

Coos Bay-North Bend OR and the surrounding unincorporated area is called the Bay Area by the locals.  The region covering Curry, Coos, coastal Douglas and coastal Lane counties is called the South Coast by its inhabitants.  As for what they call this locale out of the area, I sometimes wonder if the people in PDX and the Valley even know we are here!

Rick

It wouldn't be surprising if the Willamette Valley thinks the coast as Newport on north...

[sparker]

I'm in "the Valley." Non-local parlance would generally just be "SoCal" or "the Southland."

I'm moving up to the Eureka area early next year, which seems to be "the Redwood Curtain," "Eurtweaka," or the "Cannabis Coast," depending on who I've talked to.

Being born & raised in Glendale, I heard "Valley Adjacent" for much of my youth.  Another term for where you're going (Humboldt County?) is "The Big Fogbank" -- particularly if you're along the coast (or Humboldt Bay) between Ferndale and Trinidad during much of the summer.   

[1995hoo]

Locals usually call the Newport News / Norfolk / VA Beach / et al area by the name of Hampton Roads, or occasionally the Tidewater if they're a bit older. Anyone referring to it as SE Virginia is likely to be from out-of-state.

Historically, the term "Tidewater" was broader than that and referred to one of three general geographic portions of Virginia—Tidewater, Piedmont, and "Valley-and-Ridge" (the last of these a term you'd never hear today and I've seldom heard outside Virginia history class in school growing up!). The line between "Tidewater" and "Piedmont" was roughly, though not necessarily exactly, where the fall line is on the various rivers. Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville takes its name from the traditional region, for example.

If I tell someone not from Virginia or Maryland where I live, I'd tell them I live in the DC area because "Northern Virginia," the name most commonly used here, wouldn't necessarily mean anything to them. When I was in college at UVA, everyone there referred to Northern Virginia as "NOVA," but if you say that here, people think of Northern Virginia Community College, most often the location on Route 236 between the Beltway and Fairfax City (when I was a kid and there was a stigma against community colleges, people called it "Turnpike Tech" or "Harvard on the Highway," the former a reference to its location on Little River Turnpike).

I've never heard anyone over the age of 30, other than some newspaper reporters trying to look what they think is trendy, refer to the area as "the DMV."

[bzakharin]

All of Union and Middlesex Counties in NJ were known as North Central Jersey.  I also believe Somerset and Hunterdon Counties too were included in that as well.

I'm pretty sure this was much discussed on some other thread, but basically, it depends on where you're from. Philly tends to think the part of NJ in its northern metro area is Central Jersey, while its southern metro area is South Jersey. Anything north of that (sometimes as far south as Trenton) is North Jersey. NYC would say anything accessible by bridge or tunnel (except maybe GWB) is Central Jersey with South Jersey starting as far north as Trenton. I only sent my resume to what turned out to be my first job because it was advertised as "Central Jersey" which turned out to be Union County. The shore, though, is an odd beast. I travel SE for work from what is already "South Jersey" by most definitions. Yet, I don't necessarily think of the Atlantic City area as South Jersey. "Down the Shore" is its own thing, although that term seems to be more used by the Philly area than by NYC.

[The Nature Boy]

Locals usually call the Newport News / Norfolk / VA Beach / et al area by the name of Hampton Roads, or occasionally the Tidewater if they're a bit older. Anyone referring to it as SE Virginia is likely to be from out-of-state.

Historically, the term "Tidewater" was broader than that and referred to one of three general geographic portions of Virginia—Tidewater, Piedmont, and "Valley-and-Ridge" (the last of these a term you'd never hear today and I've seldom heard outside Virginia history class in school growing up!). The line between "Tidewater" and "Piedmont" was roughly, though not necessarily exactly, where the fall line is on the various rivers. Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville takes its name from the traditional region, for example.

If I tell someone not from Virginia or Maryland where I live, I'd tell them I live in the DC area because "Northern Virginia," the name most commonly used here, wouldn't necessarily mean anything to them. When I was in college at UVA, everyone there referred to Northern Virginia as "NOVA," but if you say that here, people think of Northern Virginia Community College, most often the location on Route 236 between the Beltway and Fairfax City (when I was a kid and there was a stigma against community colleges, people called it "Turnpike Tech" or "Harvard on the Highway," the former a reference to its location on Little River Turnpike).

I've never heard anyone over the age of 30, other than some newspaper reporters trying to look what they think is trendy, refer to the area as "the DMV."

Funny that I see this this morning because I was just having a conversation with a friend about this last night. I'm in Alexandria for a few days visiting friends and doing some work related things.

A friend was telling me that when he goes back to his hometown in Michigan and tells people that he lives in Northern Virginia, people get this image of him living in the cultural, rural South and don't seem to realize that Northern Virginia abuts DC. He always has to clarify that he lives in the DC suburbs.

Re: DMV

I'm always unclear as to what gets included in that definition. I've heard people use the term and sometimes it's just DC and its suburbs and other times, it includes Baltimore. My mom's roots are in Baltimore and in my MANY visits to the city, I've never heard a single person use DMV to describe the area. I concur that I had never heard it used in DC either until relatively recently.

[SP Cook]

I know the story that USF was the first state university south of Gainsville, but it is still the most woefully misnamed college in the country.  It was founded in 1956, after all, it is not like the term "south Florida" to mean the greater Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-WPB region did not yet exist, nor that they could not anticipate the eventual need to add more colleges further south than Tampa, as today they have four, including two (Florida Atlantic and Florida International) in actual south Florida, plus FGCU in south west Florida.   While I am at it, what exactly is "international" about Florida International?  Yes, it has a lot of US born Hispanic, mostly Cuban, students, but no more actual foreign students than any major university (6%).  It is just like they were looking to have all the schools be Florida something and it was available.

Other woefully misnamed colleges, IMHO:

Eastern and Western Kentucky, both of which are in central Kentucky.  Morehead State and Murray State are actually in eastern and western Kentucky respectivly. 

The University of Texas - Southwestern Medical Center.  Originally a private school called "Southwestern" it merged into Texas.  While, yes Texas is certainly in the southwest in national terms, within Texas, Dallas is in north Texas, and the UT system has six other medical schools, either south or west or both of Dallas.

While we are at it, Northwestern.  Even when founded in 1850, the northwest meant Washington and Oregon.

[nexus73]

Coos Bay-North Bend OR and the surrounding unincorporated area is called the Bay Area by the locals.  The region covering Curry, Coos, coastal Douglas and coastal Lane counties is called the South Coast by its inhabitants.  As for what they call this locale out of the area, I sometimes wonder if the people in PDX and the Valley even know we are here!

Rick

It wouldn't be surprising if the Willamette Valley thinks the coast as Newport on north...

They'll take in Waldport and Yachats.  Eugene/Springfield people can add Florence. 

Rick

[briantroutman]

Growing up in Williamsport, I’d most often hear our region referred to as “Central Pennsylvania” or “The Susquehanna Valley”. It always struck me as odd when Altoona or State College was referred to as “Central Pennsylvania”—even though they are closer to the geographic center. Infrequently, you’ll hear or see “West Branch Valley” to differentiate Williamsport’s Susquehanna from Wilkes-Barre’s, Sunbury’s, or Harrisburg’s. “North Central Pennsylvania” shows up in the name of various organizations, but I’ve rarely heard it used conversationally.

When I lived in Harrisburg, “The Midstate” was the term I heard most frequently to describe the region. “Central Pennsylvania” was fairly common, too; “South Central” usually referred to York and Gettysburg. Locally, though, it was always “East Shore” or “West Shore” to describe which side of the Susquehanna you were on.

When I lived in Allentown, it was “The Lehigh Valley” or sometimes just “The Valley”.

My wife, a native of Wilkes-Barre, always refers to that part of the state as NEPA—pronounced as a word (like “knee-pah”).

I’ve seen people abbreviate Southeastern Pennsylvania in writing as SEPA, but I’ve never ever heard anyone say “see-pah” in speech. “Delaware Valley” is fairly common as is just referring to the entire metro area as “Philadelphia” or “Philly” when talking with people outside the area.

[jeffandnicole]

In my area, usually South Jersey.

A newspaper or two tried making GloCo (Gloucester County) a thing, but it's never caught on.

[Desert Man]

The "Southwest" (we're a desert like Phoenix and Vegas) followed by "Inland Empire" (Palm Springs area sometimes treated as a separate region) and "Southland" (esp. LA basin/the OC). We're another part of the "So Cal" (the state California) and West coast (the nation USA). And the 3 valleys of the Coachella valley: "West" - Palm Springs, Cathedral City and Desert Hot Springs, "Mid" - Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells. And "East" - Indio, Coachella and La Quinta. Interestingly, Indio is the oldest, largest and county seat city (we're part of Riverside county), Palm Desert is the center, didn't really exist in the mid 20th century and wealthiest, and Palm Springs is the most famous and visited (we're the "Palm Springs, not Indio" area). 

[Brandon]

Extreme north central Indiana (South Bend, Elkhart, etc.) and extreme southwest lower Michigan (Niles, St. Joseph, Cassopolis, etc.) is called Michiana by locals.

Northwestern Indiana, basically Lake and Porter counties, is called the Calumet Region for the Calumet River. That is most often shortened to The Region by residents of the area. Denizens of The Region are not always kindly referred to as Region Rats.

The Region plus the adjacent part of Illinois is referred to as Illiana.

And of course the greater Chicago metro area is called Chicagoland.

And Chicagoland gets subdivided even further:

North Shore: From the Loop (or Chicago city limits) northward along Lake Michigan.
Then you have your North/Northwest/West/Southwest/South Suburbs
The South and Southwest Suburbs get grouped together as The Southland, stretching from the Indiana state line to Morris.
The further west West Suburbs are the Fox Valley, stretching from north of Elgin to Yorkville.

[ilpt4u]

The far NW Burbs also claim the "Fox Valley" title sometimes, as the Fox River heads up that way too, into McHenry County

[hbelkins]

Locals usually call the Newport News / Norfolk / VA Beach / et al area by the name of Hampton Roads, or occasionally the Tidewater if they're a bit older. Anyone referring to it as SE Virginia is likely to be from out-of-state.

Historically, the term "Tidewater" was broader than that and referred to one of three general geographic portions of Virginia—Tidewater, Piedmont, and "Valley-and-Ridge" (the last of these a term you'd never hear today and I've seldom heard outside Virginia history class in school growing up!).

My dad called it "Tidewater."

A term I've frequently heard for far southwestern Virginia is "Mountain Empire." Basically anything west of Bristol (Lee, Scott, Wise, Washington, Dickenson, Buchanan, Tazewell counties) qualifies.