This isn’t that important, but the “term Bay Area” has always annoyed me (as someone from Tampa), as it appropriates a generic geographical feature that many cities contain. Should we start calling Denver the “Mountain Area”? New York City the “Island Area”? Phoenix the “Desert Area”? Oklahoma City the “Plains Area”? The only reason the “Bay Area” sounds normal is because people are used to it.
There are 75 islands in the world bigger than “the Big Island” (Hawai’i); but it’s the biggest of its archipelago, and the nickname disambiguates the island from the state.
In petroleum-driven geopolitics, “the Gulf” often means the Persian Gulf; e.g. the 1991 “Gulf War”. In this usage, “the Gulf states” are Saudi Arabia and its neighbors. But I’m guessing that in your area, “the Gulf” often means the Gulf of Mexico, and “the Gulf states” are Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
“The Mountain West” means Colorado and its neighbors, not the French Alps, even though the French Alps are in Western Europe and are mountainous.
For your examples, they are either used by locals informally (“The gulf” as a shorthand for gulf of Mexico is rarely used by national publications), by foreigners (who often give illogical or simplified names to things because the original would be too complicated), or apply to very large regions (which in my opinion, is less annoying because it is less self important). The fact that the San Francisco area gets its own special name that is frequently used despite the fact that there is nothing especially impressive about that particular feature of the area is slightly annoying imo. If people in the Bay Area want to colloquially call it that, I wouldn’t mind, but the fact that national news refers to it as such is slightly annoying to me.
This isn’t that important, but the “term Bay Area” has always annoyed me (as someone from Tampa), as it appropriates a generic geographical feature that many cities contain. Should we start calling Denver the “Mountain Area”? New York City the “Island Area”? Phoenix the “Desert Area”? Oklahoma City the “Plains Area”? The only reason the “Bay Area” sounds normal is because people are used to it.
What are other similar cases?
There are 75 islands in the world bigger than “the Big Island” (Hawai’i); but it’s the biggest of its archipelago, and the nickname disambiguates the island from the state.
In petroleum-driven geopolitics, “the Gulf” often means the Persian Gulf; e.g. the 1991 “Gulf War”. In this usage, “the Gulf states” are Saudi Arabia and its neighbors. But I’m guessing that in your area, “the Gulf” often means the Gulf of Mexico, and “the Gulf states” are Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
“The Mountain West” means Colorado and its neighbors, not the French Alps, even though the French Alps are in Western Europe and are mountainous.
“Sahara” is just Arabic for “desert”.
For your examples, they are either used by locals informally (“The gulf” as a shorthand for gulf of Mexico is rarely used by national publications), by foreigners (who often give illogical or simplified names to things because the original would be too complicated), or apply to very large regions (which in my opinion, is less annoying because it is less self important). The fact that the San Francisco area gets its own special name that is frequently used despite the fact that there is nothing especially impressive about that particular feature of the area is slightly annoying imo. If people in the Bay Area want to colloquially call it that, I wouldn’t mind, but the fact that national news refers to it as such is slightly annoying to me.