4 ms·

I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and I didn't realize how weird the term "Chicagoland" was until I started traveling around a bit. I'm not aware of any other ci

I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and I didn't realize how weird the term "Chicagoland" was until I started traveling around a bit. I'm not aware of any other city in the world that tacks "land" onto the name to describe the surrounding area. Do this with any other city and it sounds like a weird amusement park: Dallasland, Indianapolisland, Seattleland, etc.

rawgabbit 3y ago
Dallas’ unofficial motto is “Keep Dallas Boring”. This is our strategy to hide from real estate speculators and homeless millionaires from California.
wolfendin 3y ago
It was a particular housing development and not a whole city AFAIK, but what first comes to mind is Hollywood(land) https://www.theeastsideagent.com/history-hollywoodland-storybook-style/ https://www.theeastsideagent.com/history-hollywoodland-story...
bitwize 3y ago
Every time I hear "Chicagoland", I think of the douchebag television exec from Wayne's World played by Rob Lowe.
ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, and nobody says "Chicagoland" in conversation. It's only used by newscasters, and car dealers in their commercials. Even dumber is "Chicagoland area." My copyediting professor (who worked at the Chicago Tribune) loved to mock this dumb term, pointing out that nobody says "Detroitland" or "New Yorkland" or "Indianapolisland."
- nkrisc 3y ago
  Growing up in Chicago, I only ever heard the term on TV or radio.
- tkgally 3y ago
  > It's only used by newscasters, and car dealers in their commercials. When I was growing up in Southern California, “the Southland” was used in the same way to mean the Los Angeles area. I heard the term only in the mass media, never directly from a person in conversation. A little googling turned up this list of media-only geographical terms: https://www.cyburbia.org/forums/threads/nicknames-for-metropolitan-areas.24460/ https://www.cyburbia.org/forums/threads/nicknames-for-metrop... I noticed this phenomenon when I moved to Chicago in 1978. I liked the city, but I thought that “Chicagoland” sounded stupid.
  - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
    Ha, I moved to L.A. from Chicago and immediately noticed "the Southland" used in exactly the same way. Another WTF is "the inland empire," also used for some nebulous part of the L.A. area by newscasters only, as far as I can tell. But then CA absolutely loves meaningless names for stuff, like the perennial "red flag warnings." So... we're being menaced by red flags? Why do we fear them? And "sigalert." Whatever, man.
- halfmatthalfcat 3y ago
  People say "Tristate Area" and "Metro Detroit"? Don't necessarily need to tack "land" on there but there are colloquial terms for these large metro areas.
  - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
    There seem to be lots of "tri-state" areas, and "metro Detroit" is probably the least dumb way to include an entire metropolitan area. I wouldn't even call it colloquial.
- JKCalhoun 3y ago
  "Frisco" anyone? No?
  - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
    "The OC" anyone? Also no.
prmoustache 3y ago
Well hasn't the term chicagoland invented to sound like the Legoland theme park in the first place? I guess if another large city name was terminating with -ney its metropolitan area would also be called in a similar way.
- harywilke 3y ago
  Etymology. Chicago +‎ land. Generally thought to have been popularized by Robert R. McCormick, editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, first using it on page 1 of the July 27, 1926 issue, although it may have been coined much earlier.
drewcoo 3y ago
Even Hollywoodland is just Hollywood now.
CalRobert 3y ago
My stepmom from Torrance pretty commonly referred to LA as Lalaland in jest.
- eesmith 3y ago
  FWIW, it's not specific to her. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_La_Land_(disambiguation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_La_Land_(disambiguation) lists it as a nickname for LA, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/La-La_Land#English https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/La-La_Land#English gives a 1958 citation in TV Guide, and it's the reason the 2016 movie "La La Land" got its name.
lqet 3y ago
Switzerland has a whole Canton named after the surrounding area of Basel: Basel-Landschaft, which is often called "Baselland" [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel-Landschaft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel-Landschaft
- eesmith 3y ago
  Münsterland - https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnsterland#Q7920 https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnsterland#Q7920 - with Münster as the largest city.
icameron 3y ago
Portlandland
tenebrisalietum 3y ago
It's probably because of two reasons: 1. Most of northwest Indiana (Lake County) is considered part of Chicagoland, but is a different state. For example: Growing up there, I remember my parents crossing the state line on Sundays to buy alcohol, which was not legal to sell on that day in IN. But NWI had all the same radio and TV as Chicago. 2. Outside of of said Chicagoland, Illinois and Indiana are very different, especially the more south you go in both states.
cafard 3y ago
I first heard it from a co-worker, who found that it took less explaining than to say that he was Valparaiso, Indiana.

rawgabbit 3y ago

Dallas’ unofficial motto is “Keep Dallas Boring”. This is our strategy to hide from real estate speculators and homeless millionaires from California.

wolfendin 3y ago

It was a particular housing development and not a whole city AFAIK, but what first comes to mind is Hollywood(land) https://www.theeastsideagent.com/history-hollywoodland-storybook-style/ https://www.theeastsideagent.com/history-hollywoodland-story...

bitwize 3y ago

Every time I hear "Chicagoland", I think of the douchebag television exec from Wayne's World played by Rob Lowe.

ShadowBanThis01 3y ago

I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, and nobody says "Chicagoland" in conversation. It's only used by newscasters, and car dealers in their commercials. Even dumber is "Chicagoland area." My copyediting professor (who worked at the Chicago Tribune) loved to mock this dumb term, pointing out that nobody says "Detroitland" or "New Yorkland" or "Indianapolisland."

nkrisc 3y ago
Growing up in Chicago, I only ever heard the term on TV or radio.
tkgally 3y ago
> It's only used by newscasters, and car dealers in their commercials. When I was growing up in Southern California, “the Southland” was used in the same way to mean the Los Angeles area. I heard the term only in the mass media, never directly from a person in conversation. A little googling turned up this list of media-only geographical terms: https://www.cyburbia.org/forums/threads/nicknames-for-metropolitan-areas.24460/ https://www.cyburbia.org/forums/threads/nicknames-for-metrop... I noticed this phenomenon when I moved to Chicago in 1978. I liked the city, but I thought that “Chicagoland” sounded stupid.
- ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
  Ha, I moved to L.A. from Chicago and immediately noticed "the Southland" used in exactly the same way. Another WTF is "the inland empire," also used for some nebulous part of the L.A. area by newscasters only, as far as I can tell. But then CA absolutely loves meaningless names for stuff, like the perennial "red flag warnings." So... we're being menaced by red flags? Why do we fear them? And "sigalert." Whatever, man.
halfmatthalfcat 3y ago
People say "Tristate Area" and "Metro Detroit"? Don't necessarily need to tack "land" on there but there are colloquial terms for these large metro areas.
- ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
  There seem to be lots of "tri-state" areas, and "metro Detroit" is probably the least dumb way to include an entire metropolitan area. I wouldn't even call it colloquial.
JKCalhoun 3y ago
"Frisco" anyone? No?
- ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
  "The OC" anyone? Also no.

prmoustache 3y ago

Well hasn't the term chicagoland invented to sound like the Legoland theme park in the first place? I guess if another large city name was terminating with -ney its metropolitan area would also be called in a similar way.

harywilke 3y ago
Etymology. Chicago +‎ land. Generally thought to have been popularized by Robert R. McCormick, editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, first using it on page 1 of the July 27, 1926 issue, although it may have been coined much earlier.

drewcoo 3y ago

Even Hollywoodland is just Hollywood now.

CalRobert 3y ago

My stepmom from Torrance pretty commonly referred to LA as Lalaland in jest.

eesmith 3y ago
FWIW, it's not specific to her. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_La_Land_(disambiguation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_La_Land_(disambiguation) lists it as a nickname for LA, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/La-La_Land#English https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/La-La_Land#English gives a 1958 citation in TV Guide, and it's the reason the 2016 movie "La La Land" got its name.

lqet 3y ago

Switzerland has a whole Canton named after the surrounding area of Basel: Basel-Landschaft, which is often called "Baselland" [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel-Landschaft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel-Landschaft

eesmith 3y ago
Münsterland - https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnsterland#Q7920 https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnsterland#Q7920 - with Münster as the largest city.

icameron 3y ago

Portlandland

tenebrisalietum 3y ago

It's probably because of two reasons: 1. Most of northwest Indiana (Lake County) is considered part of Chicagoland, but is a different state. For example: Growing up there, I remember my parents crossing the state line on Sundays to buy alcohol, which was not legal to sell on that day in IN. But NWI had all the same radio and TV as Chicago. 2. Outside of of said Chicagoland, Illinois and Indiana are very different, especially the more south you go in both states.

cafard 3y ago

I first heard it from a co-worker, who found that it took less explaining than to say that he was Valparaiso, Indiana.