Geographic Handle

There are numerous titles one gets by being from a certain place. Most are lame.
San Josean
San Franciscan
New Yorker

some a bit more interesting

Angeleno from LA.
Sidneysider from Sidney
Glaswiegian (or Shinewiegian)from Glasgow or Shinola

then there are the charachter ones, like being a Cornhusker because you're from Nebraska (it was the "Bug Eaters" in the late 1800s) or a Buckeye from Ohio...but you are not Granite from New Hampshire...it's quirky

What are some of the stranger ones you know?

The only ones i can think of are horribly inappropiate;) There's a song called Mascot Mania from Jello Biafra and Mojo Nixon that adresses this to some degree.

I think it's worth pointing out that, living in Ohio most of my life, my opportunities of actually seeing a real buckeye (in tree or seed form) has been quite rare. It may be more fitting to identify Ohions as being round on the ends and high in the middle!:)
-FB

[ Edited by: FreakBear on 2004-10-25 13:43 ]

Well,hoosier from Indiana.Can't think any more right now.

I've always been fond of what they call folks from Seattle: I'm proud to be a Seattleite. Tres 1962 World's Fair, no?

While "Victorian" is as boring as ever, our slogan is pretty catchy:

"Victoria, Home of the Newly Wed and the Nearly Dead"

Wisconsin = cheesehead or cheddarhead
Illinois = Flatlander
the northern peninsula of Michigan = Uppie

Vern

My favorite little go-to-hell desert flyspeck of a town is "Ocotillo." Its inhabitants are "Ocotillians."

Rather makes one think of something that comes after you in the night with big, lurching steps ....

Tar heel, Buck Eye, Cheese head...those are fun. Some Carolina School is the Game Cocks, which is quite racy. I've read that the term Badger is from the people who mined coal in Wisconsin, not from the pissed off weasle animal. is that tru?

Seattleite is one I've never heard. That's clever and elegant. (being a space age theme town)

In one of those Kilgore Trout books, there are rants about Hoosiers that are side splitting. "All the best people are Hoosiers, don't you think?"

"Victorians"...odd that a place so breathataking has names refferencing somplace else. I've heard it called the "California of Canada" to the point of nausia by travelers trying to give the impression of hipness, I hope that one dried up...On the topic of Victoria, once on a Dublin tour I asked the coach driver why so many of the older houses had wildly colored porches and doors when the rest of the homes are white with grey or black trim.

Apparently when Queen Victoria died, the English insisted everyone in the Empire publicly showed thier feeling of mourining.

Nothing like a little 100 year old jab to tickle the funnybone

There's a little town in Alaska called Chicken. It originally was Ptarmigan, Alaska, but no one could spell it, so they changed the name to Chicken. Don't know what the dozen or so people who live in Chicken are called.

Trying to recall my visit to BC and strange names, wasn't Vancouver once named "Gastown"?

Too bad that didn't stick, as that could have been the source of some truly inspiring names...I think it was George Vancouver, who was (as ZebraTiki will point out ) of Dutch ancestry, but born in England and the navigator on the voyages of James Cook...who first delivered Tiki to the Old World?" Full circle we've come.

Humuhumu, just as DawnTiki might call a rattlesnake in the yard a "Buzzworm"...In some of Farley Mowat's books he refers to ptarmigans as "Snow Chickens", I think it's a local colloquialism, but I never would have thought of it until you mentioned it.

The Plains Indians called cattle "Slow Elk", that's one I love.

I suppose it's inaccurate to refer to folks from Phoenix as Phoenecians.

On 2004-10-25 22:03, ZebraTiki wrote:
I suppose it's inaccurate to refer to folks from Phoenix as Phoenecians.

Tiki Central = Tiki Centurionites

[ Edited by: TNTiki on 2004-11-06 15:25 ]

HumuHumu-I bet if the people in Chicken,Alaska are mean,they're called "Chicken Shits".

On 2004-10-25 15:23, Humuhumu wrote:
I'm proud to be a Seattleite.

a person could move from seattle to the first european settlement in massachusetts and be a "plymouth seattleite..."

i had a canadian housemate who always talked about "newfies." newfoundlanders? they were painted as the archetypical unsophisticated uplanders. i'm sure they're just normal folks...

TNTiki, thanks for the info...I thought it was USC, but was not certain...hope you were not offended.

Perhapes you know if this is the case. I saw a basketball game in the 70s and it was Iowa (Hawkeyes)playing UCLA or So Cal USC, but the crowd was yelling "Big Cock Country" for Iowa?

Is there more than one Cock on the walk? Is that a nick name for them too?

Nothing worse than do-gooders trying to tidy up an image...

J$, someone mentioned Farley Mowatt earlier in the thread, if you want to laugh your butt off, read "The Boat That Wouldn't Float", by him. I don't know how much of his description of Newfies to take seriously, but it's a thoroughly entertaining (and way funny) book. The boat that is the subject, was recently committed to the burn pile. Too bad, really.

When I lived in South Jersey, the inhabitants of the central interior were/are known as "Pineys", for the vast sand and "Pine Barrens" they live in. They'd be known as rednecks anywhere else. Some take it as mark of pride, to others, them's fight'in words. Depending on whom, and how, it's spoken of.

[ Edited by: foamy on 2004-10-26 08:38 ]

On 2004-10-25 19:51, Gigantalope wrote:
Tar heel, Buck Eye, Cheese head...those are fun. Some Carolina School is the Game Cocks, which is quite racy. I've read that the term Badger is from the people who mined coal in Wisconsin, not from the pissed off weasle animal. is that tru?

At Purdue (in the Hoosier State), they're called the Boilermakers. When I was a kid I thought they were named after the cocktail, not "people who make boilers." :D

[ Edited by: TNTiki on 2004-11-06 15:26 ]

On 2004-10-25 19:51, Gigantalope wrote:

"Victorians"...odd that a place so breathataking has names refferencing somplace else. I've heard it called the "California of Canada" to the point of nausia by travelers trying to give the impression of hipness, I hope that one dried up...On the topic of Victoria, once on a Dublin tour I asked the coach driver why so many of the older houses had wildly colored porches and doors when the rest of the homes are white with grey or black trim.

Apparently when Queen Victoria died, the English insisted everyone in the Empire publicly showed thier feeling of mourining.

Nothing like a little 100 year old jab to tickle the funnybone

Gigantalope,
Victoria is definitely Victorian, we've also been called "more english than the english"

"Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, is located on the southernmost tip of Vancouver Island, halfway between Seattle and the city of Vancouver. Founded as a Hudson’s Bay Company fort in 1843, the city was named in honor of Queen Victoria. Much of Victoria’s British-influenced charm remains, thanks to an abundance of old Victorian homes, cricket fields, and pubs. The afternoon tradition of High Tea is still alive and well in Victoria, although the city is anything but stodgy. Hip bistros are on every corner, and some of the West Coast’s most innovative cuisine is available here. Victorians are passionate about their city, and many cite the excellent climate as the reason. Mild year-round temperatures allow residents to get out and hike, picnic, and kayak in the parks, harbors, and gardens that surround them."

Gastown is where the city of Vancouver began. Founded in 1867, the community was originally named after the first settler and colourful saloon owner 'Gassy' Jack Deighton. Today, the area is a charming mix of old and new with its cobbled streets, antique gaslights, Victorian architecture, and unique tangle of mews, courtyards and passage housing boutiques, restaurants, and entertainment.

A few years ago I did a clickable map of BC with place name lore for every region of the province. I won't bore you with it, but you can check it out here if you wish: http://collections.ic.gc.ca/folklore/navigate/index.htm