Right, that's what goulash and chop suey are on restaurant menus.

The type of dish we are talking about here (macaroni, ground beef, chopped vegetables, and tomato sauce) is almost entirely made at home, often as a quick midweek meal to use what's on hand, rather than served at restaurants. It is not what you'd serve to company. It's not part of a food trend. It's more of a technique than a precise recipe. There is a lot of variation both in household techniques, a big one being whether it is baked or not, and in individual executions, since this is the type of dish that you can make lots of substitutions in. If you have some celery, it goes in; if not, no big deal!

So the nomenclature for it is varied. But somebody will eventually submit their recipe to a church cookbook or newspaper recipe column and it needs a name.

Some call it chop suey. This is most common in New England. Some call it goulash. I've heard this a lot from westerners. We call it that in my family because my father-in-law made it at least once a week when my wife was growing up out west. There are other names including Johnny Marzetti (named after a casserole version served at an Ohio restaurant and almost exclusively midwestern), beefaroni (brand name of canned version), and chili mac (name frequently used in military messhall). These names are somewhat regional, though you will tend to call these things what your family calls them rather than what your neighbors call them.

The chop suey and goulash nomenclature derives from knowledge there is a fancier, restaurant-quality "ethnic" dish of the same name. But that dish is perceived (rightly or wrongly) to be a mish-mash of ingredients kind of like this home dish. Indeed,