Why are some places counties?

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Starfleetmom@reddit

I say I’m from north San Diego county because I don’t live in San Diego and no one outside of the county knows all the cities surrounding San Diego.

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juiceman730@reddit

304 in the house!

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ghunt81@reddit

I mean you kinda have to, anyone not from your county won't know the name of the tiny little town you're from. People from a neighboring county might but not guaranteed.

missgnomer2772@reddit

nods in Appalachian Alabama

My maternal grandfather’s last name was Black. But we’re the Union Chapel (unincorporated) Blacks, not the Curry (unincorporated) Blacks.

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WillRateYourLabia@reddit

My family, the Curry Blacks, told me that the Union Chapel Blacks were horse thieves.

Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island are boroughs of the City of New York. They were brought together in 1908, prior to that, New York City was Manhattan only. Queens is Queens County, and Brooklyn is Kings County. Staten Island is coextensive with Richmond County (ie, only in Queens is the county and the borough the same).

New York City is a city in New York State, covering 5 counties.

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MonicaBmore415@reddit

Thank you for the knowledge, home skillet. 😆

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VerifiedMother@reddit

Largest county in my state is the size of New Jersey but only has like 10,000 people.

Granted probably 80% or more of the county is land owned by the federal government

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Phyrnosoma@reddit

Yeah. I grew up a hill or two back off an interstate exit where the pavement ended. Maybe 20ish houses on the mountain?? Nearest grocery store was 20-30 minutes away

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Narrow_Implement7788@reddit

We use hollers

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Brainwashedgoatz@reddit

I live out Wayne.

ArtieJay@reddit

Idaho plates specify the county where the vehicle is registered though, which is nice (once you know the code - hint, they're alphabetical).

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Prestigious-Comb4280@reddit

Some Florida plates do too although they are getting away from it. For a while there was attacks on rental cars...

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idkbutithinkaboutit@reddit

That's great! When I was a kid in Washington State, the county was encoded in the plate numbers, and I memorized them all. I moved away, and when I returned as an adult, they had stopped doing that. So sad, my nerdy superpower had been destroyed.

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AlabamaTrifold@reddit

I’m guessing a letter to specify each county? That’s interesting. Iowa I know straight up says the county (Boone for example) right under the license plate number

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ArtieJay@reddit

1A is Ada, L is Latah, 8B is Bonneville. Basically, if there is only one county that starts with the letter, the plate starts with that letter. If multiple, it's the number in alphabetical order then the letter to start the plate.

Example: 8B F4913 would be a vehicle registered in Bonneville county.

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RubGlum4395@reddit

Did you have to learn all 44 through song in 4th grade too?

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Practical_Celery_878@reddit

Ha! Kansas has a 2 letter county identifier on our plates, but we also have 105 counties, so no song to learn.

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never gone to a concert there, just driven past it.

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Early-Afternoon124@reddit

It's amazing! You should definitely go!

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No-Drama-in-Paradise@reddit

How specific you have to be depends on who you're talking to and what you're talking about. Someone living in the suburbs of a big city might mention their exact town or neighborhood when talking to another resident of the city, but would probably just say the big city's name when talking to someone unfamiliar with the area. When people say they're going to "Las Vegas", they're almost never actually going to Las Vegas, NV, they're going to Paradise, NV which is an unincorporated town next to Las Vegas.

And that brings up another point- not everywhere in the country is actually in a town. I think it's more common in the West than the East, but many parts of the country are still unincorporated- they're in a state and a county, but they aren't formally part of a town so giving the county may be the most accurate descriptor you can provide.

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flora_poste_@reddit

Washington state isn’t as populous as CA, but it has those same vestiges of the old west: massive counties and lots of unincorporated areas.

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sacrelicio@reddit

Yeah that also feels so different from the Midwest (or east). Even a very large city feels like it was just plunked into the national forest.

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cherrytree13@reddit

Southern California is the opposite. There are 34 cities in Orange County, not to mention the many cities in adjacent counties. They all just kind of run into each other too; there’s not typically a stretch of road between them that marks their boundaries like happens in rural areas. Theres also numerous smaller neighborhood areas people might say they’re from. It’s a lot to keep track of so unless you’re from one of the better known cities or neighborhoods, it makes sense to just say the county.

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Dry-Ad5762@reddit

I had a 3rd cousin that lived in Whittier, which is in OC, but a lot of people wouldn't know that, but would easily know Anaheim being in OC unless they've actually been in or through Whittier

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No-Drama-in-Paradise@reddit

Also, not everyone lives in a city. In many (if not most) states, not everywhere is part of an incorporated city, or even a more informal community.

While some people, particularly if they live in the close-in suburbs/exerbs of an urban area, may still identify themselves as being associated with that city, many people may either prefer to identify themselves as part of “rural [County Name] or the County instead, and some may not live close enough to a notable city or recognizable community for it to make sense to identify as being from there.

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b0ingy@reddit

and I live in a city so big it has four counties

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Dr_StrangeloveGA@reddit

I went to high school in rural GA where the entire county had (and still has) one elementary school, one middle school and one high school.

Also one town.

I mean, Visalia, Gateway to the Sequoias?

It’s a hole, but it’s a moderately well-known hole.

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Robotpoop@reddit

Honestly, I'd never heard of Visalia until I moved to the Central Valley five years ago. I lived in the Bay Area for a couple decades before that.

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alicelestial@reddit

honestly i have never met someone outside the area that knows about visalia lol. even if they've been to the sequoias. people drive through and immediately forget about the tiny city and just remember the gorgeous trees, which is fair. i'll say something like "if you're going to the sequoias it's the most common town to go through" and they'll reply "OOHHHHHHHH YEAH i remember that town, what was it called again?"

Fascinating. It's not overlapping jurisdiction?

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o93mink@reddit

Oh take a joke Florence

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Skipp_To_My_Lou@reddit

"Southerners are all stupidly racist updoots on the left" was never funny.

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Skipp_To_My_Lou@reddit

Kinda sorta. There were several smaller incorporated cities that also annexed into the new Metro government, like Donelson, Hermitage, Old Hickory, Madison, Antioch, Bellevue, & so on. Like when Nashville airport was originally built in the 1930s it was all the way out there in Donelson, not even in Nashville. You can still see that in all the Post Offices & addresses inside Metro Nashville that carry those old city names, so like if you live near the airport you have a Donelson address. A few cities never annexed in, & Lakewood finally did about 15 years ago I guess.

Most everything was combined into a single service so you have Metro Schools, Metro Water, Nashville Fire Department, Metro Public Works, Davidson County Clerk (marriages, vehicle tags, etc) & so on. But Metro Police Department with a Chief appointed by the Mayor who handles policing & Davidson County Sheriff's Office with an elected Sheriff who runs the jail, serves evictions, & used to occasionally make low-risk warrant arrests.

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NonBinaryKenku@reddit

I found this so confusing when moving to VA. When locals ask where you live, it’s either the nearby city or “in the county” meaning literally anywhere outside of city limits.

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weaselblackberry8@reddit

When I moved to Memphis, I thought it was weird that people would say they lived in Memphis when they actually live in a suburb. I came from North Carolina, and people in the middle of the state would say Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham, or maybe say “a city/town near” whichever of those. They are all close to each other but seem more distinct than suburbs of a city.

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Unlikely-Boat3202@reddit

It’s for a couple reasons.

The lines between suburbs and city neighborhoods aren’t super clear; Memphis sprawls through Shelby County with all the stuff it’s annexed. One side of the street is Memphis and the other is Bartlett.
Your house might be in one suburb, you work in another, go to church in another, have family across town, hang out with friends in the city, etc. No one in Shelby County “lives” exclusively in their suburb. Me and my friends are from the same place, even though we grew up in different suburbs; we all want to claim the same place. People also switch suburbs when they upgrade houses, or when kids move out into apartments, etc. Memphis is the location that stays consistent.
We claim the city, not the state. The rest of TN is an entirely different culture from Memphis (and most of Shelby County).
We can’t call it Shelby County because basically every state has a Shelby County. And some people would claim “Memphis” includes Southaven, MS, since a lot of those people work in Memphis.

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weaselblackberry8@reddit

I agree with all those things, though (2) is true in several places. It was true for me in NC in the last three homes I lived in, for my mom, my dad in the last two states he’s lived in, my brother in multiple states, and more.

And your #3 is important. I do know many people who live in suburbs and consider themselves to be Memphians, but some never go into the city.

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djsuperfly@reddit

The Triangle is a multi-nodal place, though, that is actually part of 2 different MSAs.

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BaileyAMR@reddit

I thought of the one in New York. Because I'm in New York.

Dude, as a kid I could never piece it together.

They'd show b roll footage of country roads in Upstate NY (I mean my sister lives in nyc now, so everything north of The Bronx is Upstate), and those two biker guys with their thick NY accents...

But The OC was on TV at the same time, and it was the only Orange County I knew.

To make matters worse, I had moved from the East Coast (PA > MD > OH) to CA around the time those shows started, and in CA I moved to a farming area where a lot of the ownership families had East Coast (Italian) names...

No one says “the OC”, but the way. Just “OC”.

True. I just say 'just outside St Louis'. Or according to my family I live IN St. Louis. But in college I knew some StL County Natives who assume everyone knows all the ins and outs of County and City divisions and neighborhoods and we were 3 and a half hours from any part of the county.

Honestly most other counties I kind of feel the same about. I KNOW there is an Orange County, California. But I don't know where it is. My guess would be closer to LA than SF, but that is based on vague memories of The OC on TV and the weather they had.

I just looked it up. I would totally just call that LA.

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byebybuy@reddit

the OC

Yes, exactly. Or as a destination far away. “Ugh, I have a doctor’s appointment on Friday at 3 which means I’m gonna have to drive to Orange County at rush hour.”

Orange County (CA) has an identity all its own. Another SoCal example, not as well known, would be the IE (Inland Empire), which is the suburbs in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

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RioTheLeoo@reddit

Those of us from SoCal will know where most of the cities in the counties are, so in that case we’d specify the city.

People from outside wouldn’t though, so people from OC would just say OC

Classic_Cash_2156@reddit

Virginia actually has way more independent cities than Maryland and every other state put together.

There are 41 independent cities in the US, of those 41, 38 are in Virginia. The exceptions are Baltimore Maryland, St. Louis Missouri, and Carson City Nevada. The rest are Virginia.

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RipleyCat80@reddit

Yup, I grew up in Howard County and the main two towns are Columbia and Ellicott City are indistinguishable.

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PhilosophyBitter7875@reddit

If you get swept up by a over flowing river you know you are in Ellicott City.

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Places have cultural and economic similarities that don't respect administrative boundaries so we pick the boundary that best encapsulates the vibe.

(Buena Park, Anaheim, went to high school in Fullerton, Rancho Santa Margarita, Mission Viejo, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Aliso Viejo)

sunshineandcacti@reddit

I’m from farmland Arizona. We usually will just preface the county as if I named a city a bulk majority, even Americans, wouldn’t really be able to pin point on the map. Even now I only most of the general areas of there ethe rural communities are due to my job. But even then it’s a more a vague being able to point to the general location on the map.

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yunboas@reddit

The title did not exactly tell me what to expect but lmao. Like many others have said, it can be regional or situation-based. Like it’s always so embarrassing when I see Americans abroad get asked where they’re from and they respond with the state or even the city. Not everyone knows about St. Louis or Oregon baby. They damn sure don’t know about a Duval County!

If I’m talking to someone from the same metro as me or that is familiar with it, I’ll say “I’m from the southwest side of DeKalb County” because people from Atlanta Metro will say we are from “Atlanta”, but not all of us live within the limits of the City of Atlanta. And most people wouldn’t recognize where I’m from cause it’s not a bigger place in the county.

If I’m talking to someone from another part of the state or country that is not familiar with the particulars of my area, I’ll simply say I’m from Atlanta. I actually lived right outside of city limits in a CDP, but still.

Sometimes depending on the convo, it’s more of a region. A group could be talking about how annoyed they are with the snowfall and the salt eating up their paint or snow tires idk…and they look at me to chime in but “I don’t know about any of that, I’m from the DEEP south”.

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Fun_Lifeguard_3711@reddit

People from Cincinnati tell people they are “from Cincinnati” even if they actually live in an incorporated suburb or township (Deer Park, Madisonville, Indian Hill, etc.) where people in greater Cleveland tend to say that they are from the suburb (Shaker Heights, Parma, Lakewood) rather than “Cleveland.”

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A lot of states don’t have towns. Whatever municipalities are called in each state is whatever said state pulled out of their ass when writing their municipal enabling laws.

Minnesota and Iowa both have townships. I believe they’re pretty common. They matter a lot of you’re looking for a farm on a plat map, or you live outside of city limits and want to vote.

I live in Pennsylvania now and it's weird. The particular area I work in can be referred to by 3 different names. The area I live in is nearby and is referred to by two of those same names. If I walk a few blocks, I'm in a borough instead of township. My in-laws live on the other side of the creek. There's the general name for the town as a whole, but there's "town" borough and "town" township, plus another town name for their area of the town.

OkElephant1931@reddit

Iowa has townships. But no one would ever know what township they were from.

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morgaine_silver_hair@reddit

In Minnesota at least, every county is divided into townships, which are 6x6 miles square. Then each township is divided into 1x1 mile / 640-acre parcels which are called a range. I live in a rural community, and rarely hear anyone refer to their location by township name though.

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North Carolina has them but I am not sure they are actually used for anything anymore. They seem like they were something for administrative use. I see them mentioned on old deeds (or copy and pasted descriptions from old deeds).

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oarmash@reddit

Plenty of states in the northeast and Midwest have them.

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SigmaSeal66@reddit

In the largely rural (by area) Midwestern states, the maps were laid out in advance, before much of anyone actually lived there. Take Iowa for example; the entire state is a near-regular 11x9 grid of (in most cases, unless a boundary like a river messes it up) perfectly square counties. each of these is further divided into a 6x6 grid of townships, which gives a more precise location to specify just where something was, in, for example, the mid-1800s when settlers were first arriving and claiming land to establish farms and homesteads. The grid of counties and townships were already there, so every place was some place, whether a town happened to grow up there or not. In the modern day if something meaningful like a community happens to exist within a township, people might refer to it by the township name. In other places, if a township turned out to be so sparsely populated that no name for that area is ever really needed, or so heavily populated that it is known by the town or city it is part of, the township still formally exists, but yet people could live there their whole lives and never know the name of the township they live in.

Yep, because Louisiana was French, when they made the territories they called them parishes as thats the French way.

Then America took over and kinda kept it. Fun fact, Louisiana also follows a different set of laws and a practicing attorney in another state has to essentially relearn law if they moved to Louisian because its based on the French system!

Also, when I moved out Louisiana - I was so used to seeing "XYZ Parish Sheriff's Office" that it was alien to keep seeing "county" in police cruisers.

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Big__If_True@reddit

At this point they’re the exact same thing, just with a different name

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FuckIPLaw@reddit

It's because Louisiana's state constitution is based on the Code Napoleon instead of on English common law like every other state.

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dew2459@reddit

Basically counties.

Then there is Connecticut, which has dissolved all of its counties and reorganized into planning regions. Aside from rural Maine, counties don’t do much in New England states anyway.

This is technically how it works across the entire Western US except townships have no administrative power or government they’re just a unit of land measurement; most Western states just have municipality-county-state as levels of government with special districts sprinkled that cover a single service over a area not nearly mapped onto a municipality or county.

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Ok_Sheepherder_1794@reddit

In NJ, at least, the only distinction between a township and any other municipality is that townships usually contain "towns" that are just fuzzily defined neighborhoods that may once have had an independent existence but are now just places on a map. My township has a mayor, a city hall, the usual municipal departments, etc. My "town" on the other hand has no government institutions of its own (not even a supervisor). But it's what's shown on my address, not the township or county.

Growing up as a child in Illinois, I never heard anyone say that they lived in X township. They would just say the closest city/town/village, even though they did live in the township area and not the actual city/town/village.

Here in Ohio, people very often will self-identify as a resident of X township rather than city Y, even in cases where city Y is within the bounds of X township. The townships, though limited in their government, often have very city-like identities. The fact that they often have separate school systems from the incorporated areas is no doubt a big factor in that.

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usefulchickadee@reddit

It's more of a northwest territory thing. I'm in Ohio and they're just a type of municipality that isn't highly organized. I think they usually just have an elected board of trustees. They'll run local services, but that's usually fairly limited to parks and rec, fire and police.

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skibib@reddit

And they will also supposedly tell you what’s allowed in that township, like you can’t just pop up a junkyard on that road because you feel like it, though it could be 10 or 20 years till somebody notices, but there are a lot of rules with the townships, once someone realizes that a rule is needed for something.

I grew up in the midwest and same, we didn't refer to ourselves by county very often.

Now I live in the northeast and we often refer to ourselves by county. A lot of it is because there are tons of tiny "towns" out here with a post office plus a bar and/or church and nothing else. So if I'm not very far from home at all, there's a solid chance no one has heard of my tiny town. Often if I'm one county over I'll just tell people I live in western ____ County and it gets the point across better.

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I am so confused. I live in a city in the Midwest.

Not gonna lie to you, but it's always annoying when people vaguely say "I'm from the Midwest".

Having lived in Chicago -which is in the Midwest- I would absolutely use "county" to refer to the suburban counties that surround Cook County. I use both county and the specific suburban town interchangeable, depending on context. But I don't know every single suburban municipality in the Chicago metro area, so I say'll "he's from McHenry Country".

And I do the same in NJ & southern NY.

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grandma-activities@reddit

I live in one of a handful of independent cities in my state. No county here, and it really throws people off because I guess counties are the norm for the rest of the country.

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BrotherNatureNOLA@reddit

Where I'm from, you usually use which parish (county) you're from if you're talking to someone from another area, and which city/town/village/settlement if you're talking to someone from your general area, someone who would understand the nuanced differences of the area.

I will reference my county to other people because it’s a generalized region. For people who are not familiar with California, I’ll say I’m from Southern California. If someone has spent time in/lived in California and asks what part I’m from, I’ll tell them Orange County so they have a general understanding of the area I’m from. If they happen to be familiar with that area, then they will ask, “oh what city?”

It’s just such a big area that I can say a specific city and that will most often be too specific.

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pan_chromia@reddit

It’s all about context. If I’m talking to someone who is local, they probably know my town so I’ll say that. If I’m talking to someone from my state but not local, I’ll try to give them more context clues (town, near x).

In the case of Orange County, it’s a big area right next to Los Angeles that covers several towns. Saying “I’m from OC” to someone in LA means “I’m from near here but not here-here and also the specific town I’m from isn’t important.”

My county isn’t well-known like OC is so I wouldn’t say that. My situation sounds more like your situation.

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duke_igthorns_bulge@reddit

People on tv talking about Orange County are talking about a specific region south of Los Angeles that has a distinctly different vibe than LA.

San Francisco is in San Francisco County, so people don’t say that, but they might say they live in Santa Clara County if they live in the South Bay but not San Jose (the biggest city).

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EastTXJosh@reddit

We have 254 counties in Texas. Some cities are in multiple counties.

Also, any incorporated area in Texas is a “city” no matter how big or small. We have towns, villages, etc. A city can have less than 1,000 residents and still be a city. That’s always confused me about other states, the divide between cities, towns, etc.

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rhandy_mas@reddit

My family cabin is in northern MN and is in a township. It’s veeeery rural, so I say St. Louis County, people recognize that more.

In those same rural areas, if you are talking to someone from your county, you MIGHT say the nearest town, but it’s just as likely you’ll mention it’s near a specific road or other landmark.

You basically tailor your answer to what you assume the other person would recognize without further explanation.

Orange County steps outside of some of these rules because it has a recognized cultural reputation, whether or not that’s accurate, that can be used in pop culture. I’m sure people in and around Orange County don’t feel it’s sufficient enough to describe where they are, however.

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Cerulean_IsFancyBlue@reddit

It happens the same way people say "I'm from Oregon", "... from Long Island", "... from the UP", or "... New England", or "... the West Coast." It's the level of detail that either they figure will land with the listener, a/door will provide the needed context.

If you're talking about upper Michigan seasons and remoteness, being "from the UP" is way more relevant than the specific town.

Some counties have an entire personality, and that image may be national or more likely regional. Orange County, CA. Bucks County, PA. Dade County, FL.

In some places you can be in a county but not in anything smaller -- no town, municipality, village, etc. This is often called "unincorporated". Sure, you can name the nearest decent sized town, but you're not IN it. (Meanwhile some states divide all counties into smaller blocks with no gaps)

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Dry-Ad5762@reddit

Where i live in Oklahoma, I just tell people I live outside of Oklahoma City, but with 77 counties, one county being named after the state, and the other being named after another major city (Tulsa), we have 75 other counties full of small-town USA.

So, a lot of times, those towns you'd be better just either saying the county or what part of the state you're in

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12468097531@reddit

I live in unincorporated county area. I'm outside city limits but without county limits.

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elderly_millenial@reddit

Orange County (and even worse Los Angeles County) is pretty much contiguously urbanized. Virtually the entire Los Angeles Basin region is developed into tracts in which you can drive from one end to the other and still be in a developed area, and sometimes the only way you can tell the difference is the landscaping and color of the street signs change.

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K_Linkmaster@reddit

If you can get out to travel and meet people, I encourage it. There ARE counties in Minnesota that people refer to when the county is notable. Same with ND, SD, mt, ia, etc. The more you talk to people the more it will make sense with city sizes and thing like that. Have fun out there, this was a good question!

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Devi-Supertramp@reddit

Cook County would like to have a word. And Door County nearby would concur

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Drew707@reddit

If you said Cook County I would recognize it even only being to IL once as a layover which I don't really count. Never heard of Door County.

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ocvagabond@reddit

We don’t know your cities either beyond the Big 2.

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Uffda01@reddit

I'm in St Paul - but if you think about how everybody outside of the metro refers to the Cities as the Cities - nobody really cares if its Richfield or Bloomington its just The Cities. - it kind of works the same way for counties - especially somewhere like Orange Co California where there isn't really anywhere that isn't part of the entire metro area. We don't say the counties here in the cities because they aren't distinct enough.

To carry the comparisons farther: if you were actually IN Orange county; you'd specify the actual city more often and more directly...Newport Beach or Laguna specifies they are those locations in the same way Edina specifies that its Edina - and not just The Cities.

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I grew up in a city called Corona in Southern California. I say I’m from Corona, nobody recognizes it. I say Riverside county or the inland empire. Maybe someone recognizes that. Now I live in Pennsylvania. I live in a borough, which I still don’t understand what that means. Like I say I’m in (town) borough, and then right up the street they have the same town listed on their address, but they’re part of “east whatever” township. Or like I used to have a “Pottstown” address but I lived in “sanatoga”. Had a Norristown address but I lived in “west norriton”. I don’t understand most of it to be honest. And there’s a county but I rarely hear someone say “I live in Montgomery county”. But then people will say they’re from delco (Delaware county). It’s all over the place out here.

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Gamecockgirl79@reddit

That doesn't happen in the south as far as I know. Some cities in my state are actually in two counties but even in the small towns and communities, we say the city or town that we live in.

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PotterChick2818@reddit

Because there’s so much overlap sometimes that the county name is easier. Or the closest big city. If I’m walking around Philly, I won’t tell people I’m from Philly. I live in the suburbs. If I’m in Disney World, I’ll say I’m from Philly because it’s recognizable to most Americans.

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Longjumping_Ant7025@reddit

Virginia is the major exception to this as far as I know. Our cities are completely seperation legally from the surrounding counties so it sometimes makes sense to differentiate.

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GlitterFallWar@reddit

Yes! VA has Independent Cities and Counties as the entities directly below the state.

bkguy182@reddit

It’s funny… I find it to usually be the opposite!

It’s the whole Midwest that usually refers to the county they’re from- since everything is so sparse. Your county may have 12 towns, but those 12 towns have only like 50k people.

And, I could be totally making this up, but it seems like those towns aren’t self governing cities?? So the county acts as the govt in terms of public services. So the county is really acting as the city and those towns are just neighborhood, more or less.

Now to your Orange County example… I think that’s a cultural one off and it gained popularity because of the show and movie and housewives. It’s their way of saying they’re not LA, while attaching themselves to that more beachy affluent lifestyle. But you are right bc it’s a county filled with many functioning cities that are very different from each other. Santa Ana is not hunington beach is not Irvine is not San Clemente.

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gravitycheckfailed@reddit

Some of us in the US don't even call them counties. It's parishes in Louisiana.

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MonicaBmore415@reddit

I live in MD. Some counties are more known then others. I usually just tell people I'm from Baltimore, but now I live in X county. They'll know where I'm talking about.

And if I said I'm from PG (Prince George) County or Montgomery County folks will definitely know where I'm talking about! 😉

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Yummy_Castoreum@reddit

In the case of Orange County, it's because you're less likely to know its cities, which all blend together anyway. It tells you "I come from the area between Los Angeles and San Diego," which are places big enough for you to know.

It's the same reason people say "I'm from L.A." to actually mean "I'm from Los Angeles County," not necessarily the city limits of Los Angeles, because greater L.A. is made up of dozens of small cities that sprawl into one another. "I'm from Pacoima" would mean nothing to you, but "I'm from L.A." does.

I imagine this goes double for rural areas where the cities are so small that it's even less likely you'd recognize their names.

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kristentx@reddit

Well, sometimes the city really isn't a city but a bunch of towns that are in a county. At least, that's the way I think of it

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Electrical_Ad4290@reddit

Very likely traces back in history to politics - From Google - from Reddit:

the vast majority of U.S. cities are located within one or more counties. Counties serve as primary administrative subdivisions of states, and cities generally exist within them. While cities can expand across county lines, and some consolidate with them (e.g., [San Francisco], [Nashville], [Denver]), most operate under county authority.

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Human-Ad8198@reddit

Here's an interesting one for ya. I live in Pittsburgh PA. Within the city limits, we have 90 distinct neighborhoods and one borough. The borough, which has its own mayor, police force and taxes, is named Mount Oliver and sits adjacent to the Mount Oliver neighborhood which is part of the city. It also shares area code and zip code with neighborhoods near it. We also have many boroughs on the outskirts of the city. The entirety of the city and most of its boroughs sit inside Allegheny county.

Pristine_Cicada_5422@reddit

I’ve lived in Maine, New York, Vermont & Ohio. Nobody ever just says the county name. Everyone says the town name where they live. Occasionally, if I’m in the big city nearby and speaking to someone, I might say the town name, if they don’t seem to recognize it, I clarify that it’s in northern X county and then they absolutely know, usually, lol.

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Steve_7198@reddit

Because Orange County is a bunch of smaller cities that don't deserve respect. Their only commonality is that they are generally a pain in the ass. Thus, none of them want to give out their exact location.

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curious-princess99@reddit

My county is very large and 80% is not in a city. I personally live in the unincorporated part of the county so I say my county name.

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Katressl@reddit

In the case of Orange County, it's like saying, "I'm from the Bay Area" or "I live in the Atlanta metro." Most people outside those areas aren't going to know Daly City (on the peninsula of the Bay Area) or a random Atlanta suburb, but they'll know the metros. Orange County is basically a giant network of suburbs of LA. Most people wouldn't know any of the cities there, but they've heard of OC. I think some people in these instances will just name the nearest major city. For sure, people in suburbs where I'm from will say, "I'm from Madison, WI," rather than Fitchburg or Dane County. But some metros are known by their county names, like OC.

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dinamet7@reddit

Orange County, CA is a bit of an anomaly. It is small in terms of actual land acreage (smallest in California), but is home to 3 million people.

If you live in one city, odds are you sometimes grocery shop in another city, go to the doctor in another city, and even sometimes send your kids to school in another city. There is no single "big city" that people in the surrounding areas will say they are from like you might experience in areas like Chicago or LA or San Diego, where a lot of people don't live in the city proper, but live close enough to regularly enjoy the amenities and proximity to the city proper to say "I'm from Chicago" when they technically live in the burbs.

Cicero912@reddit

Yeah for census purposes

We also have regional councils of government but those are voluntary associations and mainly for infrastructure/development planning

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mkt853@reddit

I think that model only really works in a small highly urbanized state like CT where the towns have enough people to pay for things. In states that are mostly rural, counties make a lot of sense financially because it takes the entire county's population as a tax base to be able to afford essential services.

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Cicero912@reddit

True, but I generally feel like unincorporated land has more to do with people not wanting to pay taxes.

Obviously theres a lot of unincorporated land that has like, 2 people, but it's how you end up with unincorporated suburbs of Atlanta, Austin, etc.

The smallest town in CT is ~785 people, about ~27s per square mile (outdates population info). But most towns in CT dont have local police, only state troopers. And most highschools are regional + interdistrict school choice

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leroythered@reddit

CT does in fact have counties. 8 of them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_in_Connecticut

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Anthrodiva@reddit

West Virginia is also very county centric!

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Its crazy to me that the first industrial coal mine in KY was in Western KY and not Appalachia (Muhlenberg, near the green river and paradise). I've been trying to learn about the area as I have generations past that were born there and I'd never associated that part of the state with coal mining.

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Trinx_@reddit

Yes, we say my grandma came from Harlan County, Kentucky. And I give it a twang when I say it always.

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mcalesy@reddit

And there are two states that don’t even have counties! Alaska has boroughs and Louisiana has parishes.

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EaglesFanGirl@reddit

So, it depends. Sometimes the counties are more recognizable than the specific small town. Counties pretty much work the same across the US though they each have their own nuances and quirks based on the state rules. PA has a tier county system and, depending on size has different rules. Some Counties are more active in day-to-day -some areas enforcement is done at the county or even state level. In rural parts of PA, this is the case -but not normal in more suburban areas.

I'm from PA - i live in Delaware County aka. Delco. I could tell you i'm from Newtown Square (oddly recognizable right now for other reasons) but most people won't know that. I could also tell you i live in the Philadelphia suburbs or Delaware River Valley (also acceptable)

Philadelphia, PA is it's own county so it's not needed to say - i'm from Philly County. Everyone from Philly County is considered in the city limits of Philly.

Pittsburgh is in Allegheny County. Not all of Allegheny County is in Pittsburgh. When someone says they are from Allegheny Co, I assume they are from there but not in the Burgh.

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danhm@reddit

Lots of places in the US are "unincorporated areas" with no town level government.

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ReticentBee806@reddit

Yup. I live in the limits of the City of Los Angeles, so we're serviced by LAPD, LA Dept of Water & Power, LA Sanitation & Environment, etc. (all city government agencies).

Walk a block and half west and cross the street and you're in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, which is serviced by LA County Sheriff's Dept (county government agency), Southern California Edison, Southern California Gas Co., etc. (private contractors).

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2PlasticLobsters@reddit

Not everyone lives in a town. My partner still says he's from "Frederick County", because his childhood home wasn't in one. The closest town was so small, few people outside that county had ever heard of it.

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ian9921@reddit

It's about being specific without being too specific.

In some areas, for one reason or another, the specific tien just doesn't matter. No one who's not from the immediate area of that town would care about the name. That's being too specific.

So you go up to the next convenient label that folks are likely to recognize. Sometimes that's the area of the next larger city. But if there is no larger city nearby, or if the metro area of that city spans several counties (as is the case with your example of Orange County), the county is that next step up.

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DrBoogerFart@reddit (OP)

We say the nearest big town which is still 60 miles from us haha

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ian9921@reddit

It also depends on how well-known the county is. Orange County is fairly well known, that's where Disneyland is among other things. But very few people are gonna say they're from Camas County (that's in my state and I still don't know what the hell it is).

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shadowpavement@reddit

Also consider that some states have MANY counties, and often those counties are all similarly shaped and sized. So there is little to distinguish one from another.

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DrBoogerFart@reddit (OP)

Miami-Dade is popular every four years haha

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Darkdragoon324@reddit

Seems like a more rural thing, where I grew up people always said a city/town. I don't think I ever heard anyone just name a county in Utah.

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sighnwaves@reddit

The OC is its own cultural thing.
Nobody would know the majority of the small towns in their state, counties are significantly more recognized.

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bebesee@reddit

The OC

Don’t call it that.

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Red-Zaku-@reddit

Is it just the “The” that people from Orange County take issue with, or the abbreviation of OC?

I’ve grown up in San Diego for the past 30+ years and it’s been the norm to refer to places all over California as just letters. SD, LA, SLO, SFV, SF, SB, and typically OC got lumped in there too

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bebesee@reddit

It’s the “the.” It’s also an “Arrested Development” reference.

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butt_fun@reddit

Lmao thanks

I grew up in Anaheim and every time I hear "the OC" I have to fight back rolling my eyes

21stNow@reddit

Definitely in Maryland. I even told most locals that I lived in Prince George's County when I lived there. There's over 40 cities and towns there. People will argue about which town a certain block is in. There were people in the area that had no idea where my city was if I said the name of it anyway.

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PlanMagnet38@reddit

In Maryland, we always use county. Everything in the state is based on counties in terms of governance, education, culture, and vibes.

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bare_thoughts@reddit

Midwest state in a rural area and we can be confusing as hell to people not used to us. Our schools districts can cross county lines and are just named for the town the school is in or for schools that are out in the middle of no-where the name of the school general in a mix of the counties names (usually initials). It is fun when you live rural or small town, especially near a county border. Basically our counties tend to work well with their neighbors.

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macoafi@reddit

Anything within like an hour of DC, we say counties. I'm in MoCo (Montgomery County). PG (Prince George's County) is the next one over. Pretty sure I've heard Howard County called HoCo too. And Baltimore County is different from Baltimore City. Then down south in Maryland, you have St. Mary's and Anne Arundel. Other side of the river, Arlington vs. Alexandria and Loudon County…

We don't have townships, though. There's a lot of unincorporated area, like technically Silver Spring, MD isn't a real named place, just the unincorporated area of MoCo south east of Rockville. (I've actually had websites correct my mailing address to "Unincorporated, MD [zip code]"!) Within MoCo, instead of naming Bethesda/Chevy Chase/Silver Spring/Takoma Park, we might just say "down county," as opposed to "up county" which would include Rockville, Gaithersburg, Potomac, Olney, Sandy Spring, etc. The potholes are better up county since the county seat of government is in Rockville.

HERKFOOT21@reddit

98% of people in the US not 99%, my bad

Because who outside LA/Socal is going to know where Santa Clarita is?

Nobody, that's why, like my point is they tell outsiders that their from LA, aka the region

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ocvagabond@reddit

I’m telling you it’s not just one county. Literally half of the biggest state does it.

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weaselblackberry8@reddit

Half of Californians say what county they live in rather than something related to the biggest city or name of the area? I’ve usually heard people say they live in “the Bay Area” or “Silicon Valley” or “Northern California” or something like that.

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ocvagabond@reddit

That is a uniquely Northern California take. I’ve lived there for multiple decades as well. I’d always say East Bay with pride. Would never want to be confused for being from the other side.

I just saw a comment like that in the r/stlouis subreddit. I was like what? I'm a St. Louisian and I live in the county.

I get the city pride, but to say we're not from St. Louis is ridiculous.

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PorcelainTorpedo@reddit

It’s the same in St. Louis, where the city is its own thing and isn’t in a county.

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FreeRange0929@reddit

Baltimore, St Louis, and Carson City are the only independent cities in the US outside of Virginia.

In Virginia, incorporated cities are independent by law. Look at a map of Richmond, you’ll see it’s actually a small block surrounded by Henrico County on the north and Chesterfield County on the south.

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old_gold_mountain@reddit

yep and SF has no city council but instead has a board of supervisors

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jvc1011@reddit

Which is a county level of government (in CA), but it also has a mayor, which is city-level.

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Slow_Concern_672@reddit

For two main reasons that you've already gotten. Either they're from a rural area where nobody will recognize the town. Or they're from an urban area that is just urban sprawl. There are some differences with like if you're from near Detroit in an urban area, a lot of people will say they're from the Detroit area because that's easier than saying you're from northville. But if you're from Macomb county in the more rural area, you'll probably say you're from Macomb county because nobody's going to know what the little town is you're from. And if you say the Detroit area, everybody will think you're in an urban area.

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kiwipixi42@reddit

Where I live now (the south) large swaths of the land are not part of any city, people are just residents of the country. This baffled me as I grew up in NJ where every inch of the state is part of some municipality or other - even places where no one lives.

The county is a hugely important political/cultural unit here in the south, but was mostly unimportant where I grew up in NJ. Different regions in this crazy country are so different. We really are 50 countries in a trench-coat.

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CA2BC@reddit

A lot of rural folks may not live close to a town. Thus the most precise description is the county. Oftentimes they'll give the region of the county too eg Southwestern X county

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No-Kaleidoscope-166@reddit

I grew up all over Virginia. Virginia has independent cities, which several are like large counties (others are just small municipalities) and then many counties. I went to elementary school in Fairfax whixh is a county AND an independent city, so people usually state Fairfax Co, snd if you want to be more specific within the county you can. Fairfax is part of the huge greater DC area.

From there we moved to Madison County, about 2hrs outside of DC. Out there rurally, people usually state which county they are in b/c the county seat is often the same as the county and people from outside of the area have no idea where something like Criglersville is. But, they may know where Madison County is. All the little names... they often aren't even towns, they are post offices. There's no need for anyone outside of the county to know where Banco is. But, in the county you'd use it for directions.

The town I grew up in is part of a very distinct speaking Native American County. You can only find this particular tribe in this particular County. Because there are only five towns in the county we just say what the county is. The main industry is farming so the towns are very small

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juliabk@reddit

Some people don’t live in towns or cities. Others may not want to name the unknown town if they live in a well-known county.

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Traditional_Entry183@reddit

Where I grew up, the city basically is the county. If you're from one, you're from the other.

Where I live now, there aren't even any towns in the county, so saying the county is where you're from is the only viable option to anyone who doesn't live next to you. Most surrounding counties are rural like this too.

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DissentChanter@reddit

I grew up in Salem County, NJ in a one square mile town called Penns Grove. Salem County was good enough to give most people and idea where I grew up instead of explaining where my tiny ass ghetto town was.

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zimm3rmann@reddit

You’ll see this in densely packed areas like South Florida as well - have heard multiple people introduce themselves as being from Broward County which covers 31 different cities, towns, villages etc. Orange County contains 34 different incorporated cities, some are quite small with populations of just a few thousand people. People are more likely to know the general area you’re talking about if you mention a well known county like OC.

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HottestestestMess@reddit

I think Orange County is used as shorthand for “I’m not from the city, but in a rich people way.” The only other example I’m familiar with like this is Westchester, the county just north of NYC. Both the OC and Westchester have less affluent cities, but people typically single out those places.

So, if I’m from Newport Beach or Irvine, both upper middle class towns in the OC, people would associate that with the county. By contrast, if I’m from Santa Ana or Anaheim, people are more likely to think of those as distinct places with more diverse populations.

Around Orlando, Orange County is Orlando. Then, you have the surrounding counties that the media often refers to when reporting…

Icy-Blacksmith-313@reddit

Massachusetts abolished county government decades ago. It still exists as an organizational tool for government, primarily Jails and Courts- but it is not formal, they don't collects taxes or run services or schools at a country level. Out here it's town by town, small governance- or statewide. I think people drop the "county" location thing in large states with functioning county governments, large densities, a lot of political power, strong reputation, and consistent wealth countywide: Cook County (Chicago), Oakland County (Detroit), Orange (San Diego- US Navy), LA County (LA).... etc.

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Elijahbanksisbad@reddit

Definitely happens in the midwest

It depends on who you’re talking to. You tell someone from overseas you’re from chicago, you tell someone from the midwest youre from illinois, you tell someone from illinois you’re from chicagoland, you tell someone from chicagoland youre from Cook county, etc.

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Imightbeafanofthis@reddit

In my experience it's usually to describe a general area, or because there is something thew county is known for.

When people say "I grew up in Orange County" in California, they're saying they grew up in a very Republican county. Orange County, Florida, has been reliably Democrat in the past. I don't know if that's still the case.

If someone says they live in San Francisco county, they're pulling your leg. San Francisco county and San Francisco city are virtually the same with the exception of Treasure Island, which San Francisco purchased in 1997 from the US navy.

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the-quibbler@reddit

In the case of well-known countries (the OC had a show named after it, after all), naming the county might make sense if the alternative is some place the listener might not know. There are a great many small towns in America, and fewer counties. Ymmv.

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WillieB52@reddit

Some time its ok to be approximate.

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MontanaPurpleMtns@reddit

Re: Orange County (specifically the one in California). It’s almost solid people. The towns and areas just run into each other. Though not as tightly packed as LA County.

Where is Santa Ana Hts in relationship to Santa Ana? Or Irvine, or Tustin, or…. They all run together.

That one makes sense to me.

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There's a problem with that.

There are eight Orange Counties in the United States. You can find them in California, Florida, Indiana, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia.

I live in Long Beach, and there are at least 15 cities, neighborhoods, and beaches named Long Beach across the United States.

Mine is located in the county of Los Angeles, but I'm about 9 miles away from Orange county.

This is my silly geography lesson for the day.

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KrofftSurvivor@reddit

In some areas, you can live ~out on the county~ and not within the border of any town.

Where I grew up, the boundary of the next town was right up against the boundary of the one you just left - you were always in a town.

Then I started moving around the country, and learned that in some areas... there are towns sprinkled throughout the county, like chocolate chips in a cookie...and the rest of that area is just... out on the county.

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Virtual_Job9303@reddit

My college roommate in Florida asked me about counties in my home state (NC), since it had gotten his attention that Florida license plates have county names on them, and county identification wasn’t a major thing in his state: Connecticut.

County identification is a relatively big deal in my state. There are exactly 100 counties in NC, so they generally don’t cover as many towns as yours.

If you asked where I was from and you are from out of state, I’d give the name of the nearest city. If you’re a North Carolinian, I’d give the name of the county.

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iOSCaleb@reddit

Counties are just one level of government. They provide local control over many issues that are too large, complex, expensive, etc. for individual towns to handle. States do the same thing, but at an even higher level. Villages do the same thing, but on a smaller scale than towns.

For example, education is often managed at the county level because it’s more cost effective to pool resources and manage all the schools in a county together than to have distinct school systems in each town. Transportation, parks, water, and other infrastructure are likewise often handled at the county level.

Whether someone’s home county is a useful way to describe where they’re from depends on location and circumstances. If you come from a small town, your county might be more recognizable and meaningful to an outsider. If you’re talking to someone who knows the area, you might use your town, neighborhood, or street instead.

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Shadowfeaux@reddit

I’m in NH, have to use the county pretty much only when I buy a gun or something.

If I traveling though it’s typically easier to just say I’m from just outside Boston.

I’ve found people generally start by saying they’re from the most popular place that’s closest to them.

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Wind_Mediocre@reddit

Generally, rural folks will refer to the county name when there is not large towns or cities in the area. There may be five or six towns on paper, but all they have is a post office, general store, and maybe a gas station if your lucky. If you blink you'll miss it, and it doesn't show up on most maps. Its also worth pointing out in these areas, the only schools and local government is at the county level. All the locals graduated from the county high school. Now amongst themselves, or to someone familiar with the area, there are local place names that folks will use.

Audience plays a big part in how folks describe where they are from or live. If I am talking to someone out of state, I will say I live near whatever major city in such and such state. If I am talking with someone in the state, then I typically say the town name and specify what major city its near. If its someone local to me or fimilar with the area, I will get really specific and say the local area or neighborhood. It all depends on how knowledgeable a person is on the area.

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MasterRKitty@reddit

I'm from West Virginia and we say what county we're from since most of the towns are fairly small and no one outside the area has probably heard of it.

People wouldn't say they're from Pine Grove-they're from Wetzel County.

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SpecialistBet4656@reddit

Southern California has a nomenclature all its own. Three million people live in Orange County, (home to Disneyland, Anaheim, Newport and Huntington Beaches) They say Orange County because nobody recognizes all those towns or knows where they are.

Orange County has historically been wealthier and more conservative than Los Angeles city and county and other parts of Southern California.

You will also hear people reference places like Westchester County, which are the expensive suburbs of New York.

Same reason - people won’t recognize the towns but they recognize Westchester county

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donnacus@reddit

I will give San Diego County as my hometown because I never lived in the City of San Diego. Always the central or far eastern parts of the county.

Politicians gonna politics.

Philadelphia city has been the same thing as Philadelphia county since something like just after the Civil War.

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Late-Command3491@reddit

Because that's what is said in Southern California to indicate where you are from. No one knows where all the individual communities are as they all run together anyway. It's just TV people thinking there is nowhere else.

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Mysterious_Peas@reddit

I live in a town that straddles two counties in Arizona. So people will say they’re from Sedona-Yavapai. The other folks (from Coconino County) are more likely to identify the area: Chapel, Uptown, Back o’Beyond. The Coco areas are, as a rule, wealthier. I am from the Yavapai side.

My mom’s family is from the City and County of Denver, Colorado, which has a combined local government. They were consolidated in 1902.

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_Internet_Hugs_@reddit

In the West there are a lot of "unincorporated" areas that don't actually belong to a city.

My parents had friends in Northern Arizona who lived on acres of land literally in the middle of nowhere. They were off the electrical grid, had to haul away their own garbage, and haul in their own water. The nearest place to them was a 45 minute drive away.

They literally lived on county land. If you asked where they lived they'd name the county because that was the smallest point of reference.

There are lots of people who live in similar ways. Some are just outside town services, some are way out in the mountains, some are just in new developments that haven't been officially incorporated yet.

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Odd-Respond-4267@reddit

When I lived in so. Cal., if I was talking to a non local, I'd say I'm from l.a. (which is the county, but I'm sure people assumed I ment the city). To locals id reference the neighborhood.

Everyone has given good answers. I would add that in the southeast (and perhaps elsewhere) counties have sheriffs, the sheriffs are elected by voters, and a lot of the departments have a “brand” that is reinforced by county identification.

For example: Sheriff Grady Judd runs law enforcement in Polk County, Florida. I couldn’t name a single city in Polk County, but I would recognize Grady Judd anywhere, and the last place in America where I would break the law is Polk County.

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Ericameria@reddit

My mom was from Brown County. :) There are many Orange counties, and I lived in a county adjacent to the Orange county in Virginia for awhile. I do remember working in the hospital and someone saying about someone else, “oh she’s from Orange County,” and that was meant to indicate she was from a more rural place.

I moved to an Orange county in another state, and I often would say my town name but people wouldn’t recognize it so then I would just tell people I was from Orange County if they asked where in California I lived because LA county is huge, Riverside county is huge, San Bernardino county is huge, so specifying Orange county was enough for people. I mean I guess if I had lived in Orange or Irvine I would’ve just said so, but OC was enough to know how far people in our SoCal groups were from each other.

Illustrious-Path-366@reddit

I guess because a county is a bit more broad. I don't really care what town you live in, especially if I've never heard of it. But if I'm familiar with the state and you tell me the county, I know at least roughly what part of the state you are from.

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WWGHIAFTC@reddit

Orange county as an example, carries a lot of prestige regionally

Everyone has heard of the OC.

But do you know where Villa Park or Black star canyon are?? Ma6be you do but not everyone does.

So when you live in a small or unknown area its easier to say the region.

I just say the state to anyone not from the area.

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Wild_Wondering@reddit

I'm from West Virginia and we commonly say we're from Boone County, Lincoln County, etc unless we're from a popular area like Charleston or Morgantown. Even if I don't know the specific city you're from, I can make some helpful assumptions if I know the county. I work at a hospital and, for example, if a patient says they're from Nicolas County I may talk to them about hunting lands or Summersville Lake. If they say they're from Logan County I might ask if their family worked in the coal mines or if they've ever been to the Hatfield-Mccoy trail. Counties here tend to each have their own culture in a way. More so than cities.

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pressST4RT@reddit

Because I'm not telling people I grew up in a place called Cumming

Because not all places are part of an incorporated municipality. Meaning there is no town, you just live in the county and the county provides government services.

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SmokedPumpkin@reddit

Orange County is a world unto its own.

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ketamineburner@reddit

. Why do people on tv always say “I’m from Orange County” and no one bats an eye?

There are 34 cities in Orange County. Orange County borders Los Angeles County, which has 88 cities. The counties are culturally different.

Lived in downstate NY, and upstate NY. I know people from western NY and northern NY. No one says “I’m from county X”. Hell, unless I’m paying taxes, I forget what county I live in.

I've lived in a very rural country with only 3,000 inhabitants and people would say they were from that county because there really was only a could of towns and most people outside that county knew their names. I've lived in a couple of small cities in the middle of rural countries. People identified themselves as living in the city or in the county. I grew up in a county of 2.5 million people where people said the town or village they were from. But if they were talking to somebody in the adjacent huge city they'd say they mention the county as were they were from because city people didn't give a shit about what punkass town we were from.

From what I know if Orange county, it is a petty homogeneous suburban sprawl without much differentiation. You mention the town if you are giving directions.

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RepliesOnlyToIdiots@reddit

I live in Maryland, in an urban area that is just plain unincorporated county. No city, no town, nothing real. It has a postal and census name, but that’s it, yet many people know it. There is legally no Bethesda, MD, despite Bethesda games being from here, Marriott headquarters here, NIH here, etc. it’s really just Montgomery County (MoCo).

All the school systems here are one with the county, which is not at all how it was for me growing up elsewhere. And it often seems like the county has more power than the state in many regards.

I grew up in a parish. The whole parish consisted of at most 3 municipalities though really it was just inside city limits and outside city limits. But also ..... Baton Rouge is in East Baton Rouge Parish sooooo.......

The real answer? Everyone is different and they're allowed to be. Homogenous culture is super boring. And no. Local municipalities don't work the same everywhere. Not even everyone has counties. In small towns we have police juries in Louisiana. I'd bet you don't have those either.

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HurtsCauseItMatters@reddit

Oh and for baton rouge, The mayor of the city is also the President of the Parish. The role is Mayor/President lol

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Great_Chipmunk4357@reddit

If you’re referring to Orange County, California, that’s a very well known designation. It’s the coastal county south of Los Angeles County. It’s the home of Disneyland, the California Angels pro baseball team, and a majority of conservative voters (unlike the rest of the Los Angeles Metro area).

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SecretStabbie@reddit

My partner's family live in a town in 2 different counties.

Small town that isn't known much. If I say the closest city it's 50/50 that people will know but if I say the county then it's 60/40 on if they know it.

There's technically 5 towns in the county but 1 of them was split into 2 other counties. The gin, city hall, and post office are the only 3 places that have the original zip code. And 85% of the county is farm land or woods.

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Limp-Plantain3824@reddit

Counties vary wildly in importance from state to state.

Orange County, CA is an outlier. I can’t name another county in California. I have no idea why I have heard of it on the east coast.

Oh, Mendocino County but only because of the Willie song.

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Perseverance2571@reddit

I’ve never known anyone from Orange County to say “I’m from Orange County”. They would I say they’re from Laguna Nigel or Aliso Viejo. If someone then asked where that is, then they’d say Orange County. In my experience, it helps people locate cities or towns they’ve never heard of, especially when there’s no major city to refer to. It’s usually just a specific way of helping someone understand a location, but only in certain areas. Here’s one more example. I grew up in a couple of smaller towns/cities in San Diego, CA. Now, San Diego county is huge and is really different than the actual city of San Diego. I will tell people who have never heard of my cities but want to know where I grew up, “Escondido and San Marcos, which are in North San Diego County”.

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FormicaDinette33@reddit

I’m in OC. There are a few cities people have heard of but the rest are pretty small so it’s easier to name the county and it’s well-known as being between LA and SD.

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Felis_igneus726@reddit

I use different levels of specificity depending on the context and who I'm talking to.

If I'm talking to someone from the same area as me, I'll say I'm from [my town] because they probably know it or have at least heard the name before
If I'm talking to someone from the other side of the state, I'm most likely to just say I'm from [my county] unless they ask for specifics because I'm not going to assume the name of a random town in a completely different part of the state would mean anything to them
If I'm talking to someone from a different state, I'll just say I'm from New Jersey unless they ask for specifics because I'm not going to assume the name of a random town or county in a completely different state would mean anything to them
If I'm talking to someone from a different country, I'll say just I'm from the US unless they ask for specifics because I'm not going to assume ... you get the idea

It’s regional. I grew up in the Los Angeles area and you’d identify by city or neighborhood vs county or city. Ex no one in Beverly Hills would identify as from LA County. Or you might identify as from a neighborhood, like Westwood, vs the City of Los Angeles.

Oddly, south of LA County you may identify as from OC (Orange County) or the city you’re in if it’s one of the nicer ones.

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GormTheWyrm@reddit

It roughly goes Country, State, County, Town. Some cities cover multiple counties. Some counties have multiple towns.

People do not necessarily know where every town is. If you live in a city, you can often tell people where you live and they will recognize the name of the city.

But if you live in a town of 300 people that no one else will know of, it’s either to tell people what county you are in because they may know that.

So it mostly happens in rural areas.

But it can happen in some cities as well. If it helps narrow down the part of the city it may he used.

People near Phoenix will recognize Maricopa county for example.

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racheld924@reddit

Depends on which state you're in. Tennessee has a lot of counties so a lot of them say which county they are from. Where I'm from, Arizona, there's a lot of area in the counties so it's best to say what city you're from.

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Because Orange County is a region that many people would recognize and associate a particular image with it. (Rich people, blond girls, beaches. This is definitely not reality. But people in other parts of the U. S. think we all hang out at the beach and surf. )

Adorable_Bag_2611@reddit

I live in a small town in a small county that unless you live here or lived here you wouldn’t know. My county population is about 40,000. My city (and yes, we are an incorporated city) is less than 1,000. So even when I’m close by I say “I’m from X county.” If they know it well they ask what town. If I’m talking to people from here I say the town.

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Forward_Tank8310@reddit

Over the years I’ve lived in San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, & Pasadena, California. If I’m talking to someone from the area, I would say the city name. If outside of California, I wouldn’t say the county name (Santa Clara or LA), just Silicon Valley or Los Angeles. Internationally I’d just say California.

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Western-Willow-9496@reddit

Honestly, if you are from Brown county Indiana, you would say that if you are from anywhere but Nashville (no one knows where gnawbone is) I’m originally from an unincorporated part of a county in Indiana, I don’t say I’m from one of the towns because I’m not.

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IgntedF-xy@reddit

Every state is divided up into counties, and every state is also divided into cities/towns which may or may not cross county lines. Police departments, schools, and other things like that are county based.

RHS1959@reddit

Suburban counties of major cities often have a stereotyped demographic profile: LA:Orange County :: NYC: West Chester Co. :: Philadelphia: Montgomery County :: San Francisco: Marin County.

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FormerlyDK@reddit

Sometimes I say the town, or I may say the county if I want to be more vague for privacy reasons.

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ginger_princess2009@reddit

My husband is very a very VERY small town in GA. He doesn't say I'm from "town", he says I'm from "County".

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Aggravating-Key-8867@reddit

Where I'm from counties are separate from cities. It's literally impossible for you to live in both a city and a county at the same time. So if you live in a county then you say the name of the county.

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alexfaaace@reddit

Jacksonville and Duval County are synonymous, it’s the largest city by square foot in the country. Hence DUUUUVAAAAALLLLL.

The "Red Curtain" has been turning pretty purple lately.

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TheBotchedLobotomy@reddit

I tell people I am from Orange County because nobody knows what Placentia is.

If that still doesnt work I just say Disneyland lol

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Doom_Corp@reddit

I think it really depends on your "audience" if you will. Having grown up in Southern California, if I mentioned my city I predominantly spent time in (divorced parents and both of them worked in west LA/ van nuys ish), people would more or less know where it is and if they didn't it was easy enough to tell them just the southern end of ventura county (the county itself is a decent chunk of sprawling farm land the more north you go).

When I moved to the east coast for college and stayed there for nearly 2 decades I would say "an hour north of LA" because the town/city would have no context to a lot of other people. I actually gave way more stink eye to some of my coworkers who would say they're from New Orleans or Boston when in fact they grew up almost an hour to 1.5 hours away from said cities and certainly never lived in them. Some counties are also quite small and have a consistent vibe vs the individual cities within them. Kings County covers all of Brooklyn but it has massively different ranges in culture and income so people reference their neighbourhood more than they do the borough (and no one calls it Kings county lol...although Queens is still called Queens)

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JBrewd@reddit

If they're from my county, I say the town.

From my state, I say county.

From my country, I say state.

From another country, rough geographical description.

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Scutrbrau@reddit

I grew up in New England and never once heard anyone talk about what county they live in. Now I live in rural Virginia and people frequently identify their county. My county is the size of Manhattan and has a population of 12,000. There’s a lot of pride about the county but no one really talks about their town within it.

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ghjm@reddit

The greater Los Angeles area is so big that a county is just part of a city. So when you say "I'm from Orange County" you're saying you're from the southeastern part of greater LA. You see the same thing for the same reason with Westchester County NY and Fairfax County VA.

I think it's become recognizable and wealthy or maybe expensive. But the whole LA basin is expensive now.

People may not know Anaheim. But I say, "It's where Disneyland is" people still don't know where it is but they know Disneyland.

The Angels baseball team are there. Nixon was from there. When tv shows Orange county hills burning it's usually Yorba Linda where my brother lives. Every couple of years he's out watering his roof in hopes it doesn't spark up.

Where I live now it wouldn't matter if I used county or city. Most people outside Florida would have no clue and most in Florida.

No where near Jax, Tallahassee, Tampa, Cocoa, Orlando or Miami. The closest landmark is the intersection of I10 and I75 and thats like 20 miles away.

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slothdonki@reddit

I live in the Midwest too. Semi-rural. Technically I live in a city and am surrounded by very bumfuck no where counties/towns for more or less an hour in any direction from more recognizable places. I usually say the county or around the nearest recognizable city with people who live in my state or just say north/south/central Wisconsin in general.

When they say Orange County, they are trying to be hoity toity. There is a difference between lido island and garden grove. Both in OC, but about a $10MM price difference.

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darwinsidiotcousin@reddit

I grew up in the Midwest and we've referred to counties pretty frequently. Think it depends on if you're in the city or rural.

I think it depends on where you're at and the audience you're talking to.

If you're with locals in said county you may say the town, but you're talking to someone more urban oriented, county makes more sense to get a general idea of where something is

Because counts are the people in charge of them....

Seriously, though, it's so dependent on the region and the specific area. I think the most common way it's used would be in passing to someone familiar with your general area, but wouldn't be familiar with your particular small town (or, if you don't live in a town, your neck of the woods).

The other common one is to provide some kind of separation from a larger entity, either for clarification, or to declare that you don't affiliate with a larger, more-known entity. The Orange County (California) example would be this.

If you lived in Orange County, and you were speaking to someone else from Southern California, you would never say that you live in LA. If you lived in Orange County and were speaking to someone from far away (cross-country, internationally, or just unfamiliar), you could probably get away with "I live in/near LA" to generalize and make things easier for a frame of reference.

Additionally, Los Angeles is seen as a left-leaning melting pot of races and cultures, while Orange County is typically shown as affluent and more homogenously white, so that can be a declarative statement to signify that you aren't from LA (if you're an affluent white who doesn't want to be associated with LA).

~~~

You mentioned Brown County in the Midwest -- I'm assuming you're from either Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, or Wisconsin.

If you lived in Brown County, IL, and were speaking to someone from Springfield, you could probably say it and make sense, since it provides a distance reference from Springfield, but without getting too detailed because nobody knows where Mt. Sterling is.

Indiana -- If you were talking to someone from Indy, same as above. Bonus points since the county seat is Nashville, which, if you said "I'm from Nashville", lots of people would assume Tennessee.

Kansas -- Much of Brown County, KS is an Indian Reservation. This usage could delineate that you live off the Reservation.

Minnesota -- Mankato is the "big city" near here. This could help clarify that you live "near Mankato", as fewer people know of Sleepy Eye, MN.

Nebraska -- There are two towns and one settlement in this very unpopulated area of the country. You probably live in one of the two towns, and if not, you could just say you live in the area. Also, their flag is atrocious/amazing

Ohio -- See Illinois and Indiana, but the big city is Cincinnati.

Wisconsin -- Green Bay is the big city in this county. Maybe you don't live in GB, but you live near it.

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YourGuyK@reddit

Orange County is a part of greater Los Angeles, so they are narrowing it down rather than just saying they are from LA, plus it's a prestigious area to live.

In other places, there are no cities or towns big enough for anyone to recognize, so they say the county. Or they are from an unincorporated area.

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Remarkable_Table_279@reddit

I say I’m originallt from Orange County…because I grew up outside of Orange Va & then my parents later moved to another town in the county. Orange (county and town) were so small that Orange wasn’t on most maps of Va when I was a kid…and the town my mom lives in now is closer to 3 possums in a coat than an actual town. And saying the county is easier because they may have seen signs for the county but they’ve not seen signs for the teeny town in Orange County that mom lives in …well in the woods near the post office for that town

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dave_stolte@reddit

In the case of Orange County, California, people who live there sometimes say, “I’m from Orange County” because the area is located between Los Angeles and San Diego counties, and many LA or SD residents may not know where Placentia or Buena Park are, for example. And may not care. The follow up question from them would be, “Oh, where in Orange County? My aunt is in Tustin.” Or whatever.

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rosietherosebud@reddit

I’m from Michigan and I say I’m from a certain county, because it’s what clicks for most people. They don’t know the name of my small town, but they know my county borders the most populous counties in the state.

I live in a city where it has three counties, so we do it to know where something is. ie: I live in the same town I was born in, but born in a different county, and a different township than the one I live in. Also another example: houses across the street from my elementary school aren't zoned for said school, they're in a different district! But if you drive further down the street, those houses are zoned for my school district.

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WhatABeautifulMess@reddit

Like someone else said it's mostly just vibe/culture. I grew up in Jersey and people would rarely refer to places by county. I'd say the town to someone local or say I grew up "west of Newark/New York" to some out of state. Most counties in Jersey are very varied so saying you're from Essex county, for example, could mean you grew up in a rough area of Newark or could mean you grew up in a big fancy house by Seton Hall. People often just say the town/city or general area like "outside Philly" "Down the Shore".

Now I live in Maryland, which is very into counties. A lot of places here, like where I live, aren't an incorporated town/city so the school district and police are all through the county for me. The counties here are a bit more homogeneous in terms of whether they're rural/suburbs/urban so there's a lot of generalizations people make about counties. When I went to college my roommate who grew up here knew based on counties things like "oh that's the boonies" "oh MoCo, rich kid" that kind of thing. There are obviously stereotypes that don't apply to everyone but there's perceptions about counties which isn't a thing in some states.

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mads_61@reddit

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Life-Food5188@reddit

I don't think there's many examples of this that *aren't* Orange County, except for very rural places.

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NedThomas@reddit

I used to say I’m from Randolph County because while I’ve lived in the county most of my life, it’s been in multiple different places, including outside of any municipality.

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Derwin0@reddit

Because not all counties have cities or are fully incorporated.

For example, the county I live in has 4 cities, but I don’t live in any of them so I say I live in the county.

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Brave_Speaker_8336@reddit

People don’t know Brown County, so people don’t say they’re from there cause that doesn’t really help anyone. People do know Orange County, so if you’re from a city that no one knows in OC, you say you’re from OC so that people can actually tell where you’re from

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SabresBills69@reddit

Organizational you have town/city-county-stste

People refer yo being from county x because

Your town is very small and many dont know where it is but they know the county. Is. County is the chief authority where your town doesn't have its own police and limited govt options.
If you are from a very large metro area snd want to didnguish yourself. Fir example metro DC ares has DC, 6 Maryland counties, 3 counties in west Virginia, and 16+ counties in Virginia. Being in metro dc and saying where you from , they say county specific and not dc metro
For privacy indteadvif sprcic town you just ssy county.
Some use countyvto separate from the big city in metro area. LA metro is the county and border cojnties.

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Top-Rip-5071@reddit

Sub-state governments are structured differently depending on where you are, but I agree, when I first moved and encountered this, it seemed strange and took some adjusting. I’m from New York and people almost never refer to the county (I’m from upstate, and if people don’t know the town when they ask, I say upstate). In Maryland people often refer to the county first and more of the municipalities are unincorporated.

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Stunna2332@reddit

Im from a rural area when im traveling afar or go into a city even just a couple hours from me if I told them the town I lived in they would have no idea what place im talking about because its a small town so we say the county because its more instantly recognizable

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PAXICHEN@reddit

There are places that are unincorporated. NJ is 100% incorporated which means you’re always in a city or a town.

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tryptanfelle@reddit

You want to learn something really wild? There are five counties inside New York City, so, there, they’re more specific than the city name. However, each of them is identical to one borough, so people are much more likely to say the borough name than the county name (unless they’re talking about court).

New York County: Manhattan

Kings County: Brooklyn

Queens County: Queens

Bronx County: Bronx

Richmond County: Staten Island.

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I've heard people from the East and South say they come from a certain county. This doesn't work so well in areas with counties that are large. There are counties in my state that as big or bigger than some of the East Coast states.

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Andy235@reddit

In Maryland the county is the dominant form of local government. There are few actual incorporated towns and cities. In Maryland, many people might say they are from Howard County (which has no incorporated towns or cities) rather than from Columbia (the largest community). Many people might say the opposite. Both are valid here.

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Neither-Attention940@reddit

It’s just a broader way to say a location. It’s not different than telling someone you’re from the US.

If that clears up whatever the conversation was, then that’s all they need to know.

For example: you are in ..Iceland (to throw out a random country that isn’t the US). Someone says ‘Wow this is good BBQ!’ and you say ‘I’ve had better’. Someone might say ‘oh rly?’ And you’d say ‘I’m from the US’

….Sorry Iceland if you have good BBQ I was just trying to think of an example. Write or wrong I guess it doesn’t matter.

Similar reason someone from the US might say to someone else from the US what state they are from.

Or two people in the same state may share what county they are from.

It just gives someone a semi broad idea of where you’re from that would be relevant to the conversation.

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rustybrazenfire@reddit

Orange County (California) is a very specific example. It's mostly urban/suburban, and the towns run together. But they are still separated a bit from LA.

Similar to some states where you give a direction or region. Very specific example like, "I'm from the U.P. (of Michigan") or the like

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Discount_Plumber@reddit

I rarely say what county I'm from. Unless you lived in the region you probably wouldn't know where in Michigan it's at even though the states second largest city is there. If I'm talking to someone in the area I'll just say the name of where I live, but outside of that I'll just say Grand Rapids even though I don't live there. It's the closest big city that someone may have heard of. Usually easiest to just point on the palm of my hand and say "there".

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More people who don’t live in my area know where in California the county is and haven’t heard of my city. But if I was talking to another local I could give the city. If I wanted to invite someone over or they needed to swing by, or if we were meeting at a place …I’d give the street address the same way I’d address a letter.

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ComputerGuyInNOLA@reddit

In Louisiana we do not have counties. We have parishes.

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Auquaholic@reddit

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dementedmunster@reddit

It's gonna vary by area and state.

I grew up in North Carolina, where there are 100 countries, lots of rural areas, and a few urban areas. All of the area of North Carolina is in a county, but not all of the area is in a town or city. If you live in unincorporated land (not part of town),it might make sense to say 'I live near Town' OR 'I live in County' depending on context.

Now I live in Massachusetts. All of the area of Massachusetts is in a county, AND all of the area of Massachusetts is in a town or city. Unincorporated land does not exist. Counties exist, but have very minimal government. Our district attorney and jails are based on county, but everything else is through the town or city. Furthermore, the difference between a town and city in Massachusetts is a difference in governmental structure. (Towns have a selectboard as the executive branch, with an annual town meeting as the legislative branch. Cities have a mayor as an executive branch, and a city council as the legislative branch.)

I really don't only know about these two states, which probably have a lot in common with their region, because I've lived in them. I am sure many other states have similar quirks and differences.

DragApprehensive9235@reddit

In my experience it depends on how things are governed. In the northeast school districts and governance are predominantly town or village based. Now I live in the south where things like police departments and entire school districts are county-funded and run, so the county government plays a much bigger role in day-to-day life.

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SRSchiavone@reddit

Plenty of people refer to being from the Bronx or Queens or wherever in the five NYC boroughs, each of which are county-level

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County governments vary. In some counties in Maryland, for example, the county is the only local government. So in Montgomery County, the cities have no particular function. Meanwhile, the City of Baltimore is not in a county; Baltimore County surrounds the city, but the city isn't part of the county. Some Virginia counties are like Montgomery County, MD.

In Florida, Dade County used to operate like most counties. At one point, the county absorbed all of the cities, including Miami (correct me if I'm wrong).

In Indiana, Marion County and Indianapolis are combined into something called "Unigov." All but four of the surrounding municipalities within Marion County are part of Unigov.

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RadRadMickey@reddit

Some counties don't have cities or towns, or people live outside of the towns.

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judijo621@reddit

John Q Public doesn't need to know where I live. And most people don't know that Trabuco Canyon is in Southern Californian, let alone OC.

Don't get me started on Virginia.

In Virginia we have “independent cities” We have 38 cities that are treated as independent entities from the counties they are inside. Effectively an enclave county. Some are named the same as their surrounding county. Theirs both “Fairfax County” and the “City of Fairfax” is within Fairfax County. Their’s also weird slices, like Alexandria has both its Alexandria City, and then part of Alexandria is within Fairfax County. Then we have Arlington, just outside DC which is basically both. It’s technically a county, with no towns inside.

I’ve lived here almost 20 years and I still don’t get it.

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WEDWayInternetMover@reddit

I grew up in rural Ohio. Whenever someone asks what part of Ohio I am from, I always give the country name, because they more than likely know where the country is versus the no name village I grew up in.

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OldBitty95@reddit

90% of the country says what state or town they live in. But Florida and California are the biggies who refer to their Counties more. Louisiana refer to their parishes.

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alwaysboopthesnoot@reddit

Where are you from? Central Ohio. Columbus? No, but close enough.

Where are from in Ohio? Franklin County. Columbus? No. A suburb a little outside of it.

Where are you from? Columbus. The city? No, same county, but it’s out a ways/is semi rural.

Where are you from? Southern Ohio. Portsmouth? No, out near Cincinnati. Still on the river, still close to Kentucky, but more West than that.

You use region, county, or the bigger city to orient people so if they can visualize a map of the state, they have a general idea. But you don’t need to give them specifics, if you don’t want them knowing exactly where because you don’t know them very well.

I would never give a stranger I ran into IRL on the street, my town or city. If they saw my license plate and car, which lists the state and county, they might be able to find me/follow me home.

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WarmCucumber3438@reddit

In a lot of the United States there are a lot of people who live in the county moreso than within any town or city limits

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Upstairs_Highlight25@reddit

It makes sense to just say the county if you grew up in a rural unincorporated area.

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GlobalTapeHead@reddit

“Orange County“ is a known location in California. Most people in America know what you are talking about when you say you are from there, unlike many other counties.

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Amardella@reddit

California is so densely populated near SF and LA that the sign welcoming you to a town has the welcome to the neighboring town on the back of it. And I'm not exaggerating or kidding. You can take El Camino from San Jose through Santa Clara to Sunnyvale to Mountain View, Atherton, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Redwood City, San Carlos, etc etc and never notice there is more than one town. So if you live in SF Bay you might say you live in Silicon Valley or the Peninsula or the East Bay or the City proper. In LA they go by counties for the same reason.

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Altruistic_Error_832@reddit

You see this in Metros that don't have a specific central municipality. Anaheim is the biggest City in Orange County, but you don't really see people treating like Irvine as a "suburb" of Anaheim.

For a similar Midwest thing, I think of the Fox Cities in Wisconsin. They're a bunch cities that are all next to each other in such a way that they function as a single economic zone, but there isn't a singular one that is notably bigger than the others in such a way that you'd think of it as a city and suburbs. Nobody thinks of Oshkosh as a suburb of Appleton.

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Excellent-Practice@reddit

Part of it has to do with the way counties are organized in different states. I grew up in NJ where counties aren't very important, aside from maintianing county roads I don't think they do much. There, everyone says what town they are from or what exit they live off of. I live in MD now where counties are much more important; school boards are consolidated at the county level, there are county sheriffs where NJ typically would have had either state troopers or local cops, political adds for county office get more air time. As a result, Marylanders will often tell you what county they are from rather than what town

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shammy_dammy@reddit

Most recently I lived in a place where if you said "Dane County" you meant 'not Madison', but close.

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CG20370417@reddit

LA is somewhat unique in the US.

Its one giant (nearly) contiguous metro area that is 34,000 square miles, with 18 million people, 5 counties and 88 municipalities.

Orange County is a quintessential yet anomalous region within. Its like differentiating that you live in Brooklyn not just NYC. (That said there is no common ground between the vibes in Brooklyn and OC)

OC is like 34 different municipalities, and outside of the dozen everyone knows...its all just OC.

Depends on where you are.

If you are in the suburbs of a major city, the entire metro area might be several counties. So, specifying a county is a smaller area than saying "X Metro Area" even if it's larger than the individual town. If you don't need the percision of the individual town, the county might be the right level. I sometimes tell people that I grew up in Fairfax County because that's more precise than "DC suburbs" or "NOVA," but the exact town I grew up in is often irrelevant and sometimespeoplewon'teven recognizethe exact town.

The address town on your mail is the location of the post office that delivers to you. That may or may not be where you are. You may have a Johnson City address but live in the county.

In Virginia where I live I say I live in the town I live in but if I lived in the county outside of the town limits I’d say that.

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Necessary_Pace_9860@reddit

I say my county but it's not very recognizable and pretty rural. But my technical city on my address is one name, but I'm closer to a different city, the specific area I'm in has a completely different name, and I'm between 2 other minor cities that are more recognizable and only 30 minutes away from a large city with a very recognizable university.

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SilverStory6503@reddit

I know where Orange County California is, but I couldn't tell you the name of any cities there.

I actually do not live in a city, but I live in a township, which is my goverrning body. A township is a subdivision of a county.

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SparePartSociety@reddit

Not everyone lives in a city or a town. Cities and towns have jurisdictional boundaries. Lots of people live outside of those boundaries,

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CaptainAwesome06@reddit

Some counties aren't made up of a bunch of cities. Sometimes there isn't much in them at all.

Some cities are so large that they expand into the next city. So the county effectively looks like one giant city.

A lot of people will default to the nearest big city. Like living in Brookline and telling people you are from Boston. Otherwise, your next sentence will be, "it's right next to Boston." For some people, they don't live next to a recognizable city. So they can default to the county.

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padall@reddit

I mean, a lot of people don't know every small town in a state, even if you live relatively close, so saying the county is good enough. I'm from NY and we refer to counties all the time because the counties mostly have their own vibes. Red vs blue; rural vs urban; Etc

Of course, if someone is coming to your house, you would be more specific.

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CarolinCLH@reddit

Most of the time people say cities. But the city I say would depend on who I am talking to. If the person I am talking to is from California, I say Long Beach. If they are from the other side of the country, I would say near Los Angeles or Los Angeles county. If i were from Los Alamitos, I would only say that to someone from Southern California, and even then, some wouldn't know where that was. Orange County would work better then.

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Unusual-Material9443@reddit

we just say what county here out in rural texas. im from Lampassas county or im from burnet county.

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Dave_A480@reddit

Because there has to be some form of government for places that otherwise don't have a local government....

Counties provide government services to places that aren't in a city/village/town/etc....

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jsmeeker@reddit

Just works differently in different states. Some times a city and county are the same. Other times, a county hasany cities/towns. Sometimes the country name matches up with the biggest city in the county or another big city in the county, other times it doesn't

The names were set long long ago and the people moved in and places grew and things may look "weird" now.

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AnitaIvanaMartini@reddit

In PA, you often hear a simple “I’m from Bucks County,” even though it’s filled with little villages and towns

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BaseBig173@reddit

I lived in California in a giant county (Riverside) but outside of an actual city. I was in the Greater Palm Springs area in an area called B Bar H Ranch. Where I said I lived was dependent on who was asking

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TwinkieDad@reddit

A lot work the same, but in Virginia you are either a county or a city. There are no cities that are contained in counties.

But your example of Orange County: assuming you are talking about the one in California, there are a lot of cities and towns in the county that all kind of blend together. And it’s right next to a major city and county Los Angeles that’s as big as some countries. People still talk about the cities within Orange County though: Irvine, Anaheim, Newport Beach, etc.

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Lugbor@reddit

Because very few people outside of that county or the surrounding counties will recognize the names of those twelve tiny towns and so you list the county to give a geographic region for people to reference.

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Polvora_Expresiva@reddit

Californian, we don’t refer to ourselves by county. But you can think of Orange County as having a particular vibe. People who are in the Los Angeles area but aren’t. Just like there are places completely surrounded by LA like Burbank and they would be upset if you say they are from LA. Very independent.

The closest I can think of right now would be New York City that has boroughs and also neighborhoods within these. And depending on what they say you might know something about them.

But typically no, we would say Anaheim, Costa Mesa etc and not Orange County.

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makestuff24-7@reddit

My wife: "I'm from Chatsworth"

Stranger: "Oh, where's Chatsworth?"

My wife: "It's next to Vincentown and Tabernacle"

Stranger: "Where's that?"

My wife: "...Burlington County"

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Reverend_Bull@reddit

For you, the city probably is the county. So you say the city because it's more recognizable. Places with more rural proportions may mean identifying by county so one is not confused with the townies, if there even are townies.

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ayebrade69@reddit

Kentucky has so many counties that generally there’s only one real town in each. Saying you’re from the specific county is just another way of saying where you’re from

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hbh110@reddit

In some states, like Virginia, cities exist at the same level of government, but separate from, counties. So if you lived in the city of Virginia Beach for example, you would not live in any county. But Virginia beach has its own county level of government and services, such as its own sheriff.

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notthegoatseguy@reddit

For most of the country, cities weren't just always there like in Europe. So when a state first formed, the state was divided into counties.

Some states like Massachusetts have very few powers in counties.

In indiana, the constitutional talks a lot about county offices and county powers but very little about cities and towns. Most city/towns powers come from statutes, whereas a county derives its power from the state constitution.

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Remote_Hour_841@reddit

Some counties have just acquired name-recognition status due to…media? Not sure. I grew up in a county that was the subject of a sort of tongue-in-cheek soap opera in the 80’s so lots of people, at least back then, would look at me funny if I told them that I grew up there!

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PiecesMAD@reddit

It just depends on how the locals use things. I am in the mountain west, we have the cities in the county and places in the county not in the cities.

If someone says they are from the county the locals know they are rural and not incorporated in a city. We also have things like city library and county libraries that are not connected and have separate taxes/patrons.

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DocThundahh@reddit

It depends if it makes more sense to refer the the county or the municipality lol

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Outrageous_Chart_35@reddit

In most cases you would say what city you're from, or near (people in a major city's suburbs may just say they're from that city in casual conversation). Orange County is a rarity in that people outside the area would generally be more familiar with it than most of the cities within it. There's also a cultural component of Orange County that could have relevance for the communicator. And sometimes people may split their time between different cities within Orange County, so that becomes simpler.

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Some counties really only have one big city or culture. Others are more diverse.

Same way people in Europe could say, I'm French or I'm from Brittany or I'm from Nantes. Depends on the context.

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bachintheforest@reddit

I think people do that when they live in a big metropolitan area where the towns blend together. Kind of unnecessary maybe but I get it. You can move to a new home in basically the same neighborhood but technically be in an entirely different city.

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Ozone220@reddit

It works for Orange County to my knowledge because Orange County is part of the greater LA area, so it's like saying "I'm from LA" but a specific area around it, not the city itself. I imagine it's like saying "I'm from Long Island" or something. It works for very few counties though.

This is just what I think, my city is way more well known than my county, and more specific

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el_butt@reddit

Some places are just that small. My wife is from a place like that. Yeah there are several small towns but there’s only one school and that’s at the county level. There’s only county fairs and county libraries and county pools. It’s the only local government in the area.

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VoopityScoop@reddit

Some counties are larger, more influential, and more homogeneous than others, so people know right away what you're talking about when you say you're from that county. Others are full of loosely incorporated no-name towns, and so people are more likely to have heard of the county than the town or neighborhood.

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JimDemintRecession@reddit

Some places are in a county but outside of a town. I have family in Faulkner County, Arkansas. They live near the city of Conway but not inside of it.

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Irrelevantitis@reddit

Some counties are pretty homogenous, or just more famously known than most of the individual towns within.