Nothing's wrong with a regional name that has a sense of place

I personally use all of them except tidewater. I do however have a tidewater tides 3 ring binder I got from a game when I was pretty young.

When someone asks me where I'm from, it's either Virginia Beach or 757 or Hampton Roads...or 7 cities I don't even mind. Who really cares anyway?

I live in Portsmouth, but when out of town tell people Norfolk since more people know where that is. As for a regional name I prefer Hampton Roads over Tidewater. I also absolutely despise "Seven Cities."

I agree with Reid. Once again the HR entities shove their agenda's down our throats. I liked the Clusterfolk joke too. I will always refer to the area I live as Tidewater. This was just another attempt to establish back door regional government. They can take this regional mentality and shove it.

Since I have only lived here ten years, I always wondered what the big deal was between saying Tidewater or Hampton Roads. I find when I tell people where I live, I just say Virginia Beach. Why would you say Tidewater or Hampton Roads. Just like if you live in NYC- you would say the Bronx not NYC- you would need to give more information if you just said NYC. Plus I notice more people know of Norfolk or Virginia Beach anyway.So I really dont understand the issue?!?!? Just wondering......

From my experience, everyone from Hampton Roads generally says they're from Virginia Beach even if they're not. All of my friends and I have similar stories from college: We meet a new person, ask where they're from, and they say Virginia Beach. I say, "Oh, I went to Cox, where did you go to high school?" They're responses were usually something like Great Bridge, Hickory, etc.

Channel in the U.S. through which the James, Elizabeth, and Nansemond rivers flow into Chesapeake Bay.

About 4 mi (6 km) wide and 40 ft (12 m) deep, it has been an important military base since colonial days. In 1862 it was the scene of the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack. The port cities of Newport News, Norfolk, and Portsmouth comprise the Port of Hampton Roads, one of the busiest U.S. seaports. Re: Encyclopedia Britannica

Let's get it right and call this area "Tidewater" I'm not a fish, I live on land.......

As a relative newcomer to Hampton Roads (just celebrated 1 year here), I will DEFEND the moniker. I must share this from the Hampton Roads Partnership (HRP): "...regions – not cities or counties – are the units of economic competition. Only regions have the necessary scale and diversity to compete in the global marketplace. Only regions have an asset profile capable of projecting overall strength to compensate for profiles of individual localities which lack either essential infrastructure or a sufficiently skilled pool of labor."

You can read the rest of my comment on my blog: http://mgblankenship.blogspot.com/2008/06/why-hampton-roads.html

Even though I live in Chesapeake, I always say Norfolk when I'm out of town and people ask where I'm from. If I say HR or Tidewater, I get a funny look. Whenever I say Norfolk, they know where it is.

...Chesapeake, a city in the Tidewater area of Virginia. If someone doesn't know where that is, who cares. If someone asked my late father asked him where he was from, he wouldn't respond, "A city 125 miles from London," he say, "Birmingham."

Tidewater perfectly describes both the navigable creek and marshes behind my Western Branch homestead. In addition, it provides a great description of almost all of the waterway environment there (no river rapids to my knowledge). However, those haze gray sailors amongst us are very used to hearing Hampton Roads or VACAPES while underway, which obviously has nothing to do with your point.

Now, maybe you can teach me the way to teach friends and fellow workers in Georgia how to say Norfolk properly...

Rick Horner
West Cobb County, Georgia

First off, Al M. Too funny! (i.e. Clusterfolk VA); Next, Kerry D. - thank you - again; for shining the light of truth on the effort to force us folks living here in Tidewater to use the failed and rejected "Future Hampton Roads" branding moniker. As for the name of our region, it is Tidewater. If we (those of us living here) want to change the name of our region then clearly we should be asked in the form of a referendum. Instead, the business lobby doesn't feel they have to bother gathering 50,000 signetures or whatever it takes to force a regional referendum on the ballot; just like everything else, they slip their agenda in through back door channels - refusing to do the word required to try to garner support from the citizens. The "Chamber Boys" clearly delude themselves into thinking they are self-anointed "regional rulers" - yet, their misguided branding efforts have fallen flat on their faces - and embarrassed our region.

The fine print on page 2 of the paper says The Pilot serves southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. As I recall, this used to be on the front page but was probably moved in the redesign.

Southeastern Virginia -- it includes all of the cities in Hampton Roads and is easily identifiable by people who don't live here. Makes sense to me.

Isnt that a phone number?

The census bureau states that the "urbanized area" is known as Virginia Beach, VA. The largest city in tidewater. So portsmouth, suffolk (largest city in va), hampton, isle-of-wight, ect.....don't exist according to the census bureau.

And what is more stupid is the busines community in this area consider the MSA to be known as norfolk-virginia beach-newport news-nc. NC?? They lump NC into the MSA?? Yes. They do. They consider the MSA from williamsburg to the outer banks. Now how dumb is that? It's no wonder we have no collective identity.

"Los Angeles give me Norfolk Virginia
Tidewater four ten o nine
Tell the folks back home this is the promised land calling
And the poor boy is on the line"

Does this mean we have to change the memorable lyrical ending to this Chuck Berry / Elvis Presley song recording?

When I say 'Tidewater' to people outside this area, they get the idea of a mudflat left over from when the tide goes out. Not at all very appealing. If I say 'Hampton Roads', they think of someplace out on Long Island. If I say Norfolk or Virginia Beach, they know exactly where I'm talking about. If I remember correctly, the Census Bureau lists the area as the 'Greater Norfolk-Virginia Beach Metropolitan Area.' That works well except it excludes the Peninsula. Hampton Roads, geographically speaking, does work because it is at close to the center of the region. It's just too bad no one recognizes it. Maybe Southeast Virginia Metropolitan Area would be the best name for it. Whatever we choose, we need a name that people will remember and one that the locals will use.

"The Clusterfolk Area"!! That's too funny!! LOL!! How did THAT get passed the censors!!

NORFOLK! Everyone know's where it is or has heard of it. Why confuse everything?

Just call it Tidewater. Having been raised on southside and now living in Newport News, Tidewater makes sounds better and beacuse of the tuunels most people overhere( which are form the southside) would rather call it Tidewater then Hampton Roads. Look how long it took the city leaders to agree on Hampton Roads as a name. Just think how long will it take to fix the traffic in this area? By the way most people identify gridlock with the “Hampton Roads” Tunnel.

Google Tidewater Metropolitan Statistical Area. The 31st largest in the country. Once again, incomplete research. Please move back to New Jersey, where "Jersey" is an actual place and you don't have to write about your own confusion.

“I was thwarted by stern editors, reminding me that Tidewater doesn't exist.”

Well, duh! It is a business decision. Tidewater.com is owned by some shipping company, Hamptonroads.com is owned by your boss’s bosses. Tidewater has a nice relaxing ring to it, Hampton Roads is that little piece of taint where the James River, Elizabeth River and the Chesapeake Bay come together. Whenever I hear “Hampton Roads”, I think of being stuck in traffic on the peninsula on 64 East on a hot summer day having to inhale that nasty crab smell from that processing plant. I always correct people and tell them that this is the Tidewater area, Hampton Roads is just some kind of harbor thingy named after some swishy inbred member of a monarchy somewhere…

I rarely find myself in such total agreement but you are absolutely right. This is and will remain TIDEWATER! No one I've ever run into has felt right about the "Hampton Roads" moniker.

Still, I've been thinking regionally myself recently and I think that there are better alternatives to "Hampton Roads" that reflect our regional history and character. Some of our first townships are Norfolk and Suffolk, taken from the English areas of the same name. Given that and Norfolk's tendency to run things in a way that seems designed to defeat their own purpose, I had a vision of my own, We should keep the "folk" from our two oldest towns and yet include into them the cluster of cities that make up our increasingly urbanized and interconnected region; the Clusterfolk Area.

I think it means a safe shelter for ships.

Tidewater FTW For The Win. I still remember Mangnum PI saying he was Tidewater and then theirs that Elvis song. Hampton Roads isnt that just Hampton?

Oh well off to a movie for some AC.

The word "Hampton" honors one of the founders of the Virginia Company of London and a great supporter of the colonization of Virginia, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton.

Signifying the safety of a port, the word "roads" (also called roadstead) in nautical terminology of the day meant "a place less sheltered than a harbor where ships may ride at anchor."

The original name, “The Earl of Hamptons’ Roads” was shortened to, “Hampton Roads.”

For at least 300 years, this part of Virginia was referred to as, “The Tidewater” or, “Tidewater.”