Who calls the 5 county region "L.A."? (Los Angeles: neighborhoods, high school)

[69Charger]

A lot of people say "I'm going to L.A." and then people ask "oh what are you going to do there?" And they say, "See Hollywood, go to the beach and Disneyland, etc..."

OK well a lot of this region is not "L.A.", that is a city in and of itself, but it is the Los Angeles metro area. The metro area is Ventura to Redlands, Santa Clarita to San Clemente. So a lot of traveling to SoCal isn't going to L.A., it's going to SoCal.

I've lived here many years, was not born here, but admit when I moved here I "moved to L.A." yet never lived there. Over the years I've been to literally every suburb in this 5 county region, everything from a son in the Navy in Port Hueneme, the Mission Inn light festival in Riverside at Christmas, family with a San Clemente beach house, downtown San Bernaghetto, Lake Elsinore, Highland Park, Westminster, I mean I can't think of a place I have not been. But after living here, I see now why the other cities are not L.A. yet from the outside it is.

[Mr_Geek]

To anyone who doesn't live here or has spent considerable time here, the greater metro LA area = LA.

[Big L]

Most people just use "L.A." as a catch-all if they are referring to a city within the Los Angeles area. In some cases, it is much easier to simply say "L.A." than to break into a speech about several cities that the person you are speaking to may have never heard of.


I lived in several places in the Los Angeles area before moving out-of-state. However, when someone that is not a fellow Californian asks me where I am from, I simply say either "L.A." or "Los Angeles". If it is a fellow Californian, that's when I give more details (originally from Inglewood, finished high school in West Covina, lived in Ladera Heights before moving to Atlanta, etc.).


We do the same thing here in the Atlanta area. I have been here for almost 18 years, have lived in a few places, but have never lived in Atlanta proper. However, when my wife and I go out of town and are asked where we are from, we simply answer "Atlanta". Just as with speaking with Californians, we don't break into details unless we are talking to either a fellow Georgian or someone who is familiar with the Atlanta area.

[adr3naline]

I don't blame outsiders for using "LA" as a blanket statement. The LA metro has something like 272 neighborhoods and even natives seem to have a hard time naming 1/2 of them.

[saibot]

Originally Posted by Big L

I lived in several places in the Los Angeles area before moving out-of-state. However, when someone that is not a fellow Californian asks me where I am from, I simply say either "L.A." or "Los Angeles". If it is a fellow Californian, that's when I give more details (originally from Inglewood, finished high school in West Covina, lived in Ladera Heights before moving to Atlanta, etc.).

This exactly. I have never lived in LA (though I was technically born in LA County), but I'll only bother to name my actual city to people who live close to here. Even to other Southern Californians, if they're not likely to be familiar with Rancho Santa Margarita, I usually say "near Irvine" or "near Mission Viejo" or even just "Orange County."

Although I did have this conversation with a girl I randomly met in a department store in a tiny town in Japan in 1989, in fact the only Westerner I met in that town:

"Where are you from?"
"California."
"Really? Me too! Whereabouts?"
"Oh, it's just a little place...you wouldn't have heard of it. In Orange County."
"I live in Orange County too! Which city?"
"La Habra."
(stunned pause)
"I live in in La Habra too!"

It turned out she lived across the street from my high school. Talk about a coincidence.

[BGS91762]

I always say the LA area when I am out of town. To the rest of the world this whole area is LA, even Disneyland which really irks the OC!!

[BayAreaHillbilly]

When I still lived in SoCal (over 25 years ago) the term "The Southland" was in use, especially among older natives. Seems few people use that term any more. I happen to still like it.

[majoun]

Referring to OC as LA can be fighting words.
The IE doesn't seem to hate L.A. as much mainly because so many people there are from LA and so many of those would still be in LA if they could be.
That said, Riverside County is really split between the L.A. metro and S.D. metro.

[BGS91762]

Originally Posted by majoun

Referring to OC as LA can be fighting words.
The IE doesn't seem to hate L.A. as much mainly because so many people there are from LA and so many of those would still be in LA if they could be.
That said, Riverside County is really split between the L.A. metro and S.D. metro.

However, technically the OC and LA are a single Metro area no matter what people say.

[socal88]

If I'm somewhere outside California typically, I'll say I'm from the LA area. I'll start to get more and more specific if people happen to be generally knowledge of the area. I've said this regardless if I was living in LA county or adjacent counties.

Starting in the early 2000s, the OC TV show put the county more on the map nationally and even internationally for that matter, so if you said you're from OC, they knew it was in SoCal and near LA.