http://www.popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html
Very interesting. The regional differences are certainly obvious. Of course, all right-thinking people KNOW that it’s pop, dammit! 
It is called Soda in NJ or even Sodar up North and in NYC.
Occasionally I hear any Cola referred to as a coke.
Saying Pop here will usually get a question: “where are you from?”
I noticed drilling down that Monmouth County had 302 responses 1 pop, 11 cokes, 283 soda & 7 others.
Jim
YES! For if that were not the case, how would this classic piece of literature have come into being?
Song of the Pop-Bottlers
Pop bottles pop-bottles
in pop shops.
The pop-bottles Pop bottles
Poor Pop drops.
When Pop drops pop-bottles
Pop-bottles plop!
Pop-bottle-tops topple!
Pop mops slop!
Stop! Pop’ll drop bottle!
Stop, Pop stop!
When Pop bottles pop-bottles,
Pop-bottles pop!
Weird. I grew up in New Brunswick (by Maine) and we always called it “pop”. Yet all of New England seems to call it soda. I moved here to Washington state, and most people I speak to call it soda, and give me funny looks when I call it pop. Yet the data shows “pop” is most popular.
Of course, here in Seattle, you could order a pop, you could order a soda, but you’ll still end up with a latte. 
“Coke” as a synonym for sodiepop is a southernism. That there is a map of isoglosses. “Greasy”/“Greazy” is another one.
I grew up in Boston, and was always told everyone in the northeast called it “tonic”, a term I never once heard colloquially applied to the object in question. Everyone I knew called it “soda”. I hope this map goes a long way to destroying the hoary meme.
The map’s got us pegged here. It’s always a Coke. Even when it’s not 
.
So there isn’t a red state vs. blue state dichotomy, it’s a trichotomy!
The less populous states have somewhat inaccuracte coloration. Alaska looks like someone vomited on it because most counties only have a few respondants and the colors pick the largest amount.
And the yellow states are clearly correct
I somehow came back from my three-year exile in the upper Midwest calling it “pop,” which I still do, 20 years later.
Like a lot of regionalisms, I think this is fading away. Just a WAG, but I would say that the use of “soda” or “pop” or whatever has it’s roots in a time when drinking a soda/pop/Coke was a treat, and people actually went down to the soda fountain or general store and had a drink and socialized, etc. I would also venture that nowdays, most people are always within a couple of blocks of a source of soda/pop/Coke, so the novelty has worn off.
Seems like it’s more common these days to say “drink” or “something to drink” when referring to wanting a drink in general, then refer to the specific drink when ordering or if they know what they want, i.e. Coke, Pepsi, Diet Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, water, Gatorade, etc.
FWIW, the county I grew up in says “Coke” unanimously; where I live now, it’s about 2:1 Soda to Coke, with only a smattering of Pop or Other…
Using “coke” as the generic name for a soft drink makes about as much sense as using “chevy” as a generic name for a car. “Did you see my new chevy? It’s a Mustang!”
Seriously, when southerners want a Coca-Cola, do they ask for a “coke coke”?
BobLibDem, where I grew up, Coca-Cola is the default “coke.” Most people here will call soda a coke or a soft drink. I don’t know if soft drink is a more Southern thing to say, but I hear that way more often than soda or pop.
I was just thinking about this last night. I observed my newly purchased 12-pack of lemon-lime carbonated beverage and noticed that on the box it says “Lemon-Lime Flavored Soda”.
So, y’all who call it “pop” are now officially wrong!
I’ve watched (heard?) it change over my lifetime. Nowadays when a cola is being offered, the question is more likely going to be “Coke or Pepsi?” as if that’s all you have to decide, or that’s all the establishment offers as variety. Some places will only have one and when it’s Pepsi, that’s what you better ask for, or else they’ll say “we only have Pepsi.”
In older times, it wasn’t just “coke” but “co-cola” as in “Pepsi co-cola” or “RC co-cola” or whatever offbrand substitute you could find. Double Cola was another you could find in some places.
Dave Gardner (Brother Dave) used to have in one of his bits how the kid was drinking an R-O-C Co-cola and eating on a Moon Pie. There’s even an old C&W song about “an RC Cola and a Moon Pie and the maple on the hill.”
Being as Coca Cola was invented in Atlanta, the rest of y’all are just borrowing it anyway.
No. Do you ask for a “Coke Pop”?
I call it soda. From both where I live (York) and where I grew up (Lehigh), the map was pretty much spot on. My cousins, who live much farther west in PA (Clearfield) called it pop and again, the map was spot on.
I call Coke ‘Coke’. Dr. Pepper or Mr. Pibb are ‘Dr. Pepper’ or ‘Mr. Pibb.’ I call carbonated beverages ‘drinks’.
Around here, as often as not, they’re co-dranks. Soft drinks occasionally.
After seeing Pulp Fiction most people opt for “tasty beverage.” Even Letterman says that.
I’ve lived most of my life in soda country (Baltimore) and now live in pop country (Southern Ohio). Pop still sounds a little weird to me after six years here.
Heh. Probably a Canadian thing, or at least a maritime thing. I’ve always heard it called pop. I’ve only heard soda used on TV or in books.