# How do you define 'hometown'? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 6, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729 "2010-11-06T19:26:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wipetheclock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b19c9b/32.png) [@wipetheclock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wipetheclock)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729/21 "2010-11-08T17:40:24Z")
For me, it depends on the circumstances. When I’m traveling and someone asks about my hometown, I tell the my current city (I’ve lived here over a decade). But when going about my daily life, I’ll answer the town I lived in the first 18 years of my life. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729/22 "2010-11-08T20:22:29Z")
I don’t consider the place I lived from age 0-7 to be my hometown, it’s where I was born. The place I lived from 7-18 is my hometown. Drilling down into more detail. I live in one place from 7-15 and another from 15-18, and my parents continued to live there for another 20 years. So I think of the latter as my hometown. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to answer differently than you would answer “Where did you go to high school?” ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729/23 "2010-11-08T20:24:55Z")
I made it easy on myself and bought a house down the street from the house I grew up in, which is the house where my parents currently live. So I’ve got a home NEIGHBORHOOD as well! Although if anyone mentions Cleveland or Akron, I’m from there too! ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729/24 "2010-11-08T22:05:35Z")
I never know what to answer when asked my hometown. My family is from the Connecticut/Rhode Island/Pennsylvania area but we moved to Riverside CA early on and that’s where my earliest clear memories are. I didn’t grow up in any one place or with any one set of friends. My fondest memories are from Oregon, especially Portland; the place I first learned my way around in was Phoenix AZ. So if asked I usually put “multiple” or something like that, though I do wish I could pick just one locality and call it home. ---
**Author:** ![curious11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@curious11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curious11)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729/25 "2010-11-09T17:27:46Z")
“home town” is so ambiguously defined that your current place of residence could be your “home town.” To fit more in with the expected definition, however, I picked the place where I went to high school as my home town. The other idea I had was that the town where you lost your virginity would be your home town. Which, if you do that in high school, would be the same town. Good Luck. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729/26 "2010-11-09T18:29:25Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Your hometown is wherever you say it is. Awesome. My hometown is Honolulu. ---
**Author:** ![SpartanDC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@SpartanDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpartanDC)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729/27 "2010-11-09T18:47:04Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I don’t think it’s unreasonable to answer differently than you would answer “Where did you go to high school?” I would say your “hometown” is where you spent your formative years, and for most Americans, that would be their teenage years. Of course, I have it easy. I was born in Detroit, grew up in Detroit, and lived in a house in Detroit until the day I went to college. And that’s Detroit _proper_, no less. (My high school was actually a Catholic school in a nearby suburb. Detroit public schools are not a good environment for the white and nerdy.) I’ve lived in Washington DC for nearly 10 years now, so Detroit still has an 8-year advantage if you measure “hometown” based on duration. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729/28 "2010-11-09T18:53:15Z")
I think of the town I went to high school my home town. I only lived there for 6 years. I’ve been in my current town for 11, but I’m not **from** here. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729/29 "2010-11-09T19:10:11Z")
To me, “hometown” is where my home is. So currently, Charlotte is my “hometown.” I consider myself a “native” of Columbia, SC, though because that’s where I was born and grew up. I take the term “native” more seriously than I thought I did, and I noticed that recently when my niece’s obituary described her as a “Phoenix native,” despite the fact that she moved to Phoenix when she was 3. In my mind, she was a Winston-Salem, NC, native because that’s where she was born. But I accept that I may be in the minority on that point. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![yola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/48db29/32.png) [@yola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yola)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729/30 "2010-11-10T07:02:17Z")
In Alaska the question is “wheres your home state?” or “where you from?”. Its often perplexed me how to answer. Born in Mad City (Madison) and left at 5 when my dad re-joined the Army. Raised an Army brat I never felt the hometown feeling as a child. I’m a cheesehead by blood and in spirit tho! ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729/31 "2010-11-10T07:09:07Z")
My hometown is Worcester. I lived there from 5-21 and it’s the place I think of as home. The majority of my memories are from there. I know it better than anywhere else. That’s why it’s my hometown. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729/32 "2010-11-10T07:28:06Z")
“A town that feels like home”. I know it’s not the usual definition, but the town where I was born and lived until age 4 feels like home, the one where we then moved and my mother and brothers live does not. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729/33 "2010-11-10T07:54:38Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > “A town that feels like home”. I know it’s not the usual definition, but the town where I was born and lived until age 4 feels like home, the one where we then moved and my mother and brothers live does not. The winning answer! ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729/34 "2010-11-10T14:06:25Z")
My hometown is the village a spent the majority of my life in. I spent the first 2.5 years of my life in the next village along, but have no recollection of it. So my “home” is where my parents have spent the last 30 years and where I lived from ages 2-19. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729/35 "2010-11-10T15:21:49Z")
My definition is “where you grew up”. Although if you moved away at age 18 and settled in a new city and lived there for the next 40 years. The second city could very well be _your_ hometown. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-define-hometown/559729.md?page=1)