What about soft drink or soda pop?
I’m wondering about that one bit of yellow in the midst of Iowa. Is that maybe Iowa City, so it has a lot of transplants from elsewhere. Although a large number of them would be from Illinois, so that might not make that much difference. It’s odd.
And I guess my daughters will have to learn to say something other than pop this fall when they go to school. There doesn’t seem to be any blue in New Mexico anywhere.
And what’s with that circular island of “soda” south and a bit west of Lake Michigan? It looks like someone dropped a blob of paint there.
Well. They didn’t put what folks really call it here. It’s “co-coler”.
Interesting map. The little Ohio town where I grew up, and the big Ohio city where I now live, are both dark blue, which doesn’t surprise me in the least. All right-thinking people know it’s “pop.” The rest of you are clearly just godless Commie pinko anarcho-syndicalist subversive scum.
No offense.
I’m a native Georgian. Though it appears to be solid “Coke” country, I grew up hearing and using “soft drink” or “soda”. I prefer the term soda myself. Or, if I’m feeling particularly cutesy, “cold sody water”. 
My son still remembers his shock at the waitress who asked him, “What kind of Coke you drinking there? Root beer?” That was the first time he’d heard the generic Coke.
It’s definitely regional. My niece, who’d never heard it called anything but pop, lives in dark blue territory, whereas just about everywhere I’ve ever lived is soda yellow. Clearly, geography rules!
Both St Louis and Milwaukee used to be big centers of beer brewing. I wonder if that has anything to do with it
That’s presumably St. Louis (and its cultural hinterland).
Fizzy drinks sure do have a lot of strange names.
Indeed. Also, I’ve heard my mama (born and raised on the Mississippi Delta) ask “do you wanna soda pop?” from time to time. Never soda or pop, but both. But usually she says co-coler.
I’m from Kansas City, but my parents were from St. Louis, so we grew up as a “soda” house in a “pop” neighborhood. I still tend to use soda, but my wife, from Leavenworth, Ks has always been a “pop” girl. We now live in Chicago.
I’ll always order a Coke, when I want cherry, Dr. Pepper, Root beer, Pepsi, anything dark- but usually it’s to fill it up myself somewhere. But I’m used to calling all soda’s Coke.
If I had to I’ll call it a Soda…
But you Poppers are just wierdos.
Old link is old (2003!)
I saw a similar dialectical map back in 1999, with more variants (“bubbler” vs. “water fountain”, “ANT” vs. “AWNT” (aunt), etc.)
I’ll grant it is still interesting, even though I saw it years ago.
I grew up in a strongly “pop” region. But I still prefer the term “soda”. To me, “pop” sounds uncomfortably “country”, but “soda” sounds neutral.
In my limited travels to the south and south-east, I’ve NEVER heard the “coke” usage. This may be because I was always in and around major cities.
I would probably do a double take if I heard someone ask for a “tonic” - you want some gin with that?
I lived in many places, but all of the appear to be coke or soda places, mostly soda. That is term that i use most often but I have been known to use coke.
What’s up with New Mexico, there? They seem to be almost as confused as Alaska.
Nope…look more closely. Hamilton County is definitely the middle shade of blue. Cincinnati is a pretty solid “pop” region, presumably diluted slightly by the influence of northern Kentucky’s “Coke” usage.
I am skeptical of this map! It says I’m firmly within a “pop” regime, but I’ve always heard “soda” among my family and friends from the area. I think maybe in the very rural areas “pop” is more common, but when I was at UW in Seattle anyway, hearing “pop” was the rare exception, and it stood out every time.
…However, come to think of it, I do recall a snack/beverage price sign for the CSE basement lounge that was printed with the word “pop” on it. Within a couple of days somebody* had crossed out “pop” on the sign and written “soda.” A few days later somebody changed it to “pop” again. This was followed by another strikethrough and a note saying “it’s SODA, dammit!” This went on for quite some time until somebody crossed out all the corrections and just wrote “SOFT DRINKS. HAPPY?!”
So maybe usage among students in Seattle is more divided than I thought.
- Alright, I admit it, the first one was me.
My Brittish family members call them “fizzy” drinks.
I’m in a blue state with one county that’s very yellow. It makes me laugh to see it, because it’s the county with a very, very large percentage of out of state transplants. it’s a bit of a resort area, actually.
I was a pop girl until I met my husband. He lived in CA for a couple of years and came back a soda convert. Since he would laugh at me when I said pop, I quickly converted too. We are raising a family of soda speakers in a sea of pops.