# Unique local/regional names for common things

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-local-regional-names-for-common-things/946610>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 16, 2021, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-local-regional-names-for-common-things/946610 "2021-07-16T04:45:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 174

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2021, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-local-regional-names-for-common-things/946610/174 "2021-07-21T23:31:03Z")

</div>

> [@Smapti](#):
>
> Another one that occurred to me today - back in the early 2000s, Dairy Queen here in the PNW had an item on the menu called a “California burger”. Beeing a SoCal native, I would’ve expected something called a California burger to have guacamole or pepper jack on it, but instead it was just a regular burger with lettuce, tomato, and onion added

I’m familiar with the lettuce-tomato-onion being called a “California burger” as well, and I’m in Chicago. It’s not current nomenclature (which would, as you say, usually mean avocado on a burger or something of that nature), but I think there was a time California was strongly associated with fresh produce. (I guess it still is, but even moreso.) I know I’ve brought this up on the Dope before.

ETA: I could have sworn it was on this board, but I can’t find it. I checked another board and came up empty, except for a poster saying that growing up in Milwaukee, they called a burger with lettuce, tomato, and mayo or special sauce a “California Burger.”

ETA2: Here’s a thread from '04 where @chique reports a California Burger in central Minnessota being a burger with lettuce and tomato. It may well be an Upper Midwest/Great Lakes thing (oops, but you say you saw it in the PNW, so I guess it’s farther afield than that. I don’t think it’s particularly common anymore to refer to that as such):

> [@Foods named after geography](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foods-named-after-geography/230343/27):
>
> Not only have I never seen a “California burger” in California, I have never seen it outside of central Minnesota. And before you ask, it’s a hamburger. With lettuce and tomato.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unique-local-regional-names-for-common-things/946610)._