Pantellerite… Hampton Roads just covers it all, Southside is mostly the VA Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake area. You are right, Tidewater is another given name. Honestly, I think it all depends on who is in office that day 
And your area, just went through it the other day… The best thing about it… It’s close to Nags Head, that’s my paradise…
Let’s see. Syracuse is in Central New York (CNY). I’m not a native so I couldn’t tell you the boundaries. My hometown is Mount Laurel which is a part of the M-cluster, several towns beginning with M (Mount Laurel, Mount Holly, Moorestown, Marlton, Medford, etc.). The M-cluster is in South Jersey. South Jersey, the Philly area, and Delaware make up the Delaware Valley named after the Delaware River.
I wind up telling everyone I meet who isn’t from the area that I’m frrom the Philly area rather than trying to explain all of the tiny Jersey towns and how they fit together.
Mansfield and the surrounding area is called either Mid-Ohio, the Heart of Ohio, or A Reason for all Seasons. Outsiders tend to refer to it as “the place where all the murders are.” Hell yeah baby, number five in the nation in violent crimes per capita and proud of it!!
I grew up on the Peninsula (Hampton VA).
As for “Tidewater”, that’s a larger collective area. It covers mose of the eastern part of Virginia who’s rivers are affected by the tides. Hence, even Richmond is part of Tidewater.
As for now, I reside outide of Cleveland OH. Often referred to as the “North Coast” since Lake Erie is directly north.
I have a problem with that distinction because a “coast” is the landside portion of a sea or ocean. Lakes are bordered by “shores”. And, since Cleveland is on the southern shore of Lake Erie, this area should be known as the “South Shore”.
But, that’s just my opinion.
But that’s what I don’t get… in the Norfolk-VA Beach-etc. Metropolitan area, you’ve got a just-plain “Hampton”, but it’s neither the largest nor central city up there–yet the entire area is called “Hampton Roads”. Why does Hampton get the credit? And why “Roads”? I’m so confused! (Just got back from your area this morning–spent last night in Newport News.)
Regarding this area, you’re right: the just-less-than-an-hour’s-drive to Kill Devil Hills is really improving my summer! Drove out there for a quick afternoon just last Monday…
Canada’s National Capital Region…
no ring to it WHAT-SO-EVER!
Pantellerite… Now I’m confused! You know when you’ve heard something all your life, you just take it as is… See why I like the Outer Banks?? You are right though, it is very confusing. I can’t figure out Hampton, unless it’s just the oldest city. As far as Roads, well, they all lead to the Navel Base Just a joke… but probably the busiest ones lead there. Now sit back and enjoy Elizabeth City, y’all do have better food then we do. 
Just chiming in from the Lexington, Ky region aka the Bluegrass.
The boundaries of the Inland Empire aren’t that clear. I’ve heard many different versions.
Small Inland Empire: Riverside/San Bernardino Metro areas only. (Excludes Temecula, Perris, Hemet, Menifee, Wildomar, Murietta, etc.)
Medium Inland Empire: An area bound by the San Bernardino Mountains to the north, San Jacinto Mountains to the east, Mount Palomar area to the south (Temecula), and the Santa Ana Mountains and Chino Hills to the west. (Excludes Eastern Riverside County and most of San Bernardino County).
Large Inland Empire: All of Riverside/San Bernardino Counties.
Perosnally, I like the Medium Inland Empire.
Girlbysea, I found this explanation at http://www.hamptonroadschamber.com/about_hr.php
It explains the “Roads”, but still no word on the “Hampton”. Another site I found claims that the name has only been in use for a decade or so, by the way…
Art Modell lives in Baltimore. That qualifies it as a sewer pit.
[sub]d+r from Weirddave
Locally, I live in what’s locally called the South Shore – i.e., the stretch of towns south of Boston, but stopping just before Cape Cod.
Boston’s closest suburbs are sometimes referred to as the Metro Boston area.
And Boston, of course, is considered The Hub…
I live “Behind the Tweed Curtain,” (Oak Bay, generally considered the most staidly “British” of the municipalities that make up Greater Victoria, B.C.)
I work in an historic site in a slightly hillbilly area to the west, which has recently been given the gloss “West Shore” --a real estate dealer’s wet dream of a euphemism.
The Osaka/Kobe/Kyoto area is known as the Kansai or Kinki (yes that’s pronounced ‘kinky’) district. This leads to all kinds of fun names: a well known local university - “Kinki university”, a local love hotel - “Kinki Love”, and my old improv theater group - “the Kinki Theater Company”.
Hampton is the “oldest continuous english speaking settlement in the new world”.
Pantellerite… Thank you for the information, Gosh, it’s true, you do learn something everyday…
GrizzRich… I thank you also… I see I have some reading to do… Again, thank you very much…
Here in Colorado, as was mentioned, we have the **Front Range{/b] which basically runs from Colorado Springs through Denver up to Fort Collins taking in all points in between including Boulder, Loveland, etc.
We also have the Western Slope which covers every place west of the Continental Divide in Colorado - very big geographically but definitely a single area.
The area around Colorado Springs calls itself the Pikes Peak Region.
Basically any thing within 90 miles of Amarillo, Texas is referred to as the Panhandle.
From just south of Lubbock to just north of Amarillo is called (mostly by European tourist I might add) the Llano or Llano Estacado*. It gained popularity because it was regularly called that in a series of western novels written by a German for his German public and later made into a series of sauerkraut westerns (starring Lex Barker as “Ol’ Shatterhand”). Now thousands of German tourists annually come to the Lubbock area looking for this mysterious Staked Plains (rough translation) along the Texas, New Mexico border.
*I apologize of the spelling of this.
It’s alphabetical, dummy. Baltimore-Washington.
What’s the parkway called? Baltimore-Washington Parkway.
What’s the airport called? Baltimore-Washington International.
Therefore, this is the Baltimore-Washington Metro area.
Besides, the better city always goes first. Everyone knows that.
There are a number of regions called the Tri-Cities.
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Albany, Schenectady, and Troy, New York. I read it in a book once, twenty years ago, and have never heard it again. I think “Capital District” is more common, but they may not mean the same thing.
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Endicott, Binghamton, and some other city I forget in the “Southern Tier” of New York are sometimes called the Tri-Cities.
3… Dover, Somersworth, and Rochester, New Hampshire. I used to live in Dover and I never actually heard anyone call it that except in the names of businesses and non-profit organizations. These cities are part of a larger region called “the Seacoast” (Rockingham and Strafford Counties) even though these three cities are not actually on the sea. Portsmouth, Rye, Hampton, Seabrook, and other towns are also in the Seacoast region. (New Hampshire has only 13 miles of coastline).