Actually, on the topic of lakes, I would also support the name Erie.
Not all the states in the region are near the Great Lakes, so why should the name of one of the Great Lakes be considered as a serious suggestion?
If you mean Erie, it's not just one of the lakes. It's also the name of a little canal that connected New York City to the Midwest. Yes via the Great Lakes. The canal opened the Midwest to settlers from New York and New England, launched the consumer economy, and made New York City into the commercial capital of the entire country. I'd even say the canal was important to New Jersey. Does that leave anyone out?
This is an important point that I often bring up, particular during discussions about the Civil War and the ability of Lincoln to win. The Erie canal shifted economic growth to the Northern parts of ILL, IN, OH and pulling them away from the orbit of New Orleans' trade network along with the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.
When it comes to creating the concept of a North Region stretching across the NE and Midwest, nothing is as important to that concept of a block as the Erie Canal and the resulting economic and settlement shifts it led to.
Some years ago I used to live near the an abandoned portion of the canal system in upstate NY.
