Names for U.S. congressional districts

[DPKdebator]

What if U.S. congressional districts had names like Canadian and British electoral districts do, and not just numbers?

If someone's already done a state, feel free to suggest better names for any congressional districts.

I'll start out with the New England states:
Massachusetts:
MA-01: Berkshires and Lower Connecticut River Valley
MA-02: Worcester Hills-Quabbin Valley
MA-03: Merrimack Valley
MA-04: Western Norfolk and Northern Bristol
MA-05: Middlesex and Essex
MA-06: North Shore
MA-07: Metro Boston
MA-08: Massachusetts Bay
MA-09: Plymouth and Buzzards Bay

New Hampshire:
NH-01: Seacoast-Lakes Region
NH-02: Upper Connecticut River Valley-White Mountains

Maine:
ME-01: Portland
ME-02: Downeast Maine, Kennebec Valley, and Northern Woods

Rhode Island:
RI-01: Providence and Newport
RI-02: Warwick

Connecticut:
CT-01: Metropolitan Hartford
CT-02: Mystic Country
CT-03: New Haven
CT-04: South Fairfield
CT-05: Litchfield Hills-Housatonic Valley

[Kamala]

Ah! My TL in my signature has names for most of the congressional districts, and I have them on an excel doc. I just need to do NM, Idaho, NV, CA, OR, and WA.

[Kamala]

Here are my names for the NE states; I tried to keep names rather short, incorporating historic, natural, and urban landmarks.

Massachusetts
1 - October Mountain
2 - Worcester
3 - Merrimack-First Mills (reference to Lowell Mills)
4 - Walden
5 - Harvard
6 - Cape Ann
7 - Bunker Hill
8 - Freedom Trail
9 - Cape Cod

Connecticut
1 - Hartford
2 - Old Saybrook
3 - New Haven
4 - Bridgeport
5 - Housatonic Valley (can remove the valley part if wanted)

Rhode Island
1 - Sakonnet
2 - Narragansett

Maine
1 - Kennebec
2 - Aroostook

New Hampshire
1 - Winnipesaukee
2 - Old Man of the Mountain

As well as New York:
1 - The Hamptons
2 - Connetquot
3 - Long Island Sound
4 - Nassau
5 - Rockaway
6 - Flushing
7 - Brooklyn Bridge
8 - Jamaica Bay
9 - Flatbush
10 - Central Park
11 - Staten Island
12 - Queensboro
13 - Harlem
14 - Pelham
15 - Bronx
16 - Yonkers
17 - Rockland
18 - Roosevelt
19 - Catskills
20 - Albany
21 - Adirondack
22 - Oneida
23 - Finger Lakes
24 - Cayuga
25 - Rochester
26 - Buffalo
27 - Niagara

[muon2]

When there are multiple names do you want the British system with "and" or the Canadian system with "-". It's confusing to see both in the same list. You can also specify how names that are subdivisions of big cities are specified - do you mention the city or not. Compare Central Park to NYC Central Park or Manhattan Central Park, following the style of Vancouver Quadra.

[HAnnA MArin County]

Missouri
01: St. Louis City
02: St. Louis suburbs
03: East Central, St. Louis exurbs
04: West Central/Columbia/Jefferson City
05: Kansas City
06: Northern Missouri, KC suburbs
07: Southwest Missouri/Springfield
08: Southeast Missouri

[jimrtex]

Texas was hard, so I decided to use names like for Australian divisions:

Congressmen with 15 or more terms:

Archer (15)
Brooks (21)
Burleson (16)
de la Garza (16)
Fisher (16)
Garner (15)
Gonzalez (19)
Hall (17)
Mahon (22)
Mansfield (16)
Patman (24)
Pickle (16)
Poage (21)
Rayburn (15)
Sumners (17)
Teague (17)
Thomas (15)
Wright (18)

Congress with 10 or more terms, selected by me. May have modern bias:

DeLay (11)
Edwards (10)
Frost (13)
Ortiz (14)
Paul (12)
Stenholm (13)
Wilson (12)
===========
Feel free to suggest promotions or demotions.

Beckworth (12)
Blanton (13)
Combest (10)
Culberson, D (11)
Dies (10)
Dowdy (11)
Hinojosa (10)
Johnson, L (12)
Jones (12)
Henry (10)
Kilday (12)
Lanham (14)
Mills (13)
Roberts (10)
Slayden (11)
Stephens (10)
Thompson (11)

Chosen for other reasons, including service in other offices.

Alger (5) (first Republican modern era)
Crockett (elected in Tennessee)
Houston (elected in Tennessee)
Bentsen, L (4) (later senator)
Bonilla (7) (Hispanic Republican)
Bush, GHW (2) (later president)
Gramm (3) (later senator)
Johnson, LB (6) (later president)
Jordan (3) (first Black modern era)
Leland (6) (first Black male, died in plane crash in office)
Reagan (8) (Postmaster General CSA, first RRC)
===========
Other possibilities:

Armey(9)
Bryant (7)
Casey (9)
Coleman (7)
Collins (8)
Connally (6 + senator)
Eckhardt (7)
Fields (8)
Kleberg (7)
Kazen (9)
Reyes (8)
Thornberry (8)
Wurzbach (6)

Excluded due to still in office:

Barton (17)
Smith (16)
Johnson, S (14)
Green, G (13)
Johnson, EB (13)
Doggett (12)
Jackson Lee (12)
Thornberry (12)
Brady (11)
Granger (11)
Sessions (11)
Culberson (9)
Burgess (8)
Carter (8)
Hensarling (8)
Conaway (7)
Cuellar (7)
Gohmert (7)
Green, A (7)
Marchant (7)
McCaul (7)
Poe (7)

[Strudelcutie4427]

I would just name them after the principal city in the district like

Maine
1. Portland
2. Bangor

New Hampshire
1. Manchester
2. Nashua-Concord

Massachusetts
1. Springfield
2. Worcester
3. Lowell
4. Newton
5. Cambridge
6. Lynn
7. Boston
8. Quincy-Brockton
9. Plymouth

Rhode Island (hard cuz they split Providence for some reason)
1. E. Providence-Newport
2. W. Providence-Warwick

Connecticut
1. Hartford
2. New London
3. New Haven
4. Bridgeport
5. Waterbury

Nevada
1. Las Vegas
2. Reno
3. Henderson
4. North Las Vegas

New Mexico
1. Albuquerque
2. Las Cruces
3. Santa Fe

Wisconsin
1. Kenosha
2. Madison
3. Lacrosse
4. Milwaukee
5. Waukesha
6. Sheboygan
7. Wausau
8. Green Bay

[VPH]

Kansas
KS-01: Big Plains
KS-02: Capital Region and East
KS-03: Kansas City
KS-04: Air Capital

[Kamala]

Here are all the names I use in my TL:
At-large districts are the same.
Alabama
1 - Mobile Bay
2 - Wiregrass
3 - Tuskegee
4 - Sipsey
5 - Flint River
6 - Cahaba
7 - Selma

Arizona
1 - Grand Canyon
2 - Chiricahua
3 - Saguaro
4 - Sonora
5 - Gilbert
6 - Paradise Valley
7 - Salt River
8 - Glendale
9 - Maricopa

Arkansas
1 - Arkansas Lowlands
2 - Little Rock
3 - Ozarks South
4 - Ouachita

California
1 -  Shasta
2 - Redwood
3 - Mendocino-Yuba-Sutter
4 - Sierra Nevada
5 - Napa
6 - Sacramento West
7 - Sacramento East
8 - Death Valley
9 - San Joaquin North
10 - Tuolumne
11 - Diablo
12 - San Francisco
13 - Alameda
14 - Half Moon Bay
15 - Del Valle
16 - San Joaquin Center
17 - Silicon Valley
18 - Santa Cruz
19 - Upper Silicon Valley
20 - Monterey
21 - San Joaquin South
22 - Fresno-Visalia
23 - Sequoia
24 - Los Padres
25 - San Gabriel
26 - Conejo Valley
27 - Angeles Forest
28 - Burbank
29 - San Fernando
30 - Simi Hills
31 - Santa Ana
32 - El Monte
33 - Santa Monica
34 - Los Angeles
35 - Pomona
36 - Joshua Tree
37 - Culver City
38 - Norwalk
39 - Chino Hills - Nixon
40 - East Los Angeles
41 - Riverside-Moreno
42 - Elsinore
43 - Inglewood
44 - Hermosa Beach
45 - Irvine
46 - Anaheim
47 -  Long Beach-Catalina
48 - Huntington Beach
49 - Oceanside
50 - Cuyamaca
51 - Imperial
52 - San Diego North
53 - San Diego East

Colorado
1 - Denver
2 - Rocky Foothills
3 - San Juan Mountains
4 - South Platte
5 - Pikes Peak / Tava
6 - Aurora
7 - Denver North

Connecticut
1 - Hartford
2 - Old Saybrook
3 - New Haven
4 - Bridgeport
5 - Housatonic Valley

Florida
01. Emerald Coast
02. Big Bend
03. Alachua
04. Duval
05. Jacksonville—Tallahassee
06. Volusia
07. Seminole
08. Cape Canaveral
09. Osceola
10. Orange
11. Citrus
12. Zephyrhills
13. Pinellas
14. Tampa
15. Lakeland
16. Manatee
17. Okeechobee
18. St. Lucie
19. Suncoast
20. Broward—Palm Beach
21. Palm Beach
22. Fort Lauderdale
23. Broward
24. Miami
25. Big Cypress
26. South Florida
27. Biscayne

Georgia
1 - Sea Islands South
2 - Miccosukee
3 - Little White House
4 - Panola
5 - Atlanta Center
6 - Atlanta North
7 - Lanier
8 - Ocmulgee
9 - Chattahoochee
10 - Oconee
11 - Allatoona
12 - Vidalia
13 - Atlanta South
14 - Conasauga

Hawaii
1 - Pearl Harbor Memorial
2 - Hawaii

Idaho
1 - Bitterroot
2 - Snake River

Illinois
1st:  Chicago Southwest
2nd:  Willakee
3rd:  Chicago West
4th:  Chicago Central
5th:  Chicago Northwest
6th:  Glen Ellyn
7th:  Chicago East
8th:  Glendale Heights
9th:  Chicago North
10th:  Dold (Reference to Robert Dold)
11th:  New Lenox
12th:  Carbondale
13th:  Calhoun
14th:  Crystal Lake
15th:  Centralia
16th:  Machesney Park
17th:  Galesburg
18th:  Sangawell

Indiana
1 - Indiana Dunes
2 - St Joseph
3 - Fort Wayne
4 - Tippecanoe
5 - Morse
6 - Whitewater River
7 - Indianapolis
8 - Wabash
9 - Monroe

Iowa
1 - Wapsipinicon
2 - Fox River
3 - Des Moines
4 - Storm Lake

Kansas
1 - Wheatland
2 - Flint Hills
3 - Overland
4 - Witchita

Kentucky
1 - Jackson Purchase
2 - Bowling Green
3 - Louisville
4 - Ohio River
5 - Boone-Cumberland
6 - Bluegrass

Louisiana
1 - Delta
2 - New Orleans-Baton Rouge
3 - Acadiana
4 - Red-Sabine
5 - Kisatchie
6 - Pontchartrain-Atchafalaya

Maine
1 - Kennebec
2 - Aroostook

Maryland
1 - Chesapeake
2 - Aberdeen-Sparrows Point-Annapolis Junction
3 - Annapolis-Baltimore South
4 - Magothy-Severn-Potomac
5 - Patuxent-Potomac
6 - Green Ridge
7 - Baltimore
8 - Catoctin-Takoma Park

Massachusetts
1 - October Mountain
2 - Worcester
3 - Merrimack-First Mills
4 - Walden
5 - Harvard
6 - Cape Ann
7 - Bunker Hill
8 - Freedom Trail
9 - Cape Cod

Michigan
1 - Superior
2 - Manistee
3 - Grand Rapids
4 - Au Sable
5 - Saginaw
6 - Kalamazoo
7 - Pinckeny
8 - Red Cedar
9 - Detroit North
10 - Huron
11 - Detroit West
12 - Ann Arbor
13 - Detroit South
14 - Detroit Center

Minnesota
1 - Coulee
2 - Spring Lake
3 - Minnetonka
4 - Saint Paul
5 - Minneapolis
6 - Blue Hill-Saint Cloud
7 - 10,000 Lakes
8 - Iron Range

Mississippi
1 - Holly Springs
2 - Mississippi Delta
3 - Longleaf
4 - Pascagoula

Missouri
1 - Second Constitution (TL specific - St. Louis otherwise)
2 - Castlewood-Bonhomme
3 - Mark Twain-Missouri
4 - Osage
5 - Kansas City East
6 - Till Plains
7 - Ozarks West
8 - St Francois - Ozarks East

Nebraska
1 - Platte
2 - Omaha
3 - Great Plains

Nevada
1 - Las Vegas
2 - Black Rock
3 - Mojave
4 - Great Basin

New Hampshire
1 - Winnipesaukee
2 - Old Man of the Mountain

New Jersey
1 -  Camden
2 - Cape May
3 - Pine Barrens
4 - Monmouth
5 - Delaware Water Gap
6 - Raritan
7 - Skylands
8 - Pavonia
9 - The Palisades
10 - Newark
11 - Watchung
12 - Trenton-Princeton

New Mexico
1 - Manzano
2 - Gila-Cibola
3 - Sangre de Cristo

New York
1 - The Hamptons
2 - Connetquot
3 - Long Island Sound
4 - Nassau
5 - Rockaway
6 - Flushing
7 - Brooklyn Bridge
8 - Jamaica Bay
9 - Flatbush
10 - Central Park
11 - Staten Island
12 - Queensboro
13 - Harlem
14 - Pelham
15 - Bronx
16 - Yonkers
17 - Rockland
18 - Roosevelt
19 - Catskills
20 - Albany
21 - Adirondack
22 - Oneida
23 - Finger Lakes
24 - Cayuga
25 - Rochester
26 - Buffalo
27 - Niagara

North Carolina
1 - Piedmont North
2 - Wake Forest - Falls Lake
3 - Outer Banks
4 - Raleigh
5 - Pisgah
6 - Haw
7 - Wilmington
8 - Uwharrie
9 - Sandhills
10 -  Broad River
11 - Blue Ridge
12 - Charlotte
13 - Piedmont South

Ohio
1 - Cincinnati
2 - Cincinnati-Shawnee
3 - Columbus
4 - Firelands
5 - Great Black Swamp
6 - Ohio-Applachia
7 - Mohican
8 - Miami Valley
9 - Erie
10 - Dayton
11 - Cleveland
12 - Mansfield-Zanesville
13 - Akron East
14 - Cuyahoga-Ashtabula
15 - Wayne-Zaleski
16 - Akron West

Oklahoma
1 - Tulsa
2 - Green-Kiamichi
3 - Cimarron
4 - Chickasaw
5 - Oklahoma

Oregon
1 - Clatsop-Pacific
2 - Blue Mountains - Harney Basin
3 - Portland
4 - Cascade South
5 - Willamette-Tillamook

Pennsylvania
1 - Schuylkill
2 - First Constitution
3 - Moraine-Erie
4 - Susquehanna-Gettysburg
5 - Allegheny
6 - Ontelaunee
7 - Brandywine
8 - Washington Crossing
9 - Laurel Highlands
10 - Endless Mountains
11 - Wyoming Valley
12 - Conemaugh
13 - Philadelphia North
14 - Pittsburgh-Duquesne
15 - Lehigh
16 - Dutch
17 - Poconos
18 - Mount Pleasant

Rhode Island
1 - Sakonnet
2 - Narragansett

South Carolina
1 - Sea Islands North
2 - Edisto
3 - Sumter
4 - Upcountry
5 - Friendship
6 - Charleston-Columbia
7 - Grand Strand

Tennesseee
1 - Great Smokey Mts
2 - Holston River
3 - Tennesse Valley-Cumberland South
4 - Chickamuga
5 - Nashville
6 - Highland Rim
7 - Natchez Trace
8 - Hatchie-Obion
9 - Memphis

Texas
1 - Piney Woods - Sabine
2 - Houston North
3 - Blackland Prairie - Lavon
4 - Red-Sulphur
5 - Trinity
6 - Arlington-Waxahachie-Corsicana
7 - Houston West
8 - Sam Houston
9 - Houston South
10 - Brazos - Colorado
11 - Edwards Plateau
12 - Fossil Rim - Fort Worth West
13 - Panhandle
14 - Galveston-Bolivar
15 - McAllen-Seguin
16 - El Paso
17 - Brazos - Waco
18 - Houston Center
19 - Llano Estacado
20 - San Antonio West
21 - Hill Country
22 - Fort Bend
23 - Pecos
24 - Dallas North - Fort Worth East
25 - Balcones
26 - Denton
27 - Matagorda
28 - Laredo
29 - Houston East
30 - Dallas South
31 - Temple-Georgetown
32 - Dallas Northeast
33 - Dallas-Fort Worth Center
34 - Laguna Madre
35 - Alamo
36 - Big Thicket

Utah
1 - Uinta
2 - Bonneville
3 - Vermilion Cliffs
4 - Wasatch

Virginia
1 - Yorktown-Tidewater North
2 - Chincoteague
3 - James River
4 - Tidewater South
5 - Appomattox Court House
6 - Shenandoah
7 - Powhatan
8 - Alexandria-Arlington
9 - Jefferson
10 - Bull Run
11 - Fairfax

Washington
1 - Cascade North
2 - San Juan Islands
3 - Columbia
4 - Yakima
5 - Spokane
6 - Olympic
7 - Seattle
8 - Wenatchee
9 - Puget Sound
10 - Squaxin

West Virginia
1 - Canaan Valley
2 - Tygart Valley
3 - Monongahela

Wisconsin
1 - Kenosha
2 - Madison
3 - Menominee
4 - Milwaukee
5 - Okauchee
6 - Winnebago
7 - Chippewa
8 - Green Bay

[jimrtex]

Texas
1 - Piney Woods - Sabine

Deep East

2 - Houston North

Though no longer accurate

3 - Blackland Prairie - Lavon

Collin (Blackland Prairie is a much larger area, and why did you pick Lavon?)

4 - Red-Sulphur

Red River

5 - Trinity

Traditionally 6 was the TrinityRiver district. Dallas East might be more accurate.

6 - Arlington-Waxahachie-Corsicana
7 - Houston West
8 - Sam Houston

The forest or the man?

9 - Houston South

Houston Southwest

10 - Brazos - Colorado

I would make 17 Brazos. A district that crosses the Brazos and Colorado isn't really characterized by the rivers it crosses.

Houston Northwest-Austin North
or
US 290

11 - Edwards Plateau

Permian Basin-Concho Valley

12 - Fossil Rim - Fort Worth West

Fort Worth

13 - Panhandle
14 - Galveston-Bolivar

Upper Gulf Coast

15 - McAllen-Seguin

Fajita Uno

16 - El Paso
17 - Brazos - Waco

Brazos

18 - Houston Center

Houston Central

19 - Llano Estacado

Llano Estacado-Big Country

20 - San Antonio West

San Antonio Central

21 - Hill Country
22 - Fort Bend
23 - Pecos

San Antonio-Terlingua-El Paso

24 - Dallas North - Fort Worth East

DFW

25 - Balcones



26 - Denton
27 - Matagorda

Coastal Bend

28 - Laredo

Fajita Dos

29 - Houston East
30 - Dallas South
31 - Temple-Georgetown

Georgetown-Killeen-Temple

32 - Dallas Northeast

Dallas North

33 - Dallas-Fort Worth Center

Maybe districts that are not compact should not be entitled to names.

34 - Laguna Madre

Fajita Tres

35 - Alamo

I-35

36 - Big Thicket

[Plate]

Alabama
1: Mobile
2: Troy and Eastern Montgomery
3: Phenix City and Talladega
4: Gadsden and Russellville
5: Huntsville and Florence
6: Hoover and Clanton
7: Thomasville and Western Montgomery

Alaska
At-Large: Alaska At-Large

Arizona
1: Navajo Nation and Clifton
2: Eastern Tucson
3: Western Tucson
4: Bullhead City and Payson
5: Gilbert and Queen Creek
6: Northern Phoenix
7: Phoenix and Eastern Glendale
8: Northern Glendale
9: Southern Scottsdale

Arkansas
1: Jonesboro and Lake Village
2: Little Rock and Conway
3: Fort Smith and Russellville
4: Clarksville and Texarkana

Michigan
1: The Upper Peninsula and Alpena
2: Ludington and Holland
3: Grand Rapids and Battle Creek
4: Cadillac and Midland
5: Flint and Bay City
6: Kalamazoo
7: Adrian and Hillsdale
8: Lansing and Rochester
9: Royal Oak and Warren
10: Port Huron and Bad Axe
11: Birmingham and Livonia
12: Dearborn and Ann Arbor
13: Melvindale and Western Detroit
14: Southfield and Eastern Detroit

I'll finish this later.
What do you think so far?

[publicunofficial]

Washington
1 - Cascade North
2 - San Juan Islands
3 - Columbia
4 - Yakima
5 - Spokane
6 - Olympic
7 - Seattle
8 - Wenatchee
9 - Puget Sound
10 - Squaxin

Puget Sound works better as a name for the 2nd district than the 9th.

[Kamala]

Washington
1 - Cascade North
2 - San Juan Islands
3 - Columbia
4 - Yakima
5 - Spokane
6 - Olympic
7 - Seattle
8 - Wenatchee
9 - Puget Sound
10 - Squaxin

Puget Sound works better as a name for the 2nd district than the 9th.

I thought so too, just couldn't really think of a better name for the 9th.

Are the rest of the districts alright?

[kcguy]

Years ago, I took some data from the 2000 census, and I wrote a computer program to design districts.  (The results were decidedly mixed.)  Anyhow, I then tried to give each of my made-up districts an English-style constituency name.  I no longer have the results, but I do have a list of the names.

(Sorry if this is off-topic.)

AL:  (1) Birmingham; (2) East Alabama; (3) Mobile; (4) North Alabama; (5) North East Alabama; (6) South Alabama; (7) Tuscaloosa and Alabaster.
AK:  (1) Alaska.
AZ:  (1) Mesa; (2) North Arizona; (3) Phoenix East; (4) Phoenix North; (5) Phoenix West; (6) Tucson North and Pinal; (7) Tucson South and South East Arizona; ( West Arizona.
AR:  (1) Mid Arkansas; (2) North East Arkansas; (3) North West Arkansas; (4) South Arkansas.
CA:  (1) Anaheim; (2) Bakersfield; (3) Bay Area North; (4) Citrus Heights; (5) Contra Costa and San Rafael; (6) El Monte; (7) Fremont and Livermore; ( Fresno; (9) Garden Grove; (10) Irvine; (11) Long Beach; (12) Los Angeles Central; (13) Los Angeles East; (14) Los Angeles Hollywood; (15) Los Angeles Mid Valley; (16) Los Angeles North and Antelope Valley; (17) Los Angeles North East; (18) Los Angeles South East; (19) Los Angeles South West; (20) Los Angeles West Valley; (21) Los Angeles Westside; (22) Modesto and Merced; (23) Monterey Bay; (24) Moreno Valley and Temecula; (25) North East California; (26) North West California; (27) Oakland; (28) Oceanside; (29) Ontario; (30) Palm Springs and El Centro; (31) Pomona; (32) Riverside; (33) Roseville and Tahoe; (34) Sacramento; (35) San Bernardino; (36) San Diego Central; (37) San Diego North; (38) San Diego South; (39) San Francisco; (40) San Jose North; (41) San Jose South; (42) San Mateo; (43) Santa Ana; (44) Santa Barbara; (45) Santa Rosa; (46) South San Gabriel Valley; (47) Stockton; (48) Sunnyvale; (49) Torrance; (50) Ventura; (51) Victorville; (52) Visalia and Hanford; (53) Walnut Creek and Antioch.
CO:  (1) Boulder and Thornton; (2) Colorado Springs and Pueblo; (3) Denver Central; (4) Denver East; (5) Denver West; (6) North Colorado; (7) West Colorado.
CT:  (1) Bridgeport and Stamford; (2) Hartford; (3) New Haven; (4) New London and Middletown; (5) West Connecticut.
DE:  (1) Delaware.
DC:  (1) City of Washington.
FL:  (1) Altamonte Springs; (2) Coral Springs and Boca Raton; (3) Daytona and Sanford; (4) Fort Lauderdale; (5) Fort Myers; (6) Fort Pierce and Vero Beach; (7) Hialeah and North Miami; ( Hollywood and Plantation; (9) Jacksonville; (10) Kendall; (11) Lakeland and Kissimmee; (12) Melbourne and Titusville; (13) Miami; (14) Mid Dade; (15) North Florida; (16) Orlando; (17) Palm Beach; (18) Pensacola; (19) Saint Johns Valley; (20) Saint Petersburg; (21) Sarasota and Punta Gorda; (22) Spring Hill and Bayonet Point; (23) Tallahassee and Panama City; (24) Tampa; (25) Tampa Bay North.

[kcguy]

GA:  (1) Atlanta; (2) Atlanta De Kalb; (3) East Georgia; (4) Forest Park and Monroe; (5) Gwinnett; (6) Mid Georgia; (7) North East Georgia; ( North West Georgia; (9) Roswell and Marietta; (10) Smyrna and Carrollton; (11) South East Georgia; (12) South West Georgia; (13) West Georgia.
HI:  (1) East Hawaii; (2) West Hawaii.
ID:  (1) North Idaho; (2) South Idaho.
IL:  (1) Aurora and Crystal Lake; (2) Belleville and Alton; (3) Chicago Central; (4) Chicago North; (5) Chicago North West; (6) Chicago South; (7) Chicago South East; ( Chicago South West; (9) Chicago West; (10) East Illinois; (11) Illinois Valley and Kankakee; (12) Mid Illinois; (13) Naperville and Orland Park; (14) North Illinois; (15) North West Illinois; (16) Schaumburg; (17) South Illinois; (18) Waukegan; (19) Wheaton.
IN:  (1) East Indiana; (2) Gary; (3) Indianapolis North; (4) Indianapolis South; (5) North East Indiana; (6) South Bend and Elkhart; (7) South Indiana; ( South West Indiana; (9) West Indiana.
IA:  (1) Des Moines; (2) East Iowa; (3) North East Iowa; (4) South East Iowa; (5) West Iowa.
KS:  (1) East Kansas; (2) Overland Park; (3) West Kansas; (4) Wichita and Winfield.
KY:  (1) Bowling Green and Elizabethtown; (2) Covington and Frankfort; (3) East Kentucky; (4) Lexington and Richmond; (5) Louisville; (6) West Kentucky.
LA:  (1) Baton Rouge; (2) Monroe and Alexandria; (3) New Orleans East; (4) New Orleans West; (5) North West Louisiana; (6) South Louisiana; (7)    South West Louisiana.
ME:  (1) Bangor and Augusta; (2) South Maine.
MD:  (1) Baltimore; (2) Dundalk and Bel Air; (3) Ellicott City and Towson; (4) Germantown and Hagerstown; (5) Howard and Annapolis; (6) Prince George's; (7) Saint Charles and Salisbury; ( Silver Spring.
MA:  (1) Barnstable and Plymouth; (2) Boston; (3) Cambridge; (4) Framingham and Leominster; (5) Lowell and Lawrence; (6) Lynn and Haverhill; (7) New Bedford and Brockton; ( Pioneer Valley and Pittsfield; (9) Quincy and Brookline; (10) Worcester and Amherst.
MI:  (1) Ann Arbor and Monroe; (2) Detroit East; (3) Detroit South; (4) Detroit West; (5) Flint; (6) Grand Rapids; (7) Kalamazoo and Benton Harbor; ( Lansing; (9) Macomb; (10) Muskegon and Holland; (11) North Michigan; (12) Saginaw; (13) South Michigan; (14) Southfield and Pontiac; (15) Troy and Port Huron.
MN:  (1) Brooklyn Park and Coon Rapids; (2) Duluth and Elk River; (3) Eagan and Woodbury; (4) Minneapolis East and Saint Paul; (5) Minneapolis West; (6) North West Minnesota; (7) South East Minnesota; ( South West Minnesota.

[kcguy]

MS:  (1) Jackson and Vicksburg; (2) Mid Mississippi; (3) North Mississippi; (4) South East Mississippi.
MO:  (1) Cape Girardeau and Poplar Bluff; (2) Florissant and Kirkwood; (3) Kansas City North and Saint Joseph; (4) Kansas City South; (5) Mid Missouri; (6) North East Missouri; (7) Saint Charles and Wildwood; ( Saint Louis; (9) South West Missouri.
MT:  (1) Montana.
NE:  (1) East Nebraska; (2) Omaha; (3) West Nebraska.
NV:  (1) Henderson; (2) Las Vegas; (3) Reno and Carson City.
NH:  (1) Manchester and Portsmouth; (2) North and West New Hampshire.
NJ:  (1) Camden; (2) Edison; (3) Hackensack; (4) Jersey City; (5) Long Branch; (6) Mid Jersey; (7) Newark; ( Paterson; (9) Toms River and Mercer; (10) Trenton; (11) Union and Irvington; (12) Vineland and Atlantic City; (13) West Milford and Morristown.
NM:  (1) North East New Mexico; (2) North West New Mexico; (3) South New Mexico.
NY:  (1) Albany; (2) Binghamton and Cortland; (3) Brentwood; (4) Bronx North; (5) Bronx South; (6) Brooklyn East; (7) Brooklyn North; ( Brooklyn South; (9) Buffalo; (10) Coram; (11) Elmira and the Finger Lakes; (12) Hempstead; (13) Levittown; (14) Manhattan North; (15) Manhattan South; (16) Newburgh and Stony Point; (17) Poughkeepsie and Kingston; (18) Queens Central; (19) Queens East; (20) Queens West; (21) Rochester; (22) Saratoga and Champlain; (23) Southern Tier and Batavia; (24) Staten Island Ferry; (25) Syracuse; (26) Tonawanda and Niagara; (27) Utica and Saint Lawrence; (28) White Plains; (29) Yonkers.
NC:  (1) Charlotte East and Monroe; (2) Charlotte West; (3) Durham and Sanford; (4) Fayetteville and Lumberton; (5) Greensboro and Burlington; (6) Hickory and Statesville; (7) Kannapolis and Asheboro; ( North Carolina Coastal; (9) North Carolina Lowlands; (10) North Carolina Mountains; (11) Onslow; (12) Raleigh; (13) Winston Salem and Lexington.
ND:  (1) North Dakota.
OH:  (1) Akron; (2) Canton; (3) Cincinnati; (4) Cleveland East; (5) Cleveland West; (6) Columbus North; (7) Columbus South; ( Dayton East and Springfield; (9) Dayton West and Middletown; (10) East Ohio; (11) Hamilton; (12) Lorain; (13) Mentor and Ashtabula; (14) North Ohio; (15) South Ohio; (16) Toledo and Bowling Green; (17) West Ohio; (18) Youngstown.
OK:  (1) East Oklahoma; (2) Norman and Ardmore; (3) Oklahoma City; (4) Tulsa; (5) West Oklahoma.
OR:  (1) Beaverton; (2) East Oregon and Clackamas; (3) Portland; (4) South West Oregon; (5) West Oregon.

[kcguy]

PA:  (1) Allentown; (2) Bucks; (3) Greensburg; (4) Harrisburg and York; (5) Lancaster and Lebanon; (6) Mid Pennsylvania; (7) Norristown; ( North Pennsylvania; (9) North West Pennsylvania; (10) Philadelphia Central; (11) Philadelphia North; (12) Philadelphia West; (13) Pittsburgh North; (14) Pittsburgh South; (15) Pottstown and West Chester; (16) Schuylkill and Lehigh; (17) Scranton; (18) South Pennsylvania; (19) West Pennsylvania.
RI:  (1) Providence; (2) Warwick and Newport.
SC:  (1) Columbia and Sumter; (2) Florence and Myrtle Beach; (3) Greenville and Anderson; (4) Savannah and Saluda Valleys; (5) South Carolina Lowlands; (6) South Carolina Uplands.
SD:  (1) South Dakota.
TN:  (1) Chattanooga and Cleveland; (2) East Tennessee; (3) Kingsport and Morristown; (4) Knoxville; (5) Memphis; (6) Nashville North and Cumberland Valley; (7) Nashville South and Murfreesboro; ( South West Tennessee; (9) West Tennessee.
TX:  (1) Arlington North; (2) Arlington South; (3) Austin North; (4) Austin South and San Marcos; (5) Beaumont and Lufkin; (6) Brownsville and McAllen; (7) Bryan and Conroe; ( Corpus Christi and Victoria; (9) Dallas East; (10) Dallas North; (11) Dallas West; (12) Denton; (13) East Texas; (14) El Paso; (15) Fort Worth and Weatherford; (16) Galveston Bay; (17) Houston East; (18) Houston North; (19) Houston North West; (20) Houston South; (21) Houston West; (22) Laredo and Mission; (23) North East Texas; (24) North West Texas; (25) Plano; (26) San Antonio Central; (27) San Antonio East and New Braunfels; (28) San Antonio West and Nueces Valley; (29) South West Texas; (30) Sugar Land; (31) Waco and Temple; (32) West Texas.
UT:  (1) Provo and Saint George; (2) Salt Lake and Ogden; (3) West Valley City.
VT:  (1) Vermont.
VA:  (1) Fairfax; (2) Henrico and Fredericksburg; (3) Manassas; (4) Mid Virginia; (5) Newport News and Petersburg; (6) Norfolk and Hampton; (7) Potomac Valley; ( Richmond; (9) South Virginia; (10) Trans-Appalachian Virginia; (11) Virginia Beach.
WA:  (1) Bellevue; (2) Everett; (3) Federal Way; (4) Seattle; (5) Spokane and Walla Walla; (6) Tacoma and Olympia; (7) Vancouver and Longview; ( Washington Inlets; (9) Yakima and Kennewick.
WV:  (1) Kanawha Valley and Parkersburg; (2) West Virginia Panhandles; (3) West Virginia South.
WI:  (1) East Wisconsin; (2) Madison; (3) Mid Wisconsin; (4) Milwaukee North; (5) Milwaukee South and Kenosha; (6) North East Wisconsin; (7) North West Wisconsin; ( Waukesha and Janesville.
WY:  (1) Wyoming.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Do you have the program? I'd love to have a spin at it.

[kcguy]

Do you have the program? I'd love to have a spin at it.

It's an Access file, with a Visual Basic program.  I'm not sure that it's very user-friendly.  I'll message you my e-mail address, and you can let me know how to transmit it.  It's probably too big for an e-mail attachment.

[Plate]

MI:  (1) Ann Arbor and Monroe; (2) Detroit East; (3) Detroit South; (4) Detroit West; (5) Flint; (6) Grand Rapids; (7) Kalamazoo and Benton Harbor; ( Lansing; (9) Macomb; (10) Muskegon and Holland; (11) North Michigan; (12) Saginaw; (13) South Michigan; (14) Southfield and Pontiac; (15) Troy and Port Huron.

Are the names sorted in alphabetical order? I hope so because the Michigan law says that district 1 shall be in the northwest corner of the state and the highest numbered one in the southeast corner.

[politicallefty]

When there are multiple names do you want the British system with "and" or the Canadian system with "-". It's confusing to see both in the same list. You can also specify how names that are subdivisions of big cities are specified - do you mention the city or not. Compare Central Park to NYC Central Park or Manhattan Central Park, following the style of Vancouver Quadra.

I'm partial to the Canadian system myself. To be honest, when I've drawn fair maps, I try to think of how they could be named. Obviously, there will be some districts that don't have obvious names (typically large rural leftovers). From what I've gathered, I think we're mostly on the same page when it comes to general disdain for partisan gerrymandering. As for the latter, for a city like New York, I would lean more towards borough names over county/city names (though NYC is fairly unique in its organization).

To anyone that may be more knowledgeable in terms of law than I am, is there anything that establishes that congressional districts have numbers instead of names or is it just convention? Would there be anything stopping a state from naming their districts instead of numbering them?

I think Massachusetts is the closest to naming districts, sort of hybridizing numbering and the British system.

[AN63093]

Suggestion- the names should be ones that locals would actually use.

Let's take NY for example (just using this as an example since I'm a NYC native).  Not trying to pick on people here, but some of these names are not ones that locals would ever use.  For example, NY-12- no one calls this area "Queensboro."  People only use that word when they're referring to the bridge itself.  Likewise, no one says "Manhattan East" or "Manhattan West."  When people refer to each half of Manhattan, they say "West Side" or "East Side," (or if adjacent to Central Park), "Upper West Side" and "Upper East Side."  Road signs use those terms too, so it's not just a colloquial thing.  When people go north in Manhattan, they'll say "I'm going uptown" (or "downtown" if heading south).  Nobody says "Manhattan North."  If people are going to a specific neighborhood in Uptown Manhattan, they'll say it ("I'm going to my friend's place in Washington Heights.")

Or take VA for another example.  In the Tidewater/Hampton Roads area, nobody says "Tidewater South" (or north).  That's not a thing.  My suggestions for the region would be:

VA-2: VA Beach
VA-3: Norfolk
VA-4: Richmond

(these are using the new VA boundaries)


Here are some NYC suggestions:

NY-5: Jamaica
NY-6: Queens
NY-7: Brooklyn
NY-8: Bedford-Stuyvesant/Canarsie (would also work- East New York)
NY-9: Flatbush
NY-10: Manhattan- West Side
NY-11: Staten Island
NY-12: Manhattan- East Side
NY-13: Harlem (or maybe "Upper Manhattan" since it also contains Inwood, Wash Heights etc)
NY-14: East Bronx/Queens (would also work- Pelham)
NY-15: South Bronx


Some explanations:

NY-6 is Queens since it contains a lot of the quintessential Queens neighborhoods (Kew Gardens, Forest Hills, Flushing, etc), and no one defining neighborhood.  Same thing for NY-7, since all the "quintessential" Brooklyn neighborhoods are there- Bklyn Heights, Williamsburg, Park Slope, Cobble Hill, etc.  NY-10 and 12 are hard since they have random pieces of Brooklyn and Queens in them, but I went with Manhattan for two reasons- first, it's the most defining characteristic of the district, and second, for brevity ("NY-12: Manhattan-East Side/Astoria/Long Island City" is too cumbersome).  

NY-14 is the hardest to name I think, since it has large sections of two boroughs and those two sections are very different.  Maybe you could do East Bronx/Jackson Heights or Pelham/Queens, to differentiate it from the other Queens district.

[kcguy]

MI:  (1) Ann Arbor and Monroe; (2) Detroit East; (3) Detroit South; (4) Detroit West; (5) Flint; (6) Grand Rapids; (7) Kalamazoo and Benton Harbor; ( Lansing; (9) Macomb; (10) Muskegon and Holland; (11) North Michigan; (12) Saginaw; (13) South Michigan; (14) Southfield and Pontiac; (15) Troy and Port Huron.

Are the names sorted in alphabetical order? I hope so because the Michigan law says that district 1 shall be in the northwest corner of the state and the highest numbered one in the southeast corner.

Yes, I just did everything in alphabetical order, because it saved me having to decide on a particular order.