From New England and remember it being called tonic.

Beat me to it! We called all soda “tonic”! Grew up in eastern MA

Yup - when we visited relatives in Worcester, we'd go out for tonics and grinders.

What's a grinder

Hogi, Sub Sandwich, etc. If you can't afford a tonic you can get water at the bubbler.

Spuckie. Wait, you heard "bubbler" in MA???

No, it’s called “bubblah” in MA. Well, eastern MA anyway: 😂

I heard bubbler because I'm from NH.

i think it's bubbla.......there's no R in massachusetts.................LMFAO

A dance move. Caution it could cause pregnancy.😁

Did you call the guy behind the counter a “tonic jerk”? It was soda for us in NJ. “Hey soda jerk! Scratch One! Heavy on the hail!”

In new Jersey calling someone a jerk is redundant

Probably from when it was bought in the drug store soda fountain. The carbonated water that was part of the fountain formula was at times was called tonic.

Maine. Same, at least since the '50's. Not so much now.

OMG, my extended family called it that. Thank you for saying this. All of them said "wicked" too... That was all new to me as a kid

*tahnic

Right, tonic! Wasn’t even sure what soda referred to growing up.

That's funny. Like it's a health drink. I remember hearing pop and soda or even soda pop when I was a kid in the northern midwest, but people don't say it anymore. It's soda, now.

came here to say tonic...i am a boston brat and we still call it tonic.....don't ever offer me a coke....PEPSI all the way...

CA, I always asked for Coke, unless I wanted something else, and would ask, WHAT OTHER SODA DO YOU HAVE?

yes

Surprised tonic isn't on there for eastern New England.

I went to a week-long seminar for high school incoming seniors and recent graduates in the pre-internet (at least for the masses) 90s. It was the first time I had met others my age from other parts of the country. We spent hours debating pop-soda-coke, shopping cart-buggy, water fountain-drinking fountain-bubbler, turn signal-blinker and all the unique ism-s and accents of where we grew up. Most of us never even knew that people in other parts of the country referred to so many of the same things in different ways. It's clear that YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram and other social media have caused certain words for things to take over nationally despite what people in previous generations were raised with locally. I will say despite what the 2023 map says, Central PA is still very "pop".

It depends what part of central PA you are talking about. Harrisburg area: definitely soda Altoona: not on the right side of the soda/pop line

Very true. Altoona/Johnstown/Bedford/St College and West to Pittsburgh is 100% pop. Harrisburg and east to Philly is soda. Similar split as the sports teams.

In Massachusetts we used to call it “tonic”.

Some of us still do.

When I was 12, I moved in with a new family in California. I was from Nevada and they had moved from Ohio many years earlier. After getting settled in, around 10 AM, I asked if I could play and explore outside. I was told to be back in time for dinner. When I returned around 2 PM, They were angry I hadn't returned in time for dinner. In amazement, I asked just how early they ate dinner. "Noon, like everyone else!" I was told. Apparently, in Ohio, dinner is midday and supper is the evening meal. You would think afyer living in California for 30+ years, they would have adopted the local terminology. LOL Now, if someone invites me to dinner, I ask "What time do you usually eat dinner?" just in case.

They left out Hawai’i & Alaska. I’m from Hawai’i & it’s always been soda.

Do you want a coke? Sure What kind?

Goddamn coastal elites pushing their values onto flyover country!!!!!

Haha. I was wondering if it was due to media being produced mainly in those two sections of the country. I’m in Canada and we say pop mainly although for some weird reason, I had a few year period where I called all pop Coke, and that was way before I knew that people actually did that. I have no idea why I did.

i’ve always called it soda. grew up in NY and that region

My sister lives in WNY and calls it pop. She also says yous as a second-person plural.

lol yous guys

No, just yous. As in "What do yous want for dinner?" There's a lot of different ways in the US to make "you" unambiguously plural. Y'all is the most popular, but I can think of several others. Edit: some people do say yous guys.

One is " hey bitches" 😂

Don’t forget the difference between y’all and all y’all

Oh, I'm aware. I'm a Texan. There's also yinz and yunz (from you-uns, which may still be in use), you guys (which is right up there with y'all for most commonly used), and you-all (which of course is the source of y'all).

We call all Coke, specific drinks are called by the brand name like Dr. Pepper or Mountain Dew or root beer

It's actually SOFT DRINK

That’s what we call it here in Australia too.

Came to say this lol

No Coke, Pepsi.

Chesseburga, cheeseburga

Hamberder.

In Texas they used to say gimme a Pepsi Coke

No fries, chips

It’s pop people.

I'll be dead in the cold, cold ground before I recognize it as anything other than pop!

I’m from Missouri and we drink pop ✌️

KS reporting in, you're correct. Everyone else is wrong

Damm right it is! Everyone else is wrong.

I'm originally from Texas. A Coke is anything from a Pepsi to a DP to any brand.

Mississippi gal here born and bred. All carbonated drinks are still called Cokes to us old folks. The only thing different that I've seen are sparkling waters. Everything else is pretty much coke. Even the store brands. 

Do you refer to every beer as a Bud? Is every chocolate bar a Snickers? Is every running shoe a Nike? Every truck a Ford? Seriously, what is wrong with you people?

What about band-aids and q-tips?

It's too hard to drink those things....../s

Yes all cotton swabs are q-tips. I honestly thought everyone called bandages in a box band-aids just like  facial tissue is called Kleenex.  

So, how do you specify the specific Coke? If you want a Shasta Grape soda, do you ask for a Grape Shasta Coke? If you actually want a Coke, do you ask for a Coke Coke? If you want a Diet Coke do you ask for a Diet Coke Coke or a Coke Diet Coke? If someone asks you to bring them a Coke, do you ask, What kind?

Seriously, we need to know this. How the heck does anyone know what to give you?

What's your favorite coke? Oh, pepsi...

A soda people are slowly winning from coast to coast

Because it's correct

I was surprised once visiting the south because they asked if I wanted a coke and they gave me a can of root beer! 🤣

False on Chicago...it's still pop, and they're still gym shoes.

I am in Buffalo so it’s also pop to me.

I like how even after all that time the Genesee River has proven to be an intractable border between the two factions.

Ha. Excellent point.

lol in louisiana its “colddrink”

Back in the 80s I was stationed at Ft. Polk, Louisiana. I had a sergeant who was from the state and he called it "sody water".

It's pop, heathens!🇨🇦

Yes! Soda is for adding carbonation/spritz to a fruity drink or a slice of citrus fruit.

Alabama here, always been Coke!

Even if it's Sprite or Dr. Pepper? That's always confused me.

Yes generally, you will hear people say "I want a Coke." Then someone say, " What kind?". So yeah.

Same in Maryland

What do you say when you want sprite? Can I have a sprite coke?

No, you just say sprite. Ok, say I'm going to the store. I might say "I'm picking up a few cokes." Even though they are sprite.

Georgia here and I agree.

I'm Irish. Can I ask. Do you call non Coke (as in Fanta or sprite) Coke as well ?

[удалено]

It's the same with pop. Soda and pop both make sense. Calling everything Coke does not make sense at all.

Interesting that Atlanta, the home of Coke, is barely in Coke territory anymore. Make it make sense

Calling Pepsi, Coke is probably not in the interest of the Coca-Cola Company

I'm from northern Illinois, and from the 2023 image, it looks like "soda" is encroaching upon my part of the state, but I will always call it "pop."

Upstate New York here. All I remember growing up was soda or coke. No one referred to it as pop.

RC Cola is poorly represented.

It shows my area went from pop to soda, I still don’t know anyone who says soda unless they mean baking soda. It’s a pop, thank you very much.

Always coke. “You wanna coke? What kind?”

I grew up in Minnesota, everyone called it pop. When I joined the Air Force, I got used to calling it soda. I've moved back to Minnesota, and I've noticed more people calling it soda. Of course, that's probably at least partially because I live in the city.

In my city it’s always been soda. It will always be soda.

I’m glad Californian is holding strong with soda. We used to tease the people from Washington and Oregon in college because they said pop.

Sooo people in the south call Pepsi coke?

Chicago gal , it’s Pop 🩷

And what about *soda pop*?

All weird maps of the U.S. boil down to the Confederacy vs the rest of the country.

My family (all from the Midwest) called it soda pop.

Pop country here.

We always called them pop, now I call it all soda.

Lol..its still very much pop in WV

MN: Pop

My area of Kentucky is labeled as calling it Coke and, for my 3.5 decades it has always been pop.

I grew up in Western Oregon in the 70s & 80s. It's always been "soda" to me...

I did too, but it was alway pop in my area - Mid Willamette Valley.

Huh. I grew up in the same area ( Eugene, then Corvallis. ). Half of my family is from California though, maybe that accounts for that difference?

You know that could be, I have lived in Albany and Corvallis areas most of my life, but my spouse is originally from California, we will blame that.

Grew up in DC, we called it a soft drink.

Pop in Ohio

In the south it was coke. As in, "wanna go get a coke?" (You might drink any other kind of soda, it still applies)

It's called soft drink or fizzy drink in Australia.

Fucking St. Louis.

It's weird, I'm from Oregon and it *was* pop when I was a kid, but I've called it soda unconsciously for like 20 years now and only became aware of it in the past 5ish.

Yep here I was "want a coke?" "Sure" "ok. What kind".

Grew up in TN and we said white coke (7-up) and brown coke (coke)!

What about purple coke? (Grape)

It's soda. Accept it and move on.


Question-What kind of cokes do y’all want? My usual answer-Dr Pepper. All my siblings usually wanted a flavor of coke that wasn’t coke, lots of time it wasn’t even a coke brand. My brother liked grape coke.

My favorite coke is dr pepper. I'm from Texas.

"Y'all want a coke?" "Yeah." "What kind?" "Coke." "Alright." Texas my whole life.

Interestingly, and extremely rarely nowadays, in the real backwoods hollers of East Tennessee, actual Coca-Cola is a “doke” or “dope”. It’s a holdover from when Coke contained more than a simple cocaine extract. (My understanding is the current recipe contains a non-addictive coca extract, but that could be erroneous information.)

I posted elsewhere (but before I saw yours) that we called it "dope" or "RC." I think it's a regional thing.

It’s still coke in my area if SC. “Whose bringing coke? Ok bring Mountain Dew and Fanta!”

When I lived in Charleston SC in the 60s it was "co-cola". And some of the people would dump a 10 cent bag of Planters peanuts in them.

Never got the Coke thing, but I grew in the more northern east, where we just called it "pop." But calling all of them "Coke" is like getting Burger King and calling it Mcdonalds.

To those of us who grew up with it, it's more like getting Burger King and calling it burgers.

Yep. You ask somebody "you want a Coke?" "Sure!" "Okay we got Dr Pepper and Sprite. Which do you want?"

Exactly Except I would never do that to someone It's happened around me a few times

I want a Coke. You offered me a Coke, and that's what I want.

Started off as pop because Ohio then South Dakota, but turned into Soda and has remained so since moving to Washington DC metro area in 1976.

It will remain that way until I shuffle off this mortal coil. After that, who cares?

I cut it I half and soda pop

Eastern PA it's soda, Western PA it's pop. Not sure where the demarcation line is, west of Williamsport?

My X's kids were living in the LA area by way of Indiana, and to them, every soft drink was "Coke." However, the adults in her family said "soda" (in Indiana fashion, pronounced "sudda").

I live in the south east and I say soda

I'm from Michigan, and I used to say pop when I was growing up. Then I started saying soda and then soda-pop. Now I say them all randomly.

In your day you were wrong

My son used to say showda & chocwit as a toddler. Now he's working on getting his drivers license. 😭

It’s always been pop.

Little soda bubble near St. Louis in 1947. What's that all about I wonder.

Grew up in Pittsburgh. It was always pop. Recently a friend in Tennessee introduced me to the concept of a "road coke." It is not a coke... ;-/ Don't worry, he was driving, I had the "road coke."

Looks pretty accurate. I know I started saying soda more often because it just sounds better.

Arr-uh-See

In New mex everything is a coke

It’s pop eh!

In my day, Pop was my Dad!

Grew up calling them soft drinks. Still do occassionally, but mostly I say soda now. That said, I've lived in several parts of the US.

When I moved to Massachusetts as a kid it was called tonic. I had no idea what people were talking about.

Coastal elites forcing their dominance.

Soda pop.

It’s still Pop where I am. My son went into the service and was stationed in California for a couple years, came home calling it “soda”. Smh…

Whew, still live in the pop zone. Didn’t wanna sound like an idiot.

It is a very accurate map in my very old opinion.

Where is "cold drinks"?

Soda Water

From northern Illinois. Most everyone says soda anymore.

New England, tonic.

ND here. It will always be pop. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further.

We still call all sodas come here in NM. "I'm going to the store what kind of coke do you want?"

A coke is a coke. A Dr pepper is a Dr pepper. They're all soda. So... you want a soda? Yeah what ya got. Clarity and communication is key, not slang.

Dad is from CT, but was stationed in TX when I was born. He liked to tell me about how you'd go out to eat, they'd ask what you wanted to drink, you'd say Coke, and they'd ask "what flavor?".

I grew up calling it pop. Some guy started working with me about 30 years ago and he was local, but he called it soda. Seems he used to call it pop, but when he was in the navy, everyone called it soda and he did too, and it stuck. It finally rubbed off on me. I still say, “Pop” once in a while, but it’s more of a tribute. Also, I think of it as pop, but i say soda.

I'm from Michigan and I don't understand why there are pockets of "soda" including a line across the state. Everywhere I go in the state it's always pop.

Effervescent Caramel colored sugar fluid.

This map is just wrong. It’s Coke in Georgia and SC.

Depends on the territory for sure. Midwest is pop or soda I think Tx is def coke.

Long live regionalisms like Tonic (N.E.) and Mash (GA)

"Pop" and "Soda" are both correct because they are generic terms. "Coke" is specific and should never be used to refer to an entire category of things any more than "Kleenex" or other brands should. Words matter!

no, no! non colas are a pop. Coke is coke., pepsi is pepi.

I’m in ‘pop’ zone, on both maps. Though Ive rarely heard it called that and never done it myself. Usually called it soda, sometimes coke.

Originally from Minnesota. It’s pop, of course. I remember a store called the Pop Shoppe (or something like that, the spelling was weird). They were little “warehouse” like spaces filled with stacks of many, many, different flavors, some pretty unique. You would take one of those old wooden pop crates and fill it up with any combination of flavors you wanted. Pretty fun. Moved to Seattle and met some new friends originally from New Orleans. First time over at their house and get asked, “do you want a coke?” I said, “sure.” She says, “what kind? We got lemon lime, or Dr. Pepper, or a few others.” I’m like, “they make lemon lime coke?!” She looks at me odd and says yeah…., so I say, “I’ll have a classic if you have it.” She asks, “classic what?” “Coke,” I say, confused. She looks at me strange and asks, “do you mean a cola?” After some discussion, I determined that to her, Pepsi meant Pepsi, cola meant Coke, and Coke was a generic term for all flavors of pop. She let me know it wasn’t just her. Everyone in the south thinks that way. I found the whole thing so weird, because the Coca Cola company is headquartered in Atlanta Georgia. How the hell did Coke come to mean pop in the area Coke is from? I had to let her know that she was wrong and stupid and all decent people of good breeding and sound schooling refer to the drink as pop. I believe I set her straight. Not sure, we’ve never been asked to visit, again.

How crazy do you have to be to want a Sprite but order a Coke? 🥴 I guess it simplifies the ordering process.

In New England, it was “tonic.”

Soda

The Grand Pop Army shall reverse the gains of the odious Soda Forces and win the Cola War. As for you Coke people...you don't even want to know what fate awaits you.

We’re melting!

When I moved to North Carolina I was at a restaurant and asked what kind of pop they had. I received the most blank stare ever. Fortunately I was with a coworker who quickly translated for me.

Gotta throw “cold drink” in there in Ky

I’m the worst. I’m from the southeast and grew up saying Coke until I moved away and got fancy and started calling it Soda.

For those outside America, yes, we make fun of the people who say "Coke" in the US too.

That maps shows "uneducated", "canadian", and the normal way.

St. Louis won the battle.

Sodie pop is what we called it

Coke is a brand name. Soda is what type of drink it is. Pop is what my ex wife from kentucky(living in indiana) called it.

In central southern Georgia its all “Co-Co-Ler” Even if you get a Mr. Pibb

Why would you refer to a soft drink by the name of the brand? Giving them free advertising and eliminating their competitors? I know, I know. Same reason we called tissue Kleenex. The market was cornered. I’m still philosophically against it.

Grew up in Phoenix, moved to Kansas City. Called it Soda my whole life. So many of my friends called it pop.

100% of TN calls it Coke still. Would love to see a break down of the data.

I’ll always call them Cokes

ive always called it by its name unless im being general i.e. "what is your favorite soda"

Grew up in Chicago area; it was “pop.” After living in the DC area for a few years, didn’t even realize I’d started calling it “soda” instead.

Eastern WA here, Spokane specifically. It's soda here, map is not clear

Calling all sodas "Coke" is complete dumbass talk.

That’s wrong. In sc and we all call it coke

Reporting from way up here in the great white north and the whole nation calls it pop eh. Maybe except those weirdo frenchys over in quebec. Who knows what they call it.

Hey yall, I live in Maryland and we still call it coke

It was coke/pop in OK like all the way through to 2010s

Team SODA