This D.C. suburb may soon be America's worst-named neighborhood

CC by: Mike Procario

This D.C. suburb may soon be America's worst-named neighborhood
(Image credit: CC by: Mike Procario)

You can probably blame New York's SoHo neighborhood, then TriBeCa, maybe even DUMBO for starting the convention of cutely naming parts of cities by describing where they fit on the map (South of Houston, Triangle Below Canal, and Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass, respectively). By now, most major U.S. cities have their own versions — in Austin, there's SoCo (South Congress), for example. Locals roll their eyes, then start using the new name, usually encouraged by real estate interests.

At some point this will all go too far, and that moment may be arriving in outside-the-Beltway Maryland. The Washington, D.C., suburb now called White Flint or North Bethesda is casting about for a new identity, The Washington Post reports, and among top contenders like Pike Corridor and the Slate District is this little number: NeBeSoRo (North Bethesda South Rockville). If you like the name, or hate the area, you can write it in on this poll. Don't write in "The Rocksy," though, says The Post's Katherine Shaver. That "was deemed 'fun but too cute,' one developer said." Unlike, apparently, NeBeSoRo.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.