A proper name for the American South?

NKVD

The South never really had a proper name (like New England). "The South" isn't really a good name for a region, and Dixie is sort of a fanciful name. Your challenge is to come up with a proper name for the region commonly referred to as the American South.

Doesn't have to be a POD or anything. Just come up with a proper name for the South. Like, something a Southern republic could call itself, "Republic of..." That kind of thing.
 

Zuvarq

Southeastern United States.

Deep South.

Southern US.

XNM said:
Like, something a Southern republic could call itself, "Republic of..." That kind of thing.
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Dixie :p.

Or Southern America.

Or just America, like the OTL Confederate States of America.
 

Superman

I like "Dixie", but that seems to represent the Deep South, like Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, more than places like, say, Texas or Virginia.
 

Maniakes

With an early enough POD, "Virginia" could encompass the entire South. With a somewhat later POD, "Carolina" could encompass the Deep South, with Virgina referring to the Border South.
 
FleetMac

FleetMac

One idea I've heard is "Dixiana", which while referring to the Deep South, is twisted enough to be "expanded" to the Upper South and/or Texas too since it's basically "kinda-Dixie". The etymology might be kinda phoned in, but I've heard of stranger titles. Virginia and/or Carolina can work too, as mentioned already, depending on the POD. And if the regional implications can be overcome, perhaps "Mississippi" (referring to the whole watershed, not just immediately adjacent to same) or "Appalachia" (since the Appalachian Mountains run from West Virginia all the way to northern Georgia and Alabama).
 

danwild6

I like Virginia for the South with Otl Virginia renamed Powahatten. Arcadia for the Mid-atlantic states would be nice too.
 

Kaptin Kurk

Banned
Dixie is probably best. Yes, there are variations. But basically, Dixie encompasses it. I say this as and American.
 
FleetMac

FleetMac

danwild6 said:
I like Virginia for the South with Otl Virginia renamed Powahatten. Arcadia for the Mid-atlantic states would be nice too.
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Powhatan is a good one, another is Roanoake (since the majority of the river IIRC runs thru Virginia) or Shenandoah. I'd thought Chesapeake could work too but Maryland uses that as well. And if Carolina is used for the whole South, then Pamlico and Santee IMO can work for North and South Carolina, respectively.

EDIT: Assuming that Dixie is the name chosen, would that make the name for Southerners "Dixians"? I mean, "Southron" works fine in relation to North America, but not so well compared to Australia or even Mexico.
 

Will Kürlich Kerl

Banned
Superman said:
I like "Dixie", but that seems to represent the Deep South, like Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, more than places like, say, Texas or Virginia.
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With an early enough POD, Texas and Virginia might not be considered as the "South." Then, Dixie will be a fitting name for the remainder states.
 

Superman

The two sides would probably just call themselves "Americans". We Northerners would call the Southerners "Dixies", and they would probably call us "Yankees". That's how I see it working, anyways. If the South isn't Dixie, it's probably not going to be anything other than "America". Same for the North, but with "New England" instead of "Dixie"
 
FleetMac

FleetMac

Will Kürlich Kerl said:
With an early enough POD, Texas and Virginia might not be considered as the "South." Then, Dixie will be a fitting name for the remainder states.
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The problem is, for the South to be recognizable according to the OP, at least one of those two will have to be there, otherwise it wouldn't be much alike the Southern US at all. These two states were/are important portions of the region, after all, and act well as markers of the South's edges.

And Superman, I agree that it'd be a "Yankee/Dixie"-American split. However, my curiosity is how they'd be called OUTSIDE of North America (Great Britain, Mexico, France, etc.), from an Old World/foreign perspective.
 

Kishan

It is not just the South that does not possess a proper name. The USA itself, as a country does not have a proper name. One single word like Canada, Mexico, Brazil or Argentina to identify it which is unique and no others can claim it as theirs also. The word "America" is shared by two continents as well, and USA has no monopoly of it. The word "United States" is not a proper name, but an adjective like "United Kingdom","People's Republic", or "Bundesrepublic".
 
FleetMac

FleetMac

Kishan said:
It is not just the South that does not possess a proper name. The USA itself, as a country does not have a proper name. One single word like Canada, Mexico, Brazil or Argentina to identify it which is unique and no others can claim it as theirs also. The word "America" is shared by two continents as well, and USA has no monopoly of it. The word "United States" is not a proper name, but an adjective like "United Kingdom","People's Republic", or "Bundesrepublic".
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And there we may disagree, since the USA was the first fully independent nation in the New World (Native countries notwithstanding, who wouldn't care for being called American anyway), and was therefore able to name itself whatever it wanted before anybody else; as such, AFAIC the US has "dibs" on the name. It's as legitimate a claim as any other in the west that I've seen, and the coining of the word itself was purely an accident after all. Although ISTR that "Alleghania" or "Appalachia" was floated as possible alternatives to America in the writing of the Constitution and other documents.

But getting back to the point, there's portions of the US that can claim a true place name, such as New England, Texas, California, Louisiana, etc. The issue is finding one that applies to the Southeast, which is hard to do right.
 
iori

iori

XNM said:
The South never really had a proper name (like New England). "The South" isn't really a good name for a region, and Dixie is sort of a fanciful name.
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It does'nt since in general America has never really developed regionalisms, I mean when you look at it nearly all of the regions in the U.S. are named after where they are; Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-West, South-West, Pacific North West etc., while the regions with proper names like New England and Appalachia re in the minority and are the result of having developed uniquely early on and/or being isolated.

To answer the question though, well Dixie really is the best choice, historically, as hs been mentioned Virginia could've been used had history gone differently and the Commonwealth of Virginia had a diferent name, as at one point it was used to refer to a larger region, but beyond that you need to go back pretty early to establish a usable name.

As a last, semi-humorous note, 'Southeria' could be a candidate.
 
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Zimmerwald1915

Banned
Iori said:
To answer the question though, well Dixie really is the best choice, historically, as hs been mentioned Virginia could've been used had history gone differently and the State of Virginia had a diferent name, as at one point it was used to refer to a larger region, but beyond that you need to go back pretty early to establish a usable name.
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What, technically speaking, is the problem with referring to Virginia, or even Maryland and Delaware, as part of Dixie? Does not that name refer to the portion of the United States south of the Mason-Dixon Line?
 
iori

iori

Zimmerwald1915 said:
What, technically speaking, is the problem with referring to Virginia, or even Maryland and Delaware, as part of Dixie? Does not that name refer to the portion of the United States south of the Mason-Dixon Line?
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Deleware is North of the Mason-Dixon line (though the Southern half may as well be part of 'the South') while Maryland is below it, but remained in the Union and is more connected to the North than the South.

The Commonwealth of Viriginia is part the South, but I was talking about an early PoD with it begin named something else and the name Virginia coming to refer to all of the South.
 

Turek

Dixie would be the best candidate, though of course any sort of POD in the 18th century and before could ruin that - AFAIK "Dixie" only became a term circa 1810.

As mentioned before, "Virginia" or "Carolina" could refer to it with the right POD.

(Also, a problem to where "American South" or "Dixie" refers to: I generally think of it as referring to the Carolinas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia (yes, I remove Virginia and Florida). Others may think of it as all the ex-Confederate States or just the Deep South. Terms like "Dixie" are highly regional and for the best results, we'd need to know exactly what the OP's view of "American South" is.
 

Superman

I divide the US into northern and southern regions. The New England, Mod Atlantic and Great Lakes states are "northern". Everything from NC/Tennessee down is "southern". Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia and Kentucky could be considered either or a separate category, Appalachia. That's my two cents, anyways
 
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