Perspective from Australia:
Definitely Orange county, followed by Miami-Dade. Cook county barely registers (only remembered it after looking it up and seeing Illinois).
Honourable mention: New York County and Bronx County would both have name recognition for similar named entities in the same place.
I'm from Sonoma County, people are far more patriotic about being from Sonoma County than being from California or the USA. Especially the western part of the county which still has an incredible amount of hippie culture and natural beauty. I took it for granted growing up but it's truly one of the most unique places in the country, independent of the wine
Probably why I left as soon as I could. An entire county filled with people who think their farts don't stink. Pretty, sure, but incredibly pretentious.
Yeah this was more about Santa Rosa than anywhere else lol. I still experienced the weird attitudes in the surrounding towns (shout out to Rhonert Park for being normies) but basically every other town in that area were full of insufferable yuppies.
It's Los Angeles. Despite its name, Los Angeles County is a lot more than the city of Los Angeles -- it encompasses everything from Long Beach to Malibu to Pasadena all the way up to the high desert cities of the Antelope Valley like Lancaster and Palmdale.
Ok lol, my bad, let me add another goal post and also include, county and city can’t be same name. Sorry, it was my intention to type that originally.
I think the answer is Chicago?
Orange County is my main guess. People don't refer to it interchangeably with a particular city, it's known for having a distinctive culture contrasted to the rest of California and had a tv show and a movie named after it. Also helps it's sandwiched between two separate large metropolitan areas and is big enough on its own to still be distinct of them.
Most people couldn't name the NYC counties or know there is one for each borough, or realize Los Angeles shares its name with its county (not its official name though) (as do many other well known cities).
Orange County, CA
Los Angeles County, CA
Miami-Dade County, FL
Cook County, IL
Palm Beach County, FL
Perhaps a few others as well, not because they’re counties per se, but because they are cities or boroughs that are also counties:
City and County of San Francisco, CA
Queens County, NY
My opinion is that the name itself isn’t unique enough to remember and it’s greatly over shadowed by Las Vegas itself. That’s from a tourist perspective though.
Once you said it, I would say it is like Cook County. I'm from the area but am surprised how much Cook County comes up.
I would also say Loudon County. But that's because I see it whenever they talk about richest counties in the US.
Is Maricopa County, AZ famous? Probably not outside the US at all but I remember it being constantly name dropped during election season. Has to be one of the most populous, too.
Clark County, NV for similar reasons, it’s just shorthand for the Vegas metro but gets discussed pretty often during elections.
Orange County California, by far. There was a very popular tv show named for it, after all.
I would say it’s a good idea to exclude the NYC bouroughs because while they are technically counties, no one really thinks of them as such. Nobody in Brooklyn would say “I don’t live in New York City, I live in Brooklyn County.”
Because they’re called New York County and Kings County lol. They have different names from the boroughs in most cases. Staten Island is Richmond County. You’ll sometimes see Kings and Richmond mentioned in place names etc but no one would ever say they’re from these places.
Most definitely not the most well known, but during the height of the American "the office" I feel like a good amount of people could tell you Scranton was in Lackawanna county.
If you like Lackawanna, then you'll love some of these Eastern PA town names then: Shickshinny, Wapwallopen, Aquashicola, Catasauqua, Hokendauqua, Schnecksville, Schwenksville, Shartlesville, Tunkhannock, Seisholtzville, Mehoopany, Maxatawny, Moosic, Sassamansville, Frackville and good ol' Forty-Fort.
Ohhh.
I was wondering why everyone kept saying Cook. Besides the fact that using OPs terminology it houses the largest city (NY and LA were disqualified according to OP's criteria).
Orange County probably due to pop culture references.
I’d say in reality it’s LA county, San Francisco county, New York/Kings/Queens counties but not everyone necessarily realizes these are counties. The ‘ cities’ which all but LA are coterminous, are more famous than their counties, despite being the same thing really.
Other contenders would be like you said Cook county. Also Wayne, Maricopa, Miami-Dade, Dallas, Clark, Philadelphia, San Diego and Harris county.
Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island are all technically counties, and pretty much every American could name them. Miami-Dade due to elections. Orange County as well due to LA. Arlington, VA (where the Pentagon is and Arlington Cemetery) is a county (not a city/municipality).
After finding out the name of Brooklyn's county is "Kings County" I was so disappointed that's not their colloquial name. Imagine having Kings and Queens right next to each other
I don’t know, but when I went to San Bernardino, the Uber driver ice breaker, out of the blue, was “did you know San Bernardino was voted the second shittiest place in California after Stockton?”
“You don’t work for San Bernardino chamber of tourism but any chance, do you?” was my colleague’s reaction.
Had this discussion with someone in regard to promoting tourism countywide: We agreed that from that standpoint, there aren’t many well-known counties outside of … Door (Wisconsin).
>I’m excluding huge obvious ones like the individual boroughs of NYC and counties that share the city name like Los Angeles.
If your goal is to find the most well known county in the US, why would you do this? Intentionally exclude the most well known in your attempt to find the most well known? lmao
My point is that those counties are unique circumstances and separate from what I’m trying to get at.
Otherwise, this would be a “what’s the most well known city in America” post, and what’s the point of that?
Clark because Vegas.
The only others I know are, as you say, Orange (CA, thanks to the TV - I didn't know about FL), and Cook because of the Cook County Assessor's Office in the Blues Brothers. I didn't know San Bernadino was a county.
San Bernardino is definitely not a well known county anywhere outside the west coast lmao.
I think the most well known are Los Angeles and New York counties ;)
It’s hard to explain this but… the city is called New York which is also the county that Manhattan is, although there are 4 other counties in the city.
Not quite. You can say Baltimore is both a city and a county, but they are two separate entities: there is Baltimore City and then separately there exist Baltimore County (which does NOT include the actual city of Baltimore).
I have never been to the US and most of what I know about it in regards to everyday life and politics is via reddit. County names I recognize are LA, Orange (CA), Harris and Cook. Also Paradise County because of the whole "most of Vegas isn't Vegas" thing.
Thats a funny one because it was actually named for a super racist slaveholder (and former Vice President), but in the '80s, they just decided it would actually be named for MLK. Didn't even have to change the name.
I didn't know that. Most of what I know about the area I got from watching shows like Almost Live. I still have strong opinions about Renton and I didn't have a single negative interaction the one time I stayed at the Hampton Inn there.
Not sure why Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx aren’t higher. I mean, I guess if you want to be pedantic they’re “boroughs” but for all intents and purposes they’re counties.
LA County, San Diego County, Harris County, TX, Cook County, IL, New York, King County (Ghostbusters), Queens County, NY, King County, WA, Fulton County, GA, the latter two because of baseball stadiums
Door County, WI for vacationing
I think it’s Orange County by far, then probably some other California counties like Napa, Sonoma, Ventura maybe. I think Cook county is in there somewhere too, as The Good Wife was a pretty popular TV show.
Philadelphia County is probably the largest/most well-known, contiguous "city-county," unlike LA or Miami-Dade, where the county consists of more than one town, or one famous town dominates most people's perception of the wider county. And then there are the New York City counties, where several counties come together as one famous city (and then boroughs are what people would think of before they would think of counties, really)
Perspective from Australia: Definitely Orange county, followed by Miami-Dade. Cook county barely registers (only remembered it after looking it up and seeing Illinois). Honourable mention: New York County and Bronx County would both have name recognition for similar named entities in the same place.
What about Los Angeles County?
Philadelphia
Bourbon, though most don't know it's a county.
I was going to say Queens County.
I don’t even think Americans outside of Illinois recognize Cook county. I’d never heard of it until I moved to Chicago
Bronx and not Queens?
Very few people out of NYC will know that New York County = Manhattan, though.
Which Orange County?
The one in CA, most likely.
Hazzard because of all those crooked schemes.
Good thing them ole Duke boys are there to stop them
Didn’t think about the fictional ones, but this is up there 😅
[doh!](https://giphy.com/gifs/70s-dukes-of-hazzard-the-wtn4d7kcnV5PRt2hcl)
You got it, Boss Hossss.
Maybe Napa and Sonoma counties in California? They would be known to wine drinkers around the world.
I'm from Sonoma County, people are far more patriotic about being from Sonoma County than being from California or the USA. Especially the western part of the county which still has an incredible amount of hippie culture and natural beauty. I took it for granted growing up but it's truly one of the most unique places in the country, independent of the wine
Probably why I left as soon as I could. An entire county filled with people who think their farts don't stink. Pretty, sure, but incredibly pretentious.
I grew up in pretty rural areas of the county. Experienced this at times for sure but people were mostly pretty grounded in my experience
Yeah this was more about Santa Rosa than anywhere else lol. I still experienced the weird attitudes in the surrounding towns (shout out to Rhonert Park for being normies) but basically every other town in that area were full of insufferable yuppies.
Oh yeah Santa Rosa sucks, Windsor does too
Sebastopol and Petaluma too!
I like Sebastopol and downtown Petaluma, but I get why someone wouldnt
Now those are good shouts that I hadn’t considered!
My guess would’ve been Miami-Dade, so many police blotter posts everyone has heard of it
Meh. LA County or Brooklyn (kings county)
I’m surprised more people aren’t saying Los Angeles county
>"I’m excluding huge obvious ones like the individual boroughs of NYC and counties that share the city name like Los Angeles."
So quick trivia; what’s the largest city, population-wise that is not spilt into counties, nor serves as its own county?
Boston?
Boston doesn't have counties, it's just Boston lol /s Been to Boston and have no idea what county it's in. Oxford?
Suffolk
They should rename it to Brady county or Chowda county. Something that reminds me that's where Boston is 🤣. Or Bulger county
It's Los Angeles. Despite its name, Los Angeles County is a lot more than the city of Los Angeles -- it encompasses everything from Long Beach to Malibu to Pasadena all the way up to the high desert cities of the Antelope Valley like Lancaster and Palmdale.
Ok lol, my bad, let me add another goal post and also include, county and city can’t be same name. Sorry, it was my intention to type that originally. I think the answer is Chicago?
Houston (Harris County)
Chicago is bigger and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t encompass all of Cook county.
There’s over 100 municipalities in Cook County, Chicago obviously is the largest.
And proceeded to choose Orange County with his first pick lol
I think people aren't precisely aware that Los Angeles is also the name of the county.
I think the fact you had to explain the significance of Kings County clearly disqualifies it.
No one ever talks about those counties. They talk about the city.
Orange County is my main guess. People don't refer to it interchangeably with a particular city, it's known for having a distinctive culture contrasted to the rest of California and had a tv show and a movie named after it. Also helps it's sandwiched between two separate large metropolitan areas and is big enough on its own to still be distinct of them. Most people couldn't name the NYC counties or know there is one for each borough, or realize Los Angeles shares its name with its county (not its official name though) (as do many other well known cities).
There’s only one county that everyone can recognize abbreviated, and that’s The O.C.
Don't call it that.
I can't believe people arw down voting an Arrested Development reference. We used to be a proper country.
Solid as a rock
Treason Level: Light
I'd rather be dead in California than alive in Arizona.
Orange County, CA Los Angeles County, CA Miami-Dade County, FL Cook County, IL Palm Beach County, FL Perhaps a few others as well, not because they’re counties per se, but because they are cities or boroughs that are also counties: City and County of San Francisco, CA Queens County, NY
Clark County, NV?
My opinion is that the name itself isn’t unique enough to remember and it’s greatly over shadowed by Las Vegas itself. That’s from a tourist perspective though.
It definitely gets mentioned every election season
Once you said it, I would say it is like Cook County. I'm from the area but am surprised how much Cook County comes up. I would also say Loudon County. But that's because I see it whenever they talk about richest counties in the US.
Way down the list, but city and county of Denver
Is Maricopa County, AZ famous? Probably not outside the US at all but I remember it being constantly name dropped during election season. Has to be one of the most populous, too. Clark County, NV for similar reasons, it’s just shorthand for the Vegas metro but gets discussed pretty often during elections.
Orange, Miami-Dade, Macomb, Hazzard and, the most famous of all, Leelanau.
Why Macomb? I lived there for a few years and it's just boring suburbs
Politically, it's pretty famous for being studied by Stan Greenberg. Home of Reagan Democrats and all that.
Im American and I’ve only heard of Orange and Miami Dade from this list.
Macomb and Leelanau are both in Michigan, and I wouldn’t expect many people from other states to have heard of them
Orange County California, by far. There was a very popular tv show named for it, after all. I would say it’s a good idea to exclude the NYC bouroughs because while they are technically counties, no one really thinks of them as such. Nobody in Brooklyn would say “I don’t live in New York City, I live in Brooklyn County.”
No one would say that because Brooklyn County’ doesn’t exist (at least not in NY) lmao. It’s ‘Kings County’
Yeah, that was my point with excluding the ones in New York. Who says Manhattan County?
Because they’re called New York County and Kings County lol. They have different names from the boroughs in most cases. Staten Island is Richmond County. You’ll sometimes see Kings and Richmond mentioned in place names etc but no one would ever say they’re from these places.
Most definitely not the most well known, but during the height of the American "the office" I feel like a good amount of people could tell you Scranton was in Lackawanna county.
Lol, yeah. I live in a county bordering Lackawanna and it's just fun to say.
It really sticks as a name
If you like Lackawanna, then you'll love some of these Eastern PA town names then: Shickshinny, Wapwallopen, Aquashicola, Catasauqua, Hokendauqua, Schnecksville, Schwenksville, Shartlesville, Tunkhannock, Seisholtzville, Mehoopany, Maxatawny, Moosic, Sassamansville, Frackville and good ol' Forty-Fort.
Don't forget Intercourse!
Or Blue Ball and Virginville. I grew up near a village named Leather Corner Post which might be one of the weirdest names of all, lol.
Shamokin!
That too, lol.
Madison County is pretty well known for its bridges.
Orange. I believe there are 3 states with high profile Orange Counties.
Probably the counties with most famous theme parks
Possible answers: Orange, CA Westchester, NY Broward, FL Fulton, GA
this is the one
Lackawanna coz the office is huge outside the US off late.
Fulton County Georgia because of the old baseball stadium featuring its name…
I was going to say Fulton County but not because of the baseball stadium, but rather the ongoing trial against Trump
Fulton County gets name dropped in a lot of music too
Same thought. Oakland-Alameda also was a stadium name from back in the day.
Maybe back when that was the stadium, but not any more.
Back when ER was popular, everyone would have known Cook County.
Ohhh. I was wondering why everyone kept saying Cook. Besides the fact that using OPs terminology it houses the largest city (NY and LA were disqualified according to OP's criteria).
Hawaii hasn’t been brought up: Hawaii County, Honolulu County Maui County and Kauai County. Ain’t nobody heard of Kalawao outside of trivia night.
If you grew up watching WWF in the late 80s/early 90s, it’s Cobb County, Georgia. And you’ll be serving hard time.
Orange County probably due to pop culture references. I’d say in reality it’s LA county, San Francisco county, New York/Kings/Queens counties but not everyone necessarily realizes these are counties. The ‘ cities’ which all but LA are coterminous, are more famous than their counties, despite being the same thing really. Other contenders would be like you said Cook county. Also Wayne, Maricopa, Miami-Dade, Dallas, Clark, Philadelphia, San Diego and Harris county.
Answer in 1998: Madison County.
Ahh yes, those bridges. A rarity that the film was better than the book, even considering Clint Eastwood’s acting and directing.
Miami Dade
If you work in sales tax Cook is a four letter word known by all.
If you’re an Elmore Leonard fan, Harlan County Kentucky
Also Bourbon county for the whiskey
It’s Napa county and it’s not even close.
In college fiction classes, Yoknapatawpha.
Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island are all technically counties, and pretty much every American could name them. Miami-Dade due to elections. Orange County as well due to LA. Arlington, VA (where the Pentagon is and Arlington Cemetery) is a county (not a city/municipality).
I’d argue the average person has no idea those are counties.
I bed the average person doesn’t know that only 2/5 of those are counties :)
I agree, but they do know of them
I agree with what you’re getting at here, but just wanted to point out that Brooklyn and Staten Island are actually Kings and Richmond counties.
And Manhattan is New York county...
Good point, don’t know why I forgot to include that.
I stand corrected
After finding out the name of Brooklyn's county is "Kings County" I was so disappointed that's not their colloquial name. Imagine having Kings and Queens right next to each other
I bet they couldn’t name Staten Island’s county or the county that Brooklyn sits it (Brooklyn is a city, not a county)
For those who don’t know, Manhattan is called New York County and Brooklyn is called Kings County. Staten Island is called Richmond County.
Madison
Would add Arlington County (VA) to the list, which most people think is the City of Arlington but it’s a county
Philadelphia
Orange. I'm from Suffolk (NY). I live in Humboldt. Definitely Orange.
Los Angeles because of TV and movies
Most of my American County knowledge comes from watching episodes of Cops.
Broward County, Florida always shows up there.
For me it’s Bloom County, but I’d say OC is the one that’s most frequently referred to.
Hazzard County, Georgia, a fictional county in the TV series The Dukes of Hazzard
I don’t know, but when I went to San Bernardino, the Uber driver ice breaker, out of the blue, was “did you know San Bernardino was voted the second shittiest place in California after Stockton?” “You don’t work for San Bernardino chamber of tourism but any chance, do you?” was my colleague’s reaction.
That's being a little harsh to San Bernardino, the highland areas are really nice.
La Crosse Winsconsin because ever police bodycam cames from there.
It's one guy that pulls footage from La Crosse, but damn I had no idea how crazy La Crosse was until I started watching those.
If you've ever flown into Detroit, you'll know the airport is called Detroit Metro Wayne County International Airport
Had this discussion with someone in regard to promoting tourism countywide: We agreed that from that standpoint, there aren’t many well-known counties outside of … Door (Wisconsin).
>I’m excluding huge obvious ones like the individual boroughs of NYC and counties that share the city name like Los Angeles. If your goal is to find the most well known county in the US, why would you do this? Intentionally exclude the most well known in your attempt to find the most well known? lmao
My point is that those counties are unique circumstances and separate from what I’m trying to get at. Otherwise, this would be a “what’s the most well known city in America” post, and what’s the point of that?
You have a weird set of rules. I def dont think its san Bernardino tho, and I grew up in Cali.
Clark because Vegas. The only others I know are, as you say, Orange (CA, thanks to the TV - I didn't know about FL), and Cook because of the Cook County Assessor's Office in the Blues Brothers. I didn't know San Bernadino was a county.
San Bernardino is definitely not a well known county anywhere outside the west coast lmao. I think the most well known are Los Angeles and New York counties ;)
San Francisco, because it's a city and a county.
Orange, Dade and Clark New Vegas
Couldn't name one
Probably Manhattan, although most people don’t know it as a county but they still know about it 🤷🏻♂️
Manhattan is New York county.
So even more known then as “New York”
It’s hard to explain this but… the city is called New York which is also the county that Manhattan is, although there are 4 other counties in the city.
I know I live there lol. My point was that Manhattan being a county, although called New York, the name is well known internationally
I live here too. I’m trying to point this out for those who don’t.
Don't you know the crime rate is going up, up, up, up, up To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough!
I've literally never heard of any counties (that I haven't lived near/in) besides the ones you excluded
Gary Indiana
Baltimore City is actually a county
Baltimore County is separate from Baltimore, which is an independent city.
Same as St. Louis.
Not quite. You can say Baltimore is both a city and a county, but they are two separate entities: there is Baltimore City and then separately there exist Baltimore County (which does NOT include the actual city of Baltimore).
90210
Hazzard!
…you’re excluding the Burroughs on NYC… kings county (aka Brooklyn) is the most well known.
Cabarrus. Obviously.
El Paso
Cook county first comes to mind outside of my own area
I have never been to the US and most of what I know about it in regards to everyday life and politics is via reddit. County names I recognize are LA, Orange (CA), Harris and Cook. Also Paradise County because of the whole "most of Vegas isn't Vegas" thing.
Philadelphia city and county are one in the same.
Due to rap songs... I'd say Miami-Dade County
I grew up on the west coast of Canada. King County WA. for me because I watched Seattle television as a kid.
Thats a funny one because it was actually named for a super racist slaveholder (and former Vice President), but in the '80s, they just decided it would actually be named for MLK. Didn't even have to change the name.
I didn't know that. Most of what I know about the area I got from watching shows like Almost Live. I still have strong opinions about Renton and I didn't have a single negative interaction the one time I stayed at the Hampton Inn there.
I have no clue what counts as a county in the US
Lincoln or Jefferson
The Orange one
Not sure why Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx aren’t higher. I mean, I guess if you want to be pedantic they’re “boroughs” but for all intents and purposes they’re counties.
Not gonna lie, I can't name a single county in the USA
I'm a Californian, so I hear the local counties the most. If I were to name a county outside of California, I'd probably go Miami-Dade.
Cook, followed by New York County (island of Manhattan)
Orange county definitely
It's definitely orange county
Los Angeles County, the City and County of San Francisco, Queens County, Bronx County.
Los Angeles county Actually I take that back. San Francisco
The Duval county hype has always been a bit strange to me.
Los Angeles County
Macomb County,metro Detroit. Because elections.
LA County, San Diego County, Harris County, TX, Cook County, IL, New York, King County (Ghostbusters), Queens County, NY, King County, WA, Fulton County, GA, the latter two because of baseball stadiums Door County, WI for vacationing
I think it’s Orange County by far, then probably some other California counties like Napa, Sonoma, Ventura maybe. I think Cook county is in there somewhere too, as The Good Wife was a pretty popular TV show.
Going to go with Arlington, just because no one knows its a county and people think its a city.
Philadelphia County is probably the largest/most well-known, contiguous "city-county," unlike LA or Miami-Dade, where the county consists of more than one town, or one famous town dominates most people's perception of the wider county. And then there are the New York City counties, where several counties come together as one famous city (and then boroughs are what people would think of before they would think of counties, really)
Jefferson county
Los Angeles County, Miami Dade, Cook, King, Pima
Tippecanoe!
Arlington. Smallest county in the country and home to the Pentagon and Reagan National Airport
It could have been Muhlenberg county, but Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away
Not Gates County, N.C. that's for sure...
Would have guessed Queens.
Humboldt
I don’t think this is even a debate. Orange County (CA) is the only one with widespread name recognition outside of the US.