We’ve used his data to create map, below, showing each state’s preferred term. As you can see, people in Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Minnesota use “pop.” ...

Soda As you can see in Katz’s map above, “soda” is the preferred term for sweet, carbonated drinks along the East and West coast, but most densely in the northeast region.

It all stems from a mix of economic enterprise and linguistic ingenuity. The popularity of “soda” in the Northeast likely reflects the soda fountain’s longer history in the region.

The word you use generally boils down to where you’re from: Midwesterners enjoy a good pop, while soda is tops in the North and far West. Southerners, long the cultural mavericks, don’t bat an ...