This happens with airports a lot. Some really wonderful and generous old pilot or aviation engineer dies, so the field gets renamed in honor of the person. But aviators still refer to the field by it's traditional name. It's not a slight against the honored dead; rather, it's just out of habit and the fact that it's tremendously easier to remember "$CITY_NAME Airport" than it is "$GUY_WHO_DIED Field".

Speaking of airports, I know of several people who outright refuse to refer to Washington National Airport by its current name, "Ronald Regan Washington National Airport". They will go so far as to correct someone who says "Regan National" and insist, "Washington National."

Well, given the guy's name was "Reagan", it does warrant some kind of correction.

You mean it's not named after Reagan's chief of staff?

Would these people happen to be air traffic controllers?

Also, most people in DC just call it National. Probably because the other airport also has a one word name (Dulles).

Some people in DC are still annoyed by the renaming, partly because of the air controller thing, and partly because Congress changed the name against the wishes of the people of DC and then forced DC to pay for changing the signs out of the city's budget.

Didn't they name a fruit [1] after the mayor-for-life of Washington DC?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marionberry

Some people call it just "Reagan".

Which airport, "Reagan", "Dulles" or "BWI" ?

They don't say "Marshall" for BWI, though.

When I was there I called it "The Expensive one", "The One No one Goes to", and "The cheaper one"

Part of it is that it was named after him while he was still alive, and part of it is that DC is very, very blue.

I think it's less because they were blue, and more because they were devastated by his policies.

Definitely. Ever wonder why New Orleans' airport has the symbol MSY, but is named Louis Armstrong airport? MSY stands for Moisant Stock Yards, in honor of early aviator John Moisant.

Im recent years, the city renamed the airport to Louis Armstrong airport, but no one in the city refers to it as that. Everyone still calls it Moisant. Not that we don't like Louis Armstrong, it's always been called Moisant and New Orleans really doesn't like change.

I always wondered why that airport was called MSY.

However, I can think of one counterexample: JFK airport in NYC. It used to be called Idlewild, named after some golf course I think, but was renamed to JFK (with the airport code JFK) back in the 60s. No one knows what "Idlewild" is any more.

I had heard this in the past but forgot it. Thanks for the story!

Another fun example is the Louisville International Airport which was originally named Standiford Field, thus the airport code SDF and even locals still sometimes refer to it as Standiford, but in this case was renamed to the more obvious choice (Louisville International Airport) to confuse people less.

A further tangent, but the more obvious airport code LOU is still in active use across town at Bowman Field, the city's original air field (definitely not an airport) and these days the oldest remaining continually operating air field in the country.

Random aside but when I was a kid in the early 80s I found a radio in my grandparents basement which could pick up the radio chatter at Bowman. I would listen to that thing every time we visited

I have a counterexample for this one: in Phoenix, there's an outdoor arena/pavilion that used to be called "Desert Sky Pavilion", a nice non-corporate name referring to the local geography. Well it went through that whole corporate branding crap, and while I was there at least, it seemed like people were calling it "Cricket Pavilion" (which was the current name at the time). Here's what Wikipedia says about the naming:

"Ak-Chin Pavilion (formerly known as the Desert Sky Pavilion, Blockbuster Desert Sky Pavilion, Cricket Pavilion, Cricket Wireless Pavilion and Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion) is an amphitheater located in Phoenix, Arizona, which seats 8,000 under a pavilion roof and an additional 12,000 on a hillside behind the main stands."

That much renaming is really ridiculous IMO.

The Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion. I died.

Then I wondered why there are so many telco/media stadiums/pavilions/etc., and not more furniture stores in the mix.

Happened to the largest building in Chicago too, it's supposed to be called "Willis Tower", but I've only ever heard "Sears Tower".

London's skyline includes buildings affectionately referred to as the gherkin [1], the cheesegrater [2], and the walkie-talkie [3].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_St_Mary_Axe

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/122_Leadenhall_Street

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Fenchurch_Street

The Senator's hockey stadium in Ottawa has been through a few names since it was built in 96: Palladium, Corel Centre, Scotiabank Place, Canadian Tire Centre.

In the past few months I have heard all 4 names used for the facility.

If I ran a news organization I'd use the old name on principle but I know what would happen. Companies would start to pay me to use the "proper name." It's the next step after product placement.

Likewise in Chicago, the Sears Tower is now technically the Willis Tower.

It got bought again, though I don't know if the newest buyers plan on changing the name again.

They could change it back to Sears Tower.

Perhaps, but the name Willis is not from the current owners, but simply one of the primary tenants. The previous owners threw in naming rights as part of the rental agreement.

See also: Science World in Vancouver being rebranded as TELUS World of Science.

Nobody calls it anything but Science World.

Same with a large ampitheather music venue just next to Dallas, where the State Fair is held:

Coca Cola Starplex (original) > Smirnoff Music Center > Superpages.com Center > Gexa Energy Pavilion

Not one of the brandings has resulted in any noteworthy facility improvements, interestingly enough /s

Habit is a powerful thing.

It's been nearly a decade since Austin's "Town Lake" was renamed by the city council as "Lady Bird Lake" (in honor of Lady Bird Johnson). To this day, I'm not sure I've ever heard it referred to as anything other than Town Lake. I certainly can never remember to use the new name.

Useful for spotting transplants though. (Not meant in a negative sense)

This happens a lot. There's a nightclub in Cambridge called Ballare (since 2003), but it is almost exclusively refered to by students as Cindies. There's another club, and I can't even recall what its "real" name is as "The Place" and "Life" were used interchangeably for it.

Even though it's been the Willis Tower for several years now everyone I know still calls it the Sears Tower.