This thread surprises me. I grew up in Montana, non-jewish, without a particularly large nearby jewish population, and yet I’m sure I learned the word lox as a youngster.

Doctor Seuss.

The call it that in Germany as well, though they spell it differently: lachs.

Lachs is salmon, not to be confused with seelachs which is just (Atlantic) cod. Don't confuse the two in a restaurant. I made that mistake once. Couldn't believe the price either until we got our dish. Needless to say, mistakes were made...

Lax in Swedish. Pronunciation in all three languages is pretty similar though.

> only places that call it lox

Counter-example: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

It’s pretty common in any city on the east coast of the us.