Informal poll suggests people like the name “White Flint”

Posted on February 21, 2013 by dan reed!

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On Tuesday, we talked about a new effort by the White Flint Partnership to find a new “brand” for the White Flint area. We also had an informal, completely non-scientific and non-binding poll of some serious (and not-so-serious) new names for White Flint. With 78 responses, here are our results:

Results of our informal poll about the rebranding of White Flint.

As it turns out, many folks like the name “White Flint” just fine, as it took 53% of the votes. “NoBe,” an abbreviation of North Bethesda sometimes used to refer to the North Bethesda Market development at Rockville Pike and Executive Boulevard, took second place with 15%, followed by “North Bethesda,” with 14%. “Rockville” and “NorthFlintVille,” coined by local blogger Ben Harris (who we also interviewed for Tuesday’s article), were tied for fifth place with 5% each.

Holding up the rear are some of our not-so-serious place names, among them “SoRock”, “NoGro” (that’s North Grosvenor), “South Twinbrook,” and my personal favorite, “WhiFli” (pronounced “Why-Fly”). In last place with zero votes is “East Potomac.”

What did we learn? That even though White Flint may be the name of a mall (and before that, a locally common rock), people seem to like it. It’ll be interesting to find out whether the branding consultants hired by the White Flint Partnership will come to the same conclusions when they release their findings at the end of the summer.

Until then, check out Harris’s post for his blog, NorthFlintVille, about the significance of place names:

When people hear the words “Dupont,” “Clarendon” or “Old Town,” most people have a certain mental image associated with those words. So, particularly as Montgomery County embarks on a rigorous initiative to redevelop the White Flint area into a “destination” for the region, deciding upon a single name as an identifier for the neighborhood is a crucial step . . . it might just end up being one of the most important decisions made about the future of the neighborhood, rivaling the size and scale of new development, transit initiatives and infrastructure enhancements.