“HAMPTON ROADS” is a condensed version of the original name given by the region’s settlers to the harbor in southeastern Virginia known then as:
Southampton’s Roadstead.
The term “Hampton” dates from the early 17th century when the first royal governor, Lord de la Ware, named the area in honor of The Earl of Southampton, a major investor of the Virginia Company of London, the financial backers of the Jamestown settlers. And, “Roadstead” is an old English word for a protected harbor.
Some things never change: just as sports stadiums, libraries, and college buildings today are named for major sponsors and donors, so it was then. The third Earl of Southampton, Henry Wriothesley, was not only a Jamestown investor but also a patron of the arts and champion of young William Shakespeare.
“HAMPTON ROADS” refers to the body of water between the Virginia Peninsula (to the North) and Southside, the southern part of southeastern Virginia. It is formed by the confluence of the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers and flows into the Chesapeake Bay whose watershed covers 64,000 square miles and all or part of six states (NY, PA, WV, MD, DE and VA) and DC.
“HAMPTON ROADS” is one of the world’s biggest and deepest natural harbors, the largest in North America, and is home to the world’s largest naval base at Norfolk. “HAMPTON ROADS” has been well known within nautical and maritime communities for centuries.
“HAMPTON ROADS” was widely adopted as the name for the surrounding region in 1984 when two planning districts and Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) merged, placing our region in the nation’s top 50.
As a regional moniker, “tidewater” was just too broad. It is a generic term used to describe a coastal plain with rivers that feed a bay or low coastal land that is inundated by water at flood tide. For instance, New Orleans is also a “tidewater.”
There are many “tidewaters” across the nation and the globe, but only ONE “HAMPTON ROADS.”
Located in the tidewater of Virginia, we are “HAMPTON ROADS.”
The Hampton Roads Flag is a registered trademark of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
3 comments
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Hampton Roads Partnership
April 27, 2009 at 9:24 am (UTC -4)
Comment by Reid Greenmun (Blogger ID: http://www.blogger.com/profile/14239185247660230581)
This account/history conveniently omits the aggressive and clandestine role of a hand full of “invitation only” special business interests [removed by editor] in pushing the change from our beloved “Tidewater” name to the much reviled “Hampton Roads” name.
Changing the name of our region should have been decided by all of us that live here, not by some backroom arrangement made by non-elected, self-anointed, co-called “business leaders”.The question regarding the name of our region should be placed on the ballot and we should let all of the citizens of Tidewater decide what name WE want for our region. Not some consultant that has a strategy for “mythic transformation” [removed by editor] or an “invitation only” collection of politically influential special interests power brokers that seem to think only their opinions matter.
Editor’s Note: In continuing efforts to engage the citizens of Hampton Roads in a positive way, we welcome all commenters, from all perspectives, and encourage opinions and debate. It is not the intent of SmartRegion.org to “manage the message,” because is serves the greater good to encourage people to get involved. Trust-building is an important component of civic engagement, for citizens and for elected officials alike.
As per our comment policy, only anonymous comments are not accepted. (i.e. full, actual name and valid email address must be supplied prior to posting) We do, however, reserve the right to remove names and identifying titles that could potentially be defamatory, insulting or offensive in order to maintain the positive, region-building nature of this blog.
HR Partnership
October 5, 2010 at 3:19 pm (UTC -4)
REGIONAL BRANDING: What’s in a Name?
Regionalism is an evolution, as evidenced by years, if not centuries, of mergers and acquisitions and re-naming to move from “Peninsula” this and “Southside” or “Tidewater” that, to become the region known world-wide as Hampton Roads.
Everyone could do their part to further the cause and refer to the region, not as “Tidewater,” i.e. a backwater, but as Hampton Roads. For over 25 years, Hampton Roads has been the official name for the region. Many would argue that it actually dates back to the early 17th century as “America’s First Region”: http://smartregion.org/2009/01/how-did-hampton-roads-get-its-name/
A bit of history on the Hampton Roads name:
• In the 1980s, the two local metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) merged in time for the 1990 census. Before then, the separate Tidewater and Peninsula MSAs ranked 42nd and 82nd, respectively, among national markets. The merged entity is today known as the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News MSA due to the U.S. Census Bureau’s archaic city-focused naming convention; however, the region is known as Hampton Roads as far as Wikipedia is concerned in their list of MSA populations.
• The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission was formed in 1990 by the merger of the Southeastern Virginia Planning District Commission and the Peninsula Planning District Commission.
• In the late 1990s, the Peninsula Transportation District Commission (PENTRAN) and Tidewater Transportation District Commission merged to become the Transportation District Commission of Hampton Roads (now Hampton Roads Transit).
• In 2000, the economic development group, Forward Hampton Roads, was reorganized and renamed the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance. In 2007, the Virginia Peninsula Economic Development Alliance was finally merged, creating today’s HREDA.
You can support regional awareness by supporting the region’s appropriate branding identity, Hampton Roads, by correcting names, websites and all other instances where “Tidewater” is used incorrectly and to reflect the proper, accepted name for our region and make every effort to see that Hampton Roads is used properly in the future.
Hampton Roads, the region and its citizens, deserve to be called by the proper moniker. We have:
• Size: well over 20% of Virginia’s residents, 1.7 million of us, live in Hampton Roads;
• Stature: a natural geography that caused the America we know to be started in Hampton Roads;
• Significance: the largest concentration of federal assets outside of Washington, DC are in Hampton Roads, a military mission-ready region; and
• Vision: Hampton Roads is poised to be the premier East Coast Sea Port, premier year-round destination of distinction and host to centers of excellence, fueled by a culture of innovation and economic opportunities, in healthcare and life sciences, the environment, and in developing and implementing offshore wind energy and other coastal energy solutions.
You can be part of the evolution. Please proudly fly the Hampton Roads name, flag and colors: http://smartregion.org/2009/03/hampton-roads-flag-the-first-regional-flag-in-us/
James F. Babcock
May 23, 2012 at 10:06 am (UTC -4)
Mr. Greenmun has a point, sort of. But if the name wasn’t voted on at the time of the merger in 1990, it was validated as a very good choice later on, for the reasons given above in the comment on branding.
The validation was done In 1999 by a properly organized blind survey. Residents were asked, without prompting, what they considered the name of the region to be. The results: 63% said Hampton Roads, 22% Tidewater, and all other names including Norfolk got 4% or less.
Incidentally, on the very good point about public participation, it can be noted that in 1998, the Regional Identity Task Force came up with the idea of having a regional contest to choose what turned out to be the first flag ever created for a U.S. metropolitan region. Several thousand high school students submitted designs, a jury composed of a citizen from each of the cities and counties selected three finalists, and those three designs were printed in the newspapers for a week. Citizens were invited to call in their preferences, and a large majority chose the flag that is now our regional flag.
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