Countywide

Delegate race inadvertently reignites ‘Tysons Corner’ name debate

By Vernon Miles

Local reporter Michael Lee Pope has reignited a war on social media over the name Tysons.

The micro-debacle started with Pope’s reporting on the race to take over Mark Keam’s 35th District after the delegate announced his retirement. Pope listed Keam’s district as including parts of Vianna, Oakton, Fair Oaks and — crucially “Tysons Corner.”

Tysonians may recognize this as something of a controversial issue in the area with some locals pushing to drop the corner and just call the area Tysons.

Like Beetlejuice, writing “Tysons Corner” triggered the appearance of the Tysons, VA Twitter account.

The area has been referred to as “Tysons Corner” as far back as 1854, so named for its position at the crossroads of Route 7 and Route 123, according to Greater Greater Washington.

In recent years, as Tysons has become more urbanized in its own right and less defined by the Tysons Corner Center mall, some — like the Tysons Partnership and the Tysons Chamber of Commerce — have pushed to call the area just Tysons, some citing “Tysons Corner” as sounding more rustic and less iconic.

The U.S. Census Bureau officially “dropped the corner” in 2015.

But as Arlington and Amazon have discovered, old naming habits are hard to break, and Pope identified himself as a Tysons Corner holdout, citing a 2018 poll that showed slightly more readers still called the area Tysons Corner.

Karl Frisch, one of the candidates running to replace Keam, threw his support behind just calling the area Tysons.

Maybe the official renaming of Tysons Corner Metro Station to just Tysons this past weekend will seal the deal.

About the Author

  • Vernon Miles is the ALXnow cofounder and editor. He's covered Alexandria since 2014 and has been with Local News Now since 2018. When he's not reporting, he can usually be found playing video games or Dungeons and Dragons with friends.