If a proposal to change the name of Broward County to Lauderdale County was in front of voters today, it wouldn\u2019t stand much chance of passing, if measured by responses to an unscientific, online poll conducted this week by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.<\/p>\n
Of 1,024 unique responders, more than 8 out of 10 said they would vote \u201cno\u201d to changing the name. The reasons given largely focused on the cost and confusion a change would create, but readers also complained about other cities being overshadowed by Fort Lauderdale. The poll was conducted between Nov. 13 and 14.<\/p>\n
State Rep. Chip LaMarca, a Broward Republican, floated legislation<\/a> that would ask the county\u2019s voters in November 2026 if they want to change the county\u2019s name to Lauderdale. Despite bipartisan objections<\/a> raised by other lawmakers and county officials, the possibility of a referendum is still alive.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a sampling of the reactions our readers gave to the idea:<\/p>\n Against the name change<\/p>\n Ian Birmingham: \u201cPick a WAY better new name! Both Mr. Broward & Mr. Lauderdale are deeply flawed personalities. Yes to changing the name, but NO it should not be Lauderdale!!\u201d<\/p>\n Sindy Culley: \u201cThe name Broward County seems to encompass the whole area. Lauderdale County sounds like it is a much smaller area and only includes Ft. Lauderdale. I have been a proud resident of Broward County for many many years and have loved being a part of a much larger community.\u201d<\/p>\n Joyce Clifford: \u201cImho, the name change would cost WAY too much to justify. One racist is just like the other racist, leave it Broward.\u201d<\/p>\n Jayne Just: \u201cProposed unnecessary name change will cost us taxpayers too much money and make no difference to anybody!\u201d<\/p>\n Ronald Ferg: \u201cBroward has an identity crisis that changing its name isn\u2019t going to fix.\u201d<\/p>\n Gloria McCluskey: \u201cOnly known as \u2018Lauderdale County\u2019 appears to ignore how the rest of the cites would be identified.\u201d<\/p>\n Gary Benivegna: \u201cBroward is more than Lauderdale.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul Thompson: \u201cBeing situated between Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties is a bigger advantage to drawing visitors than a name change.\u201d<\/p>\n A. Miller: \u201cFort Lauderdale has a knack for wasting money on the \u2018small stuff.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n Jerry Wardlaw: \u201cIt would cost a fortune to rebrand Broward County to Lauderdale County.\u201d<\/p>\n Stephanie Williams: \u201cSounds like some are in search of a solution for a problem that doesn\u2019t exist instead of focusing on the county\u2019s real problems.\u201d<\/p>\n Derek Brown: \u201cWhy? What\u2019s the point it will only create confusion. Mail would be messed up. Also the cost to change every sign and other types of markings. It\u2019s silly. A costly distraction from the current affairs.\u201d<\/p>\n Roy Liddicott: \u201cI am a life long almost 70-year resident of Broward County and this stands alone as the most ridiculous political stunt this county has ever seen and one that will cost the taxpayers millions of dollars and do nothing positive except make the printers and graphic folks very rich.\u201d<\/p>\n Chris Holmes: \u201cI don\u2019t think any company moving or investing here, or attracting tourists would make their decision based on our county name. Let\u2019s preserve the small amount of history we have left and not waste valuable tax dollars for such an absurd reason.\u201d<\/p>\n Christine Corbo: \u201cIn simple terms, it\u2019s just stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n In favor of the name change<\/p>\n Ryan Myles: \u201cThere will be a lot of upfront costs, but in the long run, it\u2019ll better serve our community for tourism. I live in Hollywood and don\u2019t mind that the county does not include the Hollywood name in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Brian Kotchick: \u201cIt would provide greater geographic clarity to those who don\u2019t live in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n Robert Hansen: \u201cI would also be in favor of changing the city of Fort Lauderdale\u2019s name to Port Lauderdale along with the port itself. After all we are no longer a fort and the port is not in the Everglades.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul Harris: \u201cBroward\/Lauderdale county needs to follow the example of Miami and merge the metro governments to maximize potential and centralize county\/city management!\u201d<\/p>\n Haul Yearwood: \u201cCall it Fort Lauderdale County. People all over the world would know exactly where it is, and would not be confused, as they are now. It would boost worldwide tourism and investment.\u201d<\/p>\n R. Rey: \u201cOur county is named after Napoleon B. Broward, the man who infamously spearheaded the effort to drain our precious Everglades.\u201d<\/p>\n Sandi Oscar: \u201cI am a 60-year-old Native New Yorker and retired Broward educator that has lived here for 33 years and think Broward is an awkward word to pronounce.\u201d<\/p>\n Marty Hendrick: \u201cI liked it when Miami-Dade added \u201cMiami\u201d to it. People outside our area, tourists understand it better.\u201d<\/p>\n Robert Gelano: \u201cBroward? Brevard? I always need to take a second to be sure. Lauderdale leaves no doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul Grewal: \u201cGreat move to change the name. At least we will not be known for hanging chads.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If a proposal to change the name of Broward County to Lauderdale County was in front of voters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,249,251,250,30345,30966,1018],"class_list":["post-47751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-lauderdale-county","tag-name-change","tag-south-florida-sun-sentinel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}