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I do think it's a regional thing. I live in Brooklyn as a grown-up. But when I was a child, we lived in my father's home town of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. We called "dinner" what is meant now by lunch (the noontime meal); and we called supper, what we now meanl dinner. And we called soda, "pop."

Texas folk used to call the midday meal dinner and the evening meal supper. More modern or urban Texans now do lunch and dinner, but I will still always call Sunday nights meal "supper". My grandmothers used to cook big "dinners" and the leftovers served as supper too. Might as well cook enough once to feed for two meals. Mondays were laundry days so they usually had big pots of beans which didnt need tending. They also didnt refrigerate much; just threw a clean dishtowel over the leftovers and consumed them without fear a few hours later. We also called anything carbonated "Co Cola".

@SavtaShayna - now that I think about it, that is exactly what our practice was - we originated in Newfoundland and lunchtime was "dinner" and evening meal was "supper." Then we moved to Ontario and the lines blurred. And, @ocarol, we still call the big Sunday family meal, "supper" - wonder how we tie in with Texas? lol.

It's a rural (agricultural) vs. city thing: 'Dinner' was the big meal of the day, and served at midday, 'supper' was lighter, and served at night. Most folks nowdays are not agricultural workers and so eat their large meal at night, and hence call it 'dinner'. I've never heard that 'supper' was more casual than 'dinner', btw.

I grew up in Fairfield County, Ct. and we always called the evening meal dinner and the noontime meal lunch. It wasn't until I came up to West Hartford that I heard the terms supper and dinner respectively. In fact, the only time I ever heard the term supper growing up was to describe a midnight supper.

a pop in the south is a cold drink, dinner is lunch and supper is the evening meal. have also seen many different names for what we call in louisiana a poboy.

I grew up in Kansas City, raised by parents who were from Milwaukee. They called it "supper." I eventually ended up calling it dinner, since most of the kids in my KC suburb town referred to the evening meal as such.

I don't know if I've specifically heard that "supper" is less casual than "dinner," but in my mind I've always thought that to be the case. So I'm with hmw0029 on that one.

I grew up on a farm in Kansas but lived in New Jersey for years. Dinner is the main, big meal of the day. It can be at noon as in Sunday dinner or at night. Supper is at night.
I call it soda. Pop is what I called my Dad : )

Maybe "pop"' in Louisiana is synonymous with a cold (soft) drink, but in my neck of the southern woods, when we wanted a soft drink/soda/pop, we'd ask for a "coke or something" (Soda is what you put in a scotch and soda ;)

i hate the word supper. i don't know why-it's just always made my skin crawl.
growing up (i'm a pittsburgher too) we called it pop, but since moving around the country soda & pop have become interchangable for me.

There is a distinct difference between supper and dinner in England (Nottingham), at least. My friend would often tell me what he ate for supper and dinner. It confused me at first when I would look at the clock + 5-6 hours and wonder why he was eating "dinner" that time of day. Is it regional there too?

I never heard "supper" growing up in Hawaii, with the exception of me joking with my parents when I was 4-5 years old, purposely calling it "suppermarket," one of many words I would distort just to get a reaction out of them.

Having moved eastward, I haven't heard supper uttered in natural conversation.

This is probably the first time i've ever typed the words "soda" or "pop" as its either a "coke" or a "cold drink" for me.

I use dinner for both the mid-day meal and the evening meal depending on the situation...i cook "supper" at home for myself but i go out to "dinner" with friends...I eat "lunch" out with co-workers but my grandmother cooks sunday "dinner" at noon after church.

brickh - yes it's a cold drink, a soft drink, or a coke in the south. My dad used to refer to cokes as "dopes" which came from the days when they contained cocaine. I recall coke trucks being called "dope wagons".

My grandparents always called it supper. My parents call it dinner. I call it dinner. I think it is a generation thing.

Dinner is early evening, supper is later

Where I grew up in southern Virginia, it was "soda" and "supper". My stepdad from Missouri called it "dinner".

Here is New Orleans it's "cold drink" or "coke" and "dinner".

I say supper and dinner interchangably for the evening meal. Mid-day is lunch. I also say soda and pop interchangably. Sometimes I get fancy and say sodapop.

Hmmmm...actually, I don't drink much in the way of fizzy canned beverages any more, so I guess in truth I'm more likely to say "beer."

I've lived in Atlanta all my life and have never referred to a nighttime meal as supper. It's always dinner (and soda). That said, I'm not very "southern" and know many people who, like RegrettableFoodie, refer to any soda as "coke." But I definitely think it's regional.

Just to clarify, once I moved away from New Orleans, I learned to say "soda."

People here in Portland say "pop" and I don't think I'll ever get used to it.

I'm from NJ, and we always said 'dinnertime' or 'dinner.' However, from reading Peanuts comics, I read about 'supper' and 'suppertime,' and so always associated the term with the Midwest, since Charles Schultz was from Minnesota.

There are certainly many different associations with each term, as you all have observed, like 'supper clubs' and also the workman's mid-day 'dining pail' (when what we call lunch was the most substantial meal of the day).

In England, I was first thrown when people referred to having their 'tea' as dinner--not what we think of as 'tea/high tea' but what most call dinner or supper.

@ 1 stmakearoux... In Auburn Alabama there is the "War Eagle Supper Club" so yes, there are supper clubs.... just as there are dinner theaters.

Being from New England and having the correct opinion on all subject matter (just ask me), I can tell you for a fact that it is fine to, as I have, use dinner and supper interchangeably... in fact nothing gives me greater pleasure than when someone corrects me in the "proper" use of the word dinner, and I promptly tell them to go F&@! themselves! This is what gives us New Englanders our charm and grace...

Also, don't be afraid to respond the same with pop, coke, tonic or soda... It gives you a little MOXIE!

I grew up in New Orleans and it was dinner. And all carbonated beverages were Cokes.

I'm in Mississippi now, and I hear supper much more frequently, but not exclusively. And it's still Coke.

Chris Kimbal (America's Test Kitchen) was on NPR today talking about America's Frugal Food Roots http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106227509 and he gave the origin of the words as ... Dinner was lunch, Supper was the later meal. Over the generations, I'm sure its morphed into different meanings depending on location.

The article doesn't talk about it, but the 7 minute play list would -- for what it's worth.

I grew up in the northeast, but with a mother from the south. Dinner was lunch and supper was the evening meal. When I married it was into a very strong matriarchal family in the same northeast area and she made it clear that I was wrong:-) It really didn't matter and I now call our evening meal dinner.

I can't remember what my mother called soft drinks, but I remember that when I visited the south it was RC Cola and Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper made a stronger impression in the north than RC cola did. I call it soda now.

Supper sounds quaint and country-ish. I don't care for it.

i just learned this teh other day from a Canadian friend...

In FRANCE:
Breakfast = Petit Déjeuner
Lunch = Déjeuner
Dinner = Dîner

In CANADA
Breakfast = Déjeuner
Lunch = Dîner
Dinner = Supper

i guess it's all french to me...

I'm from MS and we called it dinner, though i have heard it called suppertime. a soda was coke and it didn't matter the brand except root beer and that was Barq's or A&W. having lived in the north for far too long--i have heard others call it pop and soda, or just by the brand name. while I am in FL now the area I am in might as well just be an extension of the north.

'Supper' comes from the same root word as 'soup'. It was originally a light meal containing soup and bread eaten right before bedtime. Dinner was the midday meal and was the one with the meat in it.

Here in Britain, there's also a meal known as 'tea', which is an early supper, usually very light (maybe some cheese on toast). It's more common in the North and in Scotland.

Dinner always refers to the largest meal of the day. If you have your largest meal mid-day then it would be referred to as dinner and your evening meal would be a supper. However if you have your largest meal in the evening then it would be dinner and your mid-day meal is lunch.

Lunch was referred to as Lunch, but in my memory, I can hear my mother calling "supperrr" or "dinnerr" for the evening meal and I think it depended on her mood.

Pop for me is dark, like Coke, Pepsi, etc.

Soda is clear, like club soda, Sprite, 7 UP, tonic, etc.

South western Ontario, represent!

dinner and soda. And I'm in CT.

Poultrygeist (great name!) was right in citing Webster's that it's the largest meal (but not breakfast). So to the extent it was regional it was because the largest meal was more likely to be at noon in agricultural country, and then the evening meal was supper. As we've become more urban more of us who used to have dinner at noon now have it at suppertime, and have lunch at noon.

My mother grew up in Massachusetts where they called soda "tonic." When my sister had to be taken to the Dr in Texas where they were stationed during the War ('40's) he told her my sister needed some tonic, and mom couldn't imagine why.

I think it depends on what's served. We have "chicken dinner," "lasagna dinner," "steak dinner," "breakfast for dinner," "chili supper," spaghetti supper," "soup and salad supper." "Lasagna supper" just doesn't sound right.