Why Do People in West Michigan Call Burgers ‘Hamburgs’?

Why Some Older West Michigan Residents Still Say “Hamburgs”

A Grand Rapids subreddit thread sparked debate over why some West Michigan residents call hamburgers “hamburgs.” While many Reddit users said they had never heard the term before, others noted it’s a phrase more commonly used by older generations in the region.

The two posts highlighted just how divided Grand Rapids residents are over the term “hamburgs,” but they also showed that the word is still used in parts of West Michigan, even if many people have never heard it before.

The term “hamburgs” still appears on a few Grand Rapids-area restaurant menus, but there’s one thing those places tend to have in common: they’ve either been around for more than 50 years or closed decades ago.

Reddit user “SodomEyes” may have been onto something by pointing to German immigrants who settled in West Michigan as a possible reason the term “hamburgs” stuck around in the region.

Read More: Detroit Reddit Thread Sparks Possible Rescue

The Surprising Origin of “Hamburgs” in Michigan

The Reddit poster was correct that many German immigrants settled in Grand Rapids in the 19th and early 20th centuries many of whom departed from or passed through Hamburg.

The name “hamburger” traces back to Hamburg, Germany, but the idea of serving a ground beef patty on a bun is actually an American creation that evolved from a popular European-style meat dish.

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The term has nothing to do with ham. Instead, it follows the German tradition of naming foods after a place of origin, essentially meaning “from Hamburg.”

Many German settlers referred to hamburgers as “hamburgs” because they resembled the Hamburg steak they knew from their homeland, and the shortened term also served as a nod to their origins.

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