Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA is the metropolitan designation given to the Orange County Area by the White HouseOffice of Management and Budget (OMB). The OMB bases its names for metropolitan areas on their dominant cities. Since the OMB periodically adjusts the criteria it uses to name metropolitan areas, and since Orange County has more than one dominant city, a different name has been issued by the OMB every ten years. Regardless of the OMB-assigned name, locals generally refer to the area as "Orange County."
Metropolitan Area names formerly assigned to Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA:
1990s - Orange County, CA Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area
1980s - Anaheim-Santa Ana, CA Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area
1970s - Anaheim-Santa Ana-Garden Grove, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area
1960s - Santa Ana-Anaheim-Garden Grove, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area
