I was going to do a big deep dive on this one, at first, but really, I'm not sure I could handle the historical side of it as well as the subject matter calls for? But let's take a quick look at toponyms in the Lower Mainland.
- Vancouver: if you're in the Lower Mainland, absolutely means the City of Vancouver. Elsewhere in BC, it… probably means the City of Vancouver. If you're flying distance away, it probably means Metro Vancouver.
- The City of Vancouver: the largest city in Metro Vancouver. But not by that huge of a margin, really, and there's a non-zero chance Surrey will overtake it in size eventually.
- East Vancouver: definitely anything east of Main Street and north of 41st Avenue. Might also include everything east of Main Street south of 41st, depending on who you talk to. The east/west line is regarded by some as being Carrall Street → Ontario Street, the actual 0 line in our street grid, and maybe the north/south line is 49th Avenue, but it kinda depends.
- Downtown Eastside: the area bounded by Carrall Street on the west, Keefer Street on the south, and Clark Drive on the east.
- South Vancouver: used to be its own municipality many decades ago; now a bit of a vague term that could mean anything south of 41st or 49th Avenues (depending on who you ask), or perhaps anywhere that's got a view toward the Fraser instead of toward the North Shore.
- West Side: everything south of Downtown, west of East Van, north of South Van, and east of the University Endowment Lands, basically. Though some people consider the UEL and UBC to be part of the West Side.
- West End: everything on the Downtown Peninsula northwest of Burrard Street, pretty much.
- North— no, actually,
- West Vancouver: an entirely separate municipality, separated from the City of Vancouver by Burrard Inlet. It's mostly no further west than the West Side, instead being north of the City of Vancouver.
- New West… …minster. It's not even directly adjacent to the City of Vancouver, but everyone just calls it "New West". It has nothing to do with the West Side, West End, or West Van.
- North Vancouver: a separate citahahahahaha no actually
- The City of North Vancouver: the densest part of "North Vancouver", generally, which is surrounded on three sides by…
- The District of North Vancouver: which directly borders West Vancouver on its west edge, and has a bridge connection to the City of Vancouver on its southeast edge.