How many miles do we live from the coast?If you said “about 400” or “about 2,000,” you’re old.At some point during the 1980s, our nation added a new coast — the North Coast.That one, as you should know by now, is the magnificent shoreline where northern Ohio greets Lake Erie.Surf’s up, baby!“North Coast” — 30 miles from Akron as the seagull flies — is now used by everyone from manufacturing firms to medical facilities to a college athletic conference.When I was a kid, Greater Cleveland was called a lot of things, few of them flattering. The most prominent was “Mistake by the Lake,” which was not exactly music to the ears of civic boosters.The entire region was denigrated as the “Rust Belt,” a tag we’re still trying to shake.Some folks tried hard to change the spin. Ohio Gov. Dick Celeste made speeches about rechristening our area the “Water Belt,” noting that we boast a resource in the Great Lakes that many areas of the nation — and the world — would kill for.Obviously, he didn’t have much luck.But who came up with North Coast, which is certainly an improvement on the other names?Good question.One of the early adopters was Cleveland radio station WMMS (100.7-FM), which in 1981 began broadcasting station IDs that included the phrase, “Serving the universe from the North Coast of America.”But even John Gorman, the force behind WMMS in its heyday, stops short of taking credit for coining the term. In his 2007 autobiography, The Buzzard: Inside the Glory Days of WMMS and Cleveland Rock Radio, in which he takes credit for virtually everything else, Gorman says he doesn’t know who invented the term but that he was determined to lock it up for radio.“I loved it,” he wrote, “and I knew Cleveland would, too.”The North Coast Athletic Conference started play in the fall of 1984, its moniker originating with late College of Wooster sports information director Ernie Infield.The first use of the term in the Beacon Journal’s archives came in May 1984, in a blurb about North Coast Electro-Coaters of Akron. Formed in 1982, it’s no longer in business.The only other 1984 mention in the ABJ came in September, in a story about a $3.5 million hotel planned for the Belden Village area by a now-defunct outfit named North Coast Inns Co. Ltd.In 1985, though, the trend reached full throttle.That year alone, we ran stories about North Coast Cable, North Coast Energy, North Coast Ultralights, the North Coast Jazz Series, North Coast Gymnastics Academy, North Coast Bodybuilding Center, North Coast Christian Community (a church in Brunswick), North Coast Development Corp., North Coast WAVES (a Navy group), North Coast Cucumbers (honest) and others. A Cleveland Heights wine company was selling North Coast White.Records at the Ohio Secretary of State’s office indicate the first company to apply for a North Coast name, in October 1980, was North Coast Investments Inc., which would have operated in Geauga County’s Chester Township but canceled its application.The first company still in business is North Coast Tool & Mold in Cleveland, which registered its name in November 1980. (The owner didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.)Today no fewer than 2,076 Ohio companies have applied for or are using the North Coast name.Unfortunately, as much as we’d like to believe otherwise, the rest of the nation isn’t fully onboard. When you Google “North Coast,” the first thing you see is North Coast Brewing — in Fort Bragg, Calif., hard by the Pacific Ocean’s Mendocino Coast. The second listing: North Coast Music Festival — in Chicago.Third: North Coast Medical — in Gilroy, Calif.Fourth: North Coast Church — in Vista, Calif.Fifth: North Coast Electric — in Seattle.Oh, well.Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com.