In the name of bureaucratic streamlining, France has reduced its 22 departments — the largest administrative units in the country — to 13.

And some people are not happy — primarily those in suddenly larger units produced by shotgun marriages with former neighbors.

Languedoc-Rousillon, where we live, now finds itself joined to its western neighbor, Midi-Pyrenees, to produce a huge department that spreads from Montpellier in the east to Toulouse, the new administrative capital, in the west, to the Spanish border.

What would it be like, if this sort of “unifying” was projected onto the map of the United States?

It would involve making 30 states out of the current 50.

We imagine that a union of, say, South Dakota and North Dakota, and calling it just plain ol’ “Dakota”, would probably not lead to open rebellion.

Where else might it go?

–Washington and Oregon, one state. Timberland, we will call it.

–Idaho and Utah, one state. Mormonia.

–Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, one state. SEC-land

–North and South Carolina, just Carolina.

–Arizona and New Mexico, Dryland. (Which brings to mind the old observation of “New Mexico” — it is neither new nor Mexico.)

–Massachusetts and Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, Virginia and West Virginia … it could be done. But the unhappiness would be intense for some, as it is in France.

The new system not only is the slamming together of previously standalone units that has agitated people, the names applied to these new units also rankles with some.

“Nouvelle Aquitaine” takes in Aquitaine, Limosin and Poitou-Charente, and some of those in the latter two do not find themselves feeling kindly toward being lumped in with Aquitaine under a “Nouvelle” (new) title. It will be a region that includes a very wide range of French cultures.

The new name of the region where we live will be Occitanie, which seems to be the least awful of the choices. Occitan was the language spoken over much of the new, bigger department, a millennia ago.

So people here seem to be shrugging their shoulders. Languedoc, where we live, should have limited problems with the change because it comes from Langue d’Oc — a place where the Oc language — (Occitan) is spoken.

The main questions here will be … “do we have to go to the new administrative capital, hundreds of miles away, for government business?”

Those who are less satisfied with the changes are up against the Socialist government, which has sold the reduction of departments as a way to streamline the government and save billions of euros, and that has carried the day, so far.

At least until the government changes its mind again.