The city of Lancaster /ˈleɪŋkəstər/ is the county seat of Lancaster County, South Carolina, United States, located in the Charlotte Metropolitan Area. As of the United States Census of 2010, the city population was 9,134 but due to South Carolina's strict annexation laws its actual population is well over twenty thousand people. The city was named after the famous House of Lancaster. Locally, Lancaster is pronounced /ˈleɪŋkəstər/ LAYN-kəs-tər, rather than the usual American pronunciation /ˈlænkæstər/ LAN-kas-tər. The modern British pronunciation is /ˈlæŋkæstər/ LANG-kas-tər.