The first time I heard "Geordie" was in the song "Sailing to Philadelphia" ( live - https://youtu.be/GtxuWycNgfo ; studio - https://youtu.be/GGgZ5aimDbM ) which referred to Jeremiah Dixon as a Geordie Boy and immediately describes him as upper class.

... and looking it up... Dixon was born in Cockfield, County Durham... which is in Northern England as described.

Just interesting seeing these loose ends of things I knew tie together in other ways.