City/town names that are ambiguous in your area

[mgk920]

when I'm at a local sports bar and the feed on one of the screens starts scrolling a weather alert for 'menominee County', I start saying out loud "Monominee County in what state?", as both Wisconsin and Michigan have Menominee counties within the viewing/signal range of the TV stations in nearby Green Bay, WI.

Mike

[NWI_Irish96]

when I'm at a local sports bar and the feed on one of the screens starts scrolling a weather alert for 'menominee County', I start saying out loud "Monominee County in what state?", as both Wisconsin and Michigan have Menominee counties within the viewing/signal range of the TV stations in nearby Green Bay, WI.

Mike

There are two Lake Counties in the Chicago TV market, and two Jefferson Counties in the Louisville TV market. There are two St Joseph Counties, with one fully and one partially getting TV through South Bend.

[bing101]

Burbank there are two in California.
One a city in the Los Angeles area and another one a neighborhood in the San Jose area.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burbank,_Santa_Clara_County,_California
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burbank,_California

[Dough4872]

Pennsylvania has several township names that are repeated. In the Philadelphia metropolitan area alone, there are three Springfield Townships, in Bucks, Delaware, and Montgomery counties.

[Road Hog]

I didn't click every page, but St. Louis has two suburbs called O'Fallon: one in MO and one in IL.

[index]

when I'm at a local sports bar and the feed on one of the screens starts scrolling a weather alert for 'menominee County', I start saying out loud "Monominee County in what state?", as both Wisconsin and Michigan have Menominee counties within the viewing/signal range of the TV stations in nearby Green Bay, WI.

Mike

Washington County, VA and Washington County, TN in the Tri-Cities area has occasionally caused some mix-ups. Only a single county away from each other.

[bing101]

There is more than one Beverly Hills in California. The More Notable one is in the Los Angeles area and another Beverly Hills in Vallejo, CA as a district in the city.


https://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Beverly-Hills-Vallejo-CA.html

https://www.gvrd.org/beverly-hills-park

https://www.timesheraldonline.com/2020/01/11/vallejo-committee-recommending-lincoln-and-beverly-hills-schools-be-closed/


https://rosamondpress.com/2017/08/01/frank-h-buck-oil-spill/

http://beverlyhills.org/citymanager/aboutbeverlyhills/historyofbeverlyhills/

If one is wondering how Solano County, CA and Los Angeles County, CA got Beverly Hills according to this one from the official city website came from Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. However  Beverly Hills the (Vallejo one) is tied to Frank H. Buck an influential person from Vacaville, CA who was part of the group to speculate on land in LA County back in the 1900's for oil drilling reasons before that land later became the city of Beverly Hills in LA County.


https://www.geni.com/people/Frank-Buck-Jr/6000000021324803567

[KCRoadFan]

In the area around Kansas City, where I live, these examples come to mind:

There are towns named Edgerton in both Kansas and Missouri, each of them about 30 miles from downtown KC - the former just west of Gardner, the latter in between Smithville and St. Joseph.

Garden City is the name of a small town just southeast of Harrisonville, MO - as well as a town in western Kansas, which is much further away but is a lot bigger and better known that its Missouri counterpart of the same name.

And of course, the big one: Kansas City, MO, and Kansas City, KS themselves (the latter one referred to locally most often as "KCK").

There are also several examples nearby with county names. Johnson County, KS and Johnson County, MO border Jackson County, MO to the west and east, respectively. Jackson County is itself an example, as Jackson County, KS (where Holton is, just north of Topeka) isn't that far away. Also, Atchison County, KS (where the town of the same name is) and Atchison County, MO (in the northwest corner of the state) aren't that far apart either.

Also, some examples from elsewhere:

If I remember right, the exit on I-64 to Nashville, IL - a town just east of St. Louis - actually has "Nashville IL" on its signage because I-64 forms part of the main route from St. Louis to Nashville, TN.

Speaking of Tennessee, the signs for southbound I-55 in Memphis read "Jackson Miss" instead of just "Jackson" because Jackson, TN is located along I-40 east of Memphis.

Back in St. Louis, from that city you can either drive north on I-55 to Springfield, IL or west on I-44 to Springfield, MO; I'm sure it’s because of this that the signs for the latter road have Tulsa as the control city instead.

[bing101]

Ambiguous enough that any mention will require the state name (or other region) to avoid being asked "which one".

Note that in most cases, this is extremely local to where you live.

Here, there are a few that are ambiguous, plus two that would be if I moved a few miles.
Concord (MA vs. NH)
Hudson (also MA vs. NH)
Birmingham (AL vs. UK)
Rochester (NH vs. NY; MN is not a contender)
Washington (the state itself vs. the country's capital)
Amherst (MA vs. NH)

Where I live, Salem without a state name refers to Salem, NH, but moving ≈5 miles south or southeast (the number 5 is a guess) would make it ambiguous enough, with the other option being Salem, MA. I frequently go places where Salem, MA is the default meaning.

Newton without a state name refers to Newton, MA, even though Newton, NH is much closer. My guess is that going north into New Hampshire will result in Newton, NH being the default meaning as soon as you cross the state border; to find an area where it is ambiguous, I would have to go into Haverhill, MA (which is adjacent to Newton, NH).

Others that might seem ambiguous where I live, but are not:
* Portland refers to ME, not OR. People will talk about the other Portland, but they'll almost always apply the state name.
* Dover refers to DE, not MA or NH. Crossing the state border probably changes this to NH without any region of ambiguity, but there has to be a region of ambiguity somewhere for MA vs. DE.
* Springfield refers to MA, which makes sense since the three major ones are somewhat similar in population, and the one in Massachusetts is much closer than the other two.
* Franklin refers to MA, not NH.
* Brookline: Same as Newton; the one in New Hampshire is closer, but the one in Massachusetts is always meant.
* Groton: MA, even though CT is larger.
* Kingston: Could be 4-way (NH, MA, NY, Jamaica), but "Kingston" by itself refers to NH here.
* Burlington: MA, not VT.
* Bedford: MA, not NH; probably changes immediately upon crossing the state border.
* Rutland: VT, not MA.
* Greenland: Refers to the dependency of Denmark, despite the one in New Hampshire being within 30 miles.

Haven't encountered Milford enough to know (if it was ambiguous, it would be MA vs. NH). Same with Augusta (ME vs. GA) and Orange (MA vs. CA).

In California, there are at least two or three cities or towns that sound like Arcata, Arcadia, or similar. There are two with the same exact name one on the North Coast and one in the LA area.

The term "The Valley" usually refers to "San Fernando" south of Santa Barbara, but to "The Great Central Valley" (often Fresno, Bakersfield, or Tracy, Stockton, Sacramento, Chico, or Redding, depending upon what part of the coast) north of there.

San Marcos refers both to a suburb of San Diego and a pass near Santa Barbara.

"Grapevine" is a small town at the extreme south end of the San Joaquin Valley, but is often used to refer to the entire grade on the Valley side of Tejon Pass (and sometimes to the entire section of freeway between Grapevine and Santa Clarita.

In the San Francisco Bay Area I heard "In the Valley" to sometimes mean Santa Clara Valley and Silicon Valley whenever there's a big event in the San Jose area.
In Solano County we hear "In the Valley" to refer to Sacramento Valley and Delta part of the Central Valley given that some cities are in the Sacramento Delta and Valley like Vacaville, Dixon and Rio Vista.

[Max Rockatansky]

California had an absurd number of Dog Towns:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogtown,_California

[wanderer2575]

The Grosse Pointe suburb northeast of Detroit is actually five cities:  Grosse Pointe, Grosse Pointe Farms, Grosse Pointe Shores, Grosse Pointe Woods, and Grosse Pointe Park.  I once heard a mnemonic that went something like "Park at the Pointe where the Shores meet the Farms and the Woods."

[NWI_Irish96]

The Grosse Pointe suburb northeast of Detroit is actually five cities:  Grosse Pointe, Grosse Pointe Farms, Grosse Pointe Shores, Grosse Pointe Woods, and Grosse Pointe Park.  I once heard a mnemonic that went something like "Park at the Pointe where the Shores meet the Farms and the Woods."

There are several Barringtons on/near the Cook/Lake county border.

[hobsini2]

I always confuse Park Forest and Forest Park. Both are in the Chicago suburbs.

[JKRhodes]

Town of Maricopa is a exurb/suburb of Phoenix and other cities in Maricopa County. But it's located in Pinal County.
It's generally considered to be an East Valley suburb even though it lies almost due south of the City of Phoenix. Parts of its projected growth area lie in the Goodyear Fire district, a far west valley suburb.


Paradise Valley is a neighborhood in the northeastern City Of Phoenix. There's also a town of the same name sandwiched between Phoenix and Scottsdale.

South Tucson in common usage refers to the southern half of the city. There's a city of South Tucson directly adjacent to downtown, about one square mile, entirely surrounded by the City of Tucson.

[andrepoiy]

Ambiguous enough that any mention will require the state name (or other region) to avoid being asked "which one".

Note that in most cases, this is extremely local to where you live.


* Kingston: Could be 4-way (NH, MA, NY, Jamaica), but "Kingston" by itself refers to NH here.
* Burlington: MA, not VT.

There's also Kingston, ON, which is I believe is larger than all of the above Kingston except Jamaica
Same for Burlington, ON.


In the Toronto area, there may be confusion over which "York" you may be referring to if you don't specify "York Region", "York University" or "York, Toronto". You may even have to specify the subway station if you're heading to the station named "York University"

Another is Waterloo. Region of Waterloo, University of Waterloo, or the City of Waterloo? Since the City of Waterloo is within the Region of Waterloo, I wonder how often both governments have to redirect complaints/requests to the other.

London. London, Ontario or London UK?

In the Toronto Area, usually, when someone refers to Niagara Falls, they would either assume the Niagara Falls ON or the physical falls themselves. You'd have to specify you'd be crossing the border if you are referring to Niagara Falls, NY.

This isn't a city name or town name but there's a Brock Road and Brock Street that are 11 km away and both have an interchange on Highway 401. Therefore one really needs to specify whether it's "Road" or "Street", or specify the city it's in (Pickering or Whitby).

[Road Hog]

Nobody confuses Paris, Texas with Paris, France. On a local level, I'm sure the disambiguity is not necessary or minimally so at most.

[Big John]

Slightly different, West Texas is actually a city in the east half of Texas and is no not a descriptor of western Texas.

[US 89]

Slightly different, West Texas is actually a city in the east half of Texas and is no not a descriptor of western Texas.

Best known for a fertilizer plant explosion.

[KCRoadFan]

On the subject of Texas: if someone in that state is saying they're going to Atlanta, are they talking about the town in the Piney Woods region, or the city in Georgia?

[Road Hog]

Slightly different, West Texas is actually a city in the east half of Texas and is no not a descriptor of western Texas.

Best known for a fertilizer plant explosion.

There is that, but they're more famous as a way stop for kolaches between DFW and Central Texas. Like several communities in that part of the state, West has a large Czech population.