"Directional" cities that lack a namesake

[TheHighwayMan3561]

South Range, WI is about 120 miles north of Range, WI.

North Branch, MN annexed its namesake at some point in the past.

[webny99]

Most town names are not also nouns

If a proper noun is not a noun, then what is it?

I think you know what I meant. Most town names are not also a "thing" as well as a place. Harbor, valley, bend are some exceptions to that.

[webny99]

But, such places do in fact exist, i.e. Bend, OR, or the various takes on "Harbor" as in Bar Harbor, ME (for which a directional "Harbor" could be named).

BTW, this is my thread as the OP, and these are my rules for it.

Of course, and I respect that. I was just pointing out that almost all "directional" places do have a namesake. Often, that namesake is another place, but sometimes it is a "thing", such as valley, branch, harbor, etc.

So far, most of the examples refer to an actual "thing", as opposed to a totally random word like Webster or Chicago. The exceptions being those noted in the OP and a few others.

[kphoger]

South Lyon, MI

That's a tricky one because, even though there is no town of Lyon, it is located in the south end Lyon Township.

[triplemultiplex]

Too many examples here are not referring to another place name but rather a geographic feature.  It's called "North Bay" because it's on a northern bay of a big frickin lake.
It's called "West Jordan" because it's west of the Jordan River.

In my opinion, those don't count. 

[doorknob60]

I guess I can repost my answer from 3 years ago 

North Bend, OR (which is south of, and even farther west of Bend, OR)
South Bend, WA
North Bend, WA

Without looking it up, they probably all have to do with bends in the rivers. At least the two in Washington aren't contradictory directionally, but they're nowhere near each other. I heard a story from my Dad who worked at a hotel in Bend of a group of people from the east coast trying to get to Bend, OR, and booking flights to North Bend, OR (as in, the city adjacent to Coos Bay) and driving all the way to Bend, instead of flying into Redmond (closest, and coincidentally North of Bend) or even Portland (closer than North Bend, and usually cheaper to fly to). I can see how that could happen, because there's no commercial airport in Bend (it's in Redmond), but people have to be pretty stupid to book flights before you know for sure.

[US 89]

Too many examples here a not referring to another place name but rather a geographic feature.  It's called "North Bay" because it's on a northern bay of a big frickin lake.
It's called "West Jordan" because it's west of the Jordan River.

In my opinion, those don't count.

What about South Jordan, which is west of the Jordan River, not south?

[webny99]

Too many examples here a not referring to another place name but rather a geographic feature.  It's called "North Bay" because it's on a northern bay of a big frickin lake.
It's called "West Jordan" because it's west of the Jordan River.

In my opinion, those don't count.

I also attempted to explain that concept, but the OP wants to allow these. I don't blame him, because it would be a very short list otherwise. Almost all "directional" places have a namesake of some sort.

[vdeane]

It would be a very short list, but it would be a meaningful list.  Not a fan of lists made for the sake of making a list.

[jwolfer]

Northfield NJ.. a suburb of Atlantic City.. no other xfields around

Z981

[hotdogPi]

Northfield NJ.. a suburv of Atlantic City.. no other xfields around

Z981

It's pretty common when the "North", etc. is not a separate word.

[webny99]

It would be a very short list, but it would be a meaningful list.  Not a fan of lists made for the sake of making a list.

I agree 100%.

South Lyon, MI

That's a tricky one because, even though there is no town of Lyon, it is located in the south end Lyon Township.

Lyon, MI does exist. That eliminates the trickiness 

[Brandon]

It would be a very short list, but it would be a meaningful list.  Not a fan of lists made for the sake of making a list.

I agree 100%.

South Lyon, MI

That's a tricky one because, even though there is no town of Lyon, it is located in the south end Lyon Township.

Lyon, MI does exist. That eliminates the trickiness 

Not quite.  There is no Lyon, MI.  There's a Lyon Charter Township, which is, interestingly enough, east of South Lyon.

Not everywhere has incorporation like New York and New England do.  If it's not incorporated, it doesn't count.  If it is, then it does.  Given the status of Lyon Charter Township, South Lyon probably doesn't make the cut.  If it were just plain Lyon Township, then it would.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_township

[Flint1979]

Lyon is a township and South Lyon is actually on the west side of the township moreless it seems like more so than the south side of the township. A lot of townships in Michigan are in zip codes of cities of other names.

[dvferyance]

West Allis WI. No Allis or East Allis anywhere in Wisconsin. I don't think there is anywhere in the country.

[golden eagle]

West Point, MS and GA: there's not a town named Point, though in Georgia, there's an East Point, though well over 100 from West Point.

Northport, AL, is near Tuscaloosa, well over 200 miles from the nearest port.

[roadman65]

West Milford, NJ.  Milford, NJ is nowhere near it and also its on the opposite side of the state.
North Bergen has no Bergen.  In fact the county with the name Bergen is north of North Bergen.
North Arlington in Bergen County as there is no Arlington in NJ.

[oscar]

East New Market MD is about 90 miles southeast of, and on the opposite side of the Chesapeake Bay from, New Market MD.

[english si]

Northampton, Easthampton, Westhampton, and Soouthampton, MA.  There is no Hampton, MA
All of the directional Hamptons on Long Island.

Surely things like this they are in relation to each other and they didn't leave any one as vanilla.

If your building of towns was older, I would say it would be like the English hamptons, where there were several places (and still are) called 'farm estate' (ham-ton) which gained a p in the middle at some point. Then it got confusing, and so the two important ones gained a North- and a South- so that there wasn't two 'Counties of Hampton', and other ones gained things like Little-, East-, etc, to help distinguish them from the others. And then the village that sprouted up around Hampton Court (of the Palace) dropped the court bit, so there was a vanilla Hampton.

OK, the Hamptons in Long Island are slightly different. Southampton is the oldest place (named after the English city) and then East-, West-, Bridge- hampton were named to trade off that brand without being a mouthful - West Southampton is odd and Bridgesouthampton absurd! The 'South' prefix was dropped.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

West New York NJ. There's no New York in NJ... but it's West of (and across the Hudson River from) New York City NY. Same happens with West Memphis AR and East St. Louis IL (no Memphis in AR or St. Louis in IL, but they are West of Memphis TN and East of St. Louis MO respectively, in both cases just across the Mississippi). And I've already mentioned South Waverly PA, well Northwest of Waverly PA but just South of, and across the state line from, Waverly NY.

[english si]

West New York NJ. There's no New York in NJ... but it's West of (and across the Hudson River from) New York City NY. Same happens with West Memphis AR and East St. Louis IL (no Memphis in AR or St. Louis in IL, but they are West of Memphis TN and East of St. Louis MO respectively, in both cases just across the Mississippi). And I've already mentioned South Waverly PA, well Northwest of Waverly PA but just South of, and across the state line from, Waverly NY.

So all of these have somewhere where they are named after, it just happens that they are in a different jurisdiction (which is the main reason why they have the direction prefix - without the boundary, they'd all be one city, but you now might desire additional disambiguation than the state to distinguish the two cities)...

[tchafe1978]

West Allis WI. No Allis or East Allis anywhere in Wisconsin. I don't think there is anywhere in the country.

West Allis was named after the Allis-Chalmers company, which no longer exists of course.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Too many examples here a not referring to another place name but rather a geographic feature.  It's called "North Bay" because it's on a northern bay of a big frickin lake.
It's called "West Jordan" because it's west of the Jordan River.

In my opinion, those don't count. 

The second example doesn't exist. It's "West Bank" without a corresponding territory named "East Bank" . But still, it doesn't count for you because it's located at the West bank of the Jordan river.

Edit: Dang it, I thought of Palestine and the well-known Jordan river there, not a random river in UT nobody knows.

[Buck87]

East Liverpool, Ohio - there is no Liverpool, Ohio.
South Charleston, Ohio - there is no Charleston, Ohio
South Vienna, Ohio - there is no Vienna, Ohio
West Union, Ohio is southeast of Union, Ohio
North Fairfield, Ohio is nowhere near Fairfield, Ohio.
North Baltimore, Ohio is nowhere near Baltimore, Ohio, and took its name from being on the B&O Railroad.

[GenExpwy]

The towns of Southampton and East Hampton, as well as various Hampton-ish villages and unincorporated places, are of course at the eastern tip of Long Island.

...But the Town of Hampton NY is in Washington County [where US 4 enters from Vermont], while the Town of Northampton is to the southwest of there in Fulton County [Village of Northville and part of Great Sacandaga Lake].