This is for all those "directional" (i.e. north, south, east, west, etc.) cities, towns, and villages that lack a namesake anywhere remotely near them (even counties, states, provinces, and countries can count). I'll give a few below, but the following types do not count: East/West/North Chicago/Chicago as Chicago is near these municipalities.
Examples
West Frankfort, IL - Nowhere near Frankfort, IL, and may be named as being west of Frankfort, KY, quite some distance away.
North Manchester, IN - No accompanying Manchester anywhere remotely near.
North Utica, IL - Even though informally called "Utica", there is no Utica anywhere nearby.
Got more? They can be anywhere in the world.
West Valley City, UT
West Jordan, UT
Does Southwest Harbor, ME count?
North Highlands, CA in the Sacramento area and there is no Highlands,CA
South Gate,CA and there is no Gate,CA.
Quote from: 1 on December 27, 2017, 03:47:44 PM
West Valley City, UT
West Jordan, UT
Does Southwest Harbor, ME count?
Is there a Harbor, ME anywhere near? If not, then yes. Even places like South Bend, IN count. There is no Bend, IN anywhere near. (For the record, South Bend is named for the south bend of the St. Joseph River.)
Quote from: Brandon on December 27, 2017, 04:01:13 PM
Quote from: 1 on December 27, 2017, 03:47:44 PM
West Valley City, UT
West Jordan, UT
Does Southwest Harbor, ME count?
Is there a Harbor, ME anywhere near? If not, then yes. Even places like South Bend, IN count. There is no Bend, IN anywhere near. (For the record, South Bend is named for the south bend of the St. Joseph River.)
Harbor, ME doesn't exist.
Quote from: 1 on December 27, 2017, 04:02:26 PM
Harbor, ME doesn't exist.
However, "southwest" describes the town's location in relation to a
harbor, not a town. Most town names are not also nouns, but this is an exception. South Bend is also an exception. My point is that one would not expect there to be a Harbor, ME or a Bend, IN.
Quote from: webny99 on December 27, 2017, 04:14:18 PM
Most town names are not also nouns
If a proper noun is not a noun, then what is it?
Quote from: webny99 on December 27, 2017, 04:14:18 PM
Quote from: 1 on December 27, 2017, 04:02:26 PM
Harbor, ME doesn't exist.
However, "southwest" describes the town's location in relation to a harbor, not a town. Most town names are not also nouns, but this is an exception. South Bend is also an exception. My point is that one would not expect there to be a Harbor, ME or a Bend, IN.
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.
Quote from: Brandon on December 27, 2017, 04:19:42 PM
Quote from: webny99 on December 27, 2017, 04:14:18 PM
Quote from: 1 on December 27, 2017, 04:02:26 PM
Harbor, ME doesn't exist.
However, "southwest" describes the town's location in relation to a harbor, not a town. Most town names are not also nouns, but this is an exception. South Bend is also an exception. My point is that one would not expect there to be a Harbor, ME or a Bend, IN.
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.
Actually, Southwest Harbor is southwest of Bar Harbor. Still no plain "Harbor", though.
Quote from: webny99 on December 27, 2017, 04:14:18 PM
Quote from: 1 on December 27, 2017, 04:02:26 PM
Harbor, ME doesn't exist.
However, "southwest" describes the town's location in relation to a harbor, not a town. Most town names are not also nouns, but this is an exception. South Bend is also an exception. My point is that one would not expect there to be a Harbor, ME or a Bend, IN.
North Highlands could be describing an town that is north of a highlands area.
West Valley City could be describing a city on the western edge of a valley.
Either they all count or none of them count.
West Liberty, Ky. It's well northeast of Liberty, Ky.
North Branch and West Branch MI. Neither of which is anywhere near anything called Branch - they're over 100 miles apart. And North Branch is well south of West Branch. (Of course, both these small towns are named for being on a branch of a stream.)
West Allis, West Bend, West Salem (WI)
Quote from: GaryV on December 27, 2017, 05:06:43 PM
North Branch and West Branch MI. Neither of which is anywhere near anything called Branch - they're over 100 miles apart. And North Branch is well south of West Branch. (Of course, both these small towns are named for being on a branch of a stream.)
no Olive Branch? ;)
in a case of accidental mispronunciation? West Chester, PA. Actually true that it's west of Chester, PA, but they're 18 miles apart via this route (https://goo.gl/maps/n7XYdRpHvTu)
The only example I can think of is North Bay, ON.
Quote from: GaryV on December 27, 2017, 05:06:43 PM
North Branch and West Branch MI. Neither of which is anywhere near anything called Branch - they're over 100 miles apart. And North Branch is well south of West Branch. (Of course, both these small towns are named for being on a branch of a stream.)
That immediately brings to mind West Branch, Iowa, birthplace and final resting place of Herbert Hoover.
According to Wikipedia, "Its name is derived from the meeting place of the West Branch Quakers, and the location of the city on the west branch of the Wapsinonoc Creek."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Branch,_Iowa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Branch,_Iowa)
There is a similar 3-year-old thread on this: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=13401
West Baden Springs, IN comes to mind
East Hampton, CT, which is actually west of unrelated Hampton, CT
North Bergen, NJ (in Hudson County)
Northampton, Easthampton, Westhampton, and Soouthampton, MA. There is no Hampton, MA
All of the directional Hamptons on Long Island. Hampton, NY is upstate in Washington County where US 4 crosses into VT
North Kingstown and South Kingstown, RI. In the middle is Kingston (someone forgot to buy the "W")
Southeast and North East, NY (and North East, PA)
South Boston, VA. Not related to either Boston location in VA
North Middletown, KY (not related to Middletown)
West Branch, Michigan
North Branch, Michigan
There is no such place as Branch, Michigan. Although there is a Branch Township in Mason County and a Branch County in Michigan.
North Branch was named because it's on the North Branch of the Flint River.
West Branch was named because it's on the West Branch of the Rifle River.
These two cities are over 100 miles from each other.
Sometimes the original settlement dies out and only the directional name survives...
My brother lives in Calvert county,Maryland near a small collection f houses called Lower Marlboro.. Upper Marlboro is up the river and much bigger
Z981
South Haven, KS. Presumably named for its location near the Kansas-Oklahoma line. There is a Haven, Kansas, but it's two counties away, so I don't think they're related.
Quote from: 1 on December 27, 2017, 03:47:44 PM
West Valley City, UT
West Jordan, UT
Other good Utah examples:
South Jordan (which is the city south of West Jordan)
South Weber
East Carbon (no Carbon, but it's in Carbon County)
West Haven
West Point
And although it's unincorporated, West Weber (which is in Weber County)
South Gate, CA in the Los Angeles Area could be a reference to Gateway Cities section of California like Whittier, Commerce, Lynnwood areas.
East Aurora, NY (near Buffalo) is about 100 miles west of Aurora, NY (Cayuga Lake).
North Elba, NY (town that contains Lake Placid) is a couple hundred miles ENE of Elba, NY (near Batavia)
I once read South Waverly PA is way Northwest of Waverly PA...
... but just South of Waverly NY.
Also, North Attleborough MA, just North of Attleboro.
South Range, WI is about 120 miles north of Range, WI.
North Branch, MN annexed its namesake at some point in the past.
Quote from: 1 on December 27, 2017, 04:16:52 PM
Quote from: webny99 on December 27, 2017, 04:14:18 PM
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.
Quote from: Brandon on December 27, 2017, 04:19:42 PM
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.
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.
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.
I guess I can repost my answer from 3 years ago :-D
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.
Quote from: triplemultiplex on December 28, 2017, 11:22:06 AM
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?
Quote from: triplemultiplex on December 28, 2017, 11:22:06 AM
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.
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.
Northfield NJ.. a suburb of Atlantic City.. no other xfields around
Z981
Quote from: jwolfer on December 28, 2017, 01:47:37 PM
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.
Quote from: vdeane on December 28, 2017, 01:18:26 PM
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%.
Quote from: kphoger on December 28, 2017, 11:12:42 AM
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 :D
Quote from: webny99 on December 28, 2017, 03:57:06 PM
Quote from: vdeane on December 28, 2017, 01:18:26 PM
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%.
Quote from: kphoger on December 28, 2017, 11:12:42 AM
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 :D
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
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.
West Allis WI. No Allis or East Allis anywhere in Wisconsin. I don't think there is anywhere in the country.
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.
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.
East New Market MD is about 90 miles southeast of, and on the opposite side of the Chesapeake Bay from, New Market MD.
Quote from: jp the roadgeek on December 27, 2017, 08:55:50 PM
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.
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.
Quote from: CNGL-Leudimin on February 18, 2018, 07:58:59 AMWest 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)...
Quote from: dvferyance on December 28, 2017, 08:56:21 PM
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.
Quote from: triplemultiplex on December 28, 2017, 11:22:06 AM
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" :sombrero:. 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.
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.
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].
It always struck me as odd that East Chicago, while definitely east of Chicago, is in Indiana.
Quote from: GenExpwy on February 19, 2018, 02:41:43 AM
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].
1) They are named after UK towns: Southampton, Northampton and Hampton, rather than in relation to each other - with the exception of East Hampton, which is named in relation to Southampton, dropping the south as East Southampton is silly!
2) I've explained the Long Island Hamptons upthread, and the English Hamptons.
3) Why does it matter that there's another, unrelated, Hampton in the same state? It's really confusing me how concerned people are in this thread about state boundaries and the like, as if all the cities within a state are named per some sort of pattern, and those not in the same state are completely and utterly unrelated.
Quote from: abefroman329 on February 19, 2018, 09:59:32 AM
It always struck me as odd that East Chicago, while definitely east of Chicago, is in Indiana.
Where the heck else would it be? Lake Michigan?
Quote from: Brandon on February 19, 2018, 12:43:54 PM
Quote from: abefroman329 on February 19, 2018, 09:59:32 AM
It always struck me as odd that East Chicago, while definitely east of Chicago, is in Indiana.
Where the heck else would it be? Lake Michigan?
If Chicago didn't touch Indiana (and not everyone knows it does), it could have been in Illinois. Or even with Chicago's current boundaries, it could have been a neighborhood within Chicago instead of a town to the east of it.
Well, Illinois has at least 3 cities which are directional extensions of cities in adjoining states: East St. Louis, East Dubuque and South Beloit.
Quote from: Big John on February 19, 2018, 01:56:43 PM
Well, Illinois has at least 3 cities which are directional extensions of cities in adjoining states: East St. Louis, East Dubuque and South Beloit.
Yep, and none of these count as per my original post due to having a namesake nearby that they are obviously named for.
Getting back to your original post, South Haven, Michigan.
Quote from: abefroman329 on February 19, 2018, 03:10:15 PM
Getting back to your original post, South Haven, Michigan.
South Haven is so named because it is south of Grand Haven. Both were havens, or ports of refuge, at the mouths of their respective rivers, the Black and Grand rivers.
South Pittsburg, TN. No Pittsburg or Pittsburgh in TN, but I guess you could say that it's south of Pittsburgh, PA. And they have a cool tied arch bridge over the Tennessee River (though it isn't painted yellow):
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.0150131,-85.697498,3a,75y,72.51h,79.08t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2GG5JniDQEf3_YUV4Uiw_Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
South Newport, GA.
South Boston, VA
In the spirit of all the "Hamptons",there's Southaven, MS, whose name derives from being located south of Whitehaven, TN, now a part of Memphis.