States with foreign named towns/cities

[MATraveler128]

I thought about this for a while, but I have always been fascinated by towns and cities in America that are named after places overseas. I know there are many examples, but how common are they in each state?

I'll start with Massachusetts, where I live.

Peru, MA
Holland, MA
Essex, MA
Cambridge, MA

[jeffandnicole]

New Jersey.

[Ted$8roadFan]

Maine has Poland, Mexico, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Paris, china, Peru.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/world-traveler-signpost

[tolbs17]

Moscow, Idaho

[NWI_Irish96]

Indiana

Countries: Lebanon, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, Russiaville, Holland

Cities/Regions: Richmond, Warsaw, Plymouth, Rochester, D, elphi, Dunkirk, Montpelier, Avon, Yorktown, Bremen, Edinburgh, Hanover, Syracuse, Waterloo, Orleans, Versailles, Milan, Bristol, Miami, Denver, LaPaz, Berne

[skluth]

Since I posted this in another thread

Wisconsin: Luxemburg, Krakow, New London, Lake Geneva, Berlin, New Berlin, New Glarus, Cuba City, Ontario, Sparta, Genoa City
Missouri: Cuba, Caledonia, Hayti, Lebanon, Carthage, California, Odessa, and New London
California: Bagdad (sic), Mecca, Ontario (again), Alhambra, Monterey, Aberdeen, Cadiz, and Ben Lomand

[kurumi]

Connecticut:
Canton, named after the city in China we now know as Guangzhou (no lie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton,_Connecticut)
Several biblical names: Sharon, Bozrah, Hebron, Gilead, etc.
English: tons
European: Versailles, Lisbon, etc.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

MN has Oslo, Finland, Stockholm, Upsala, Malmo Township, Ronneby, Karlstad, Cologne, Hanover, New Ulm, New Munich, New Brighton, New London, New Prague (rhymes with "plague"), Plymouth, Dover, Montevideo (mont-uh-video), Jordan, Cambridge, Mora, Geneva, Rochester, Medina, Little Canada

[SkyPesos]

New York City

[jlam]

Berlin, NH (pronounced BURR-lin)

[ilpt4u]

Illinois: Cairo (prounounced like the syrup, not its Egyptian namesake), New Athens (rhymes with Nathens, not pronounced the same as its Greek namesake), Frankfort, Vienna (pronounced Vie (rhymes with die)-anna, not like its Austrian namesake), San Jose (when I was there, Locals call it San or Saint/don't remember which/Joe), Versailles, New Berlin, Sparta, Mt Zion, Zion, Havana, Geneva, Peru

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Berlin, NH (pronounced BURR-lin)

Don't know if their story is similar to Wisconsin's Berlin, which was originally pronounced like the German city but became BURR-lin out of anti-German sentiment leading into WWI.

[MATraveler128]

Peru, Vermont

[7/8]

Some examples in Ontario:
London
Cambridge
Paris
Scotland
Perth
Brighton
Stratford
Brampton
Windsor
Dublin
Newmarket
Milton
Chatham-Kent
Delhi
Kingston

There's lots more (especially British names).

[-- US 175 --]

TX has several: Paris, London (now known as New London), Moscow, Athens, Carthage, Naples
(there's also Rhome, if you forgive the different spelling)

[1995hoo]

I recall when I was a kid I read an Encyclopedia Brown mystery in which the key clue was a bunch of towns in Texas that were named after foreign places. A Google search for "Encyclopedia Brown names of towns in Texas" reveals that the list was Moscow, Odessa, London, Paris, Palestine, and Athens. I haven't bothered to verify whether all those are real (I assume so, because otherwise how would any reader have solved it?), but of course I've heard of Odessa, Texas.

[kevinb1994]

Greenland is a neighborhood not far from here.

There's also a (New) Switzerland in neighboring St Johns County.

On the Northside, there's a Panama Park neighborhood, and somewhere in Clay County, a place called Hibernia.

Avondale is another, though the one on the Westside is named after the one in Cincinnati, which was named after the Avon River in England (Warwickshire).

Middleburg is the old county seat of Clay County.

Hyde Park (AKA Hyde Grove) is a neighborhood on the west side, but apparently could be named for something else and not just that place you've heard of in England. One of the possible namesakes could be the Hyde Park outside of Boston (which apparently had something to do with the Times Union here at one point).

[US 89]

Georgia has an inordinately large amount of international-named cities. Among them are Athens, Berlin, Bethlehem, Cairo, Damascus, Dublin, Ephesus, Geneva, Manchester, Rhine, Rome, Scotland, and Vienna...

There are also a ton of cities with names matching larger or more significant cities in other states. Those include places like Albany, Auburn, Augusta, Boston, Columbus, Duluth, Harlem, Jackson, Jacksonville, Lexington, Louisville, Monticello, Nashville, Springfield, Trenton, Waco...

[jp the roadgeek]

Berlin, NH (pronounced BURR-lin)

As it is in CT, NY, and MA

Most towns in New England were named after towns in the motherland. 

[Road Hog]

There is a Greenland, Arkansas, which like its namesake remains a wasteland in a very fertile surrounding.

[english si]

I'll start with Massachusetts, where I live.

Peru, MA
Holland, MA
Essex, MA
Cambridge, MA

That Holland is probably this one, not the one in the Netherlands.

And the seat of the former de facto county is Boston, which should be a familiar place name for those in Massachusetts...

Plymouth, Taunton, Worcester, Marlborough, Barnstaple, Chatham, Gloucester, Haverhill, Northampton, Shrewsbury, Sandwich, Harwich, Falmouth, Kingston, Pembroke, Ipswich, Sudbury, Acton, Leominster, Salisbury, Amesbury, Braintree, Abington, Uxbridge, Sutton, Oxford, Orleans, Ludlow, Ware, Cheshire, Chester, Chesterfield, Southampton, Rutland, Westminster, Sunderland, Chelmsford, Andover, Woburn are all MA places named after places the other side of the pond that I saw within a couple of minutes of skimming a map.

There's plenty more, and also names that are similar (eg Lynn is not Kings Lynn, Waltham in England has two different parts as the nearby Waltham Abbey grew large enough that Waltham needed to be suffixed by 'Cross' (for the Eleanor Cross placed there) to help distinguish.

[english si]

Most towns in New England were named after towns in the motherland.

Indeed, though Berlin is clearly named after the Vaterland instead.

[-- US 175 --]

I recall when I was a kid I read an Encyclopedia Brown mystery in which the key clue was a bunch of towns in Texas that were named after foreign places. A Google search for "Encyclopedia Brown names of towns in Texas" reveals that the list was Moscow, Odessa, London, Paris, Palestine, and Athens. I haven't bothered to verify whether all those are real (I assume so, because otherwise how would any reader have solved it?), but of course I've heard of Odessa, Texas.

Yes, they are all real.

[GaryV]

Michigan has several, including Holland, Zeeland, Overisel, Drenthe, several other Dutch names, Paris, Frankfort, Clare, varieties of Boyne, Ionia, Athens and Troy.  Plus Lake Odessa - does that count?

And, for extra credit, both Paradise and Hell.

[bing101]

Since I posted this in another thread
California: Bagdad (sic), Mecca, Ontario (again), Alhambra, Monterey, Aberdeen, Cadiz, and Ben Lomand

Dublin, Brisbane and Manila are in California too!


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila,_California