| rdfs:comment | - There are a great deal of American cities and towns named after places from Europe: mostly British places, but French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch names crop up across the USA, not to mention numerous variations and simplifications of Native American spellings. This reflects the USA's origins as being colonized by people from across the world. Interestingly enough, lots of major American cities are far bigger than their European counterparts ever were (Cleveland, Boston, Stockton, Rochester and Portland are the most obvious examples, and the only two major exceptions are Birmingham and Manchester).
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| abstract | - There are a great deal of American cities and towns named after places from Europe: mostly British places, but French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch names crop up across the USA, not to mention numerous variations and simplifications of Native American spellings. This reflects the USA's origins as being colonized by people from across the world. Interestingly enough, lots of major American cities are far bigger than their European counterparts ever were (Cleveland, Boston, Stockton, Rochester and Portland are the most obvious examples, and the only two major exceptions are Birmingham and Manchester). Unfortunately, this results in some confusion and frustration for many Americans. Since the USA is big and absolutely full of cities, and many of these cities have similar if not identical names (for instance, there are nine states that have a city named "Dallas"), Americans often describe an American location as "City Name", State", and describe a foreign location as "City Name, Country" to parallel that. This works well in the USA, but becomes rather jarring and annoying for foreigners, who find it annoying that after being shown Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament, and St Paul's Cathedral all in one shot, they still need to say "London, England." In France, the tendency is to ram the identifier into the town name itself, so one gets places like Saint-Marie-Sur-Aube and Saint-Marie-Sur-Orne and Saint-Marie-En-Provence, etc. The American equivalent would be if towns were actually named "Springfield-in-Massachusetts" and "Springfield-in-Illinois." Some British towns, such as Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Stratford-upon-Avon and Berwick-upon-Tweed, follow this scheme as well (though in that case the upon- always comes before the name of a river that goes through the city), as well as Frankfurt am Main in Germany (which most people know only as Frankfurt, anyway, as Frankfurt an der Oder isn't nearly as important). The logical equivalent in America for this would be hypothetical city names such as "New-York-Upon-Hudson" and "Washington-Upon-Potomac." The Japanese equivalent is to rename a town or city that shares its name with a more famous counterpart so that it also includes the name of the ancient province. Nagano City in Osaka had the same name as that other Nagano (the one with all the skiing), so they changed it to Kawachi-Nagano. Happens a lot with similarly-named train stations, too. A slightly different form is sometimes used: Americans from small towns will usually specify their state simply to give a general idea of what region they're from. If someone says he is from Miamisburg, Ohio, it isn't because there's another Miamisburg out there (there isn't, as far as we know), but because people from other states have no idea where in the world Miamisburg is. The foreign equivalent might be for someone from a small town to give the name of the nearest major city. Gets used in the Title In a lot. An example of Creator Provincialism. Often mocked, although it's still a popular trope. Named by Bill Bryson. The Other Wiki has a list of the most commonly used city names. In case you were wondering, there are twelve U.S. states that have a "London." (And one "New London"). Examples of London England Syndrome include:
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