The province of Ontario, Canada vs. the city of Ontario, California, USA;
The city of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada vs. the state of Victoria, Australia.
Dominica vs. Dominican Republic
Guyana vs. French Guiana
Mauritania vs. Mauritius
Romania (the country) vs. Romania (old name for a part of Italy)
California (US) vs. Baja California and Baja California Sur (Mexico)
Santa Cruz (province in Argentina) vs. Santa Cruz (department of Bolivia) vs. Santa Cruz (province of Peru)
Romania (the country) has many people from the Rom or Romany ethnic group, even though they’re unrelated to Romanians (and I believe the names are unrelated as well).
Since the Turks, Bulgars and Magyars were nomadic, their names popped up in places hundreds/thousands of miles apart. Consider Turkey and Turkmenstan, Volga Bulgars and Bulgaria, the Huns and Magyars/Hungary and Magyar Republic.
I live in Alexandria, VA. No connection to Alexandria, Egypt. I get a chuckle out of looking at my library card, though.
What’s the deal with Austria/Australia? Kangaroos don’t yodel.
Oh, also there are the Dominican Republic and Dominica, both in the Caribbean. I don’t think there’s a connection. I guess St. Dominic’s just pretty darned revered.
I think Austria was the southern German realm, or something like that. Or maybe it’s a direct transliteration of Österreich, which might mean ‘eastern German realm’, and has nothing to do with ‘austral’ being southern.
That’s due to some screwed up etymology. Australia basically means “Southern.” Austria in German is Österreich, which means “Eastern.” Converting it to Romance language phonemes somehow changed the pronunciation to also suggest “Southern.”
Or what pulykamell said.
Azerbaijan is a country, as well as a nearby province in Iran.
The 52nd, 93rd and 163rd longest rivers in the world have the same name
There is a State of Colorado, a Colorado River touching eight western States that goes between the state of Colorado and Mexico (5th largest in the U.S.) and a Colorado River in Texas (18th largest in the U.S.) and a Colorado River in Argentina - with many place names associated with each
New Caledonia, the former area of Canada that is now somewhat analogous to British Columbia.
New Caledonia, the island chain in the South Pacific.
New Caledonia, the failed colony in early Panama.
When first naming Washington Territory (as it split from Oregon Territory, and before it became the State of Washington), they considered naming it Columbia, both after the regions great river and just following the tradition of naming everything possible after ol’ Chris. But they rejected it because there was already a District of Columbia, which might confuse folks.
Instead, they gave it the name of the city in D.C., causing every bit as much confusion.