Help with place name origins

Factual Questions
1

I’m compiling a list of all cities outside the US that have US places named after them. It’s a very ambitious project, but it’s one that the internet, especially Wikipedia, makes a lot easier. So far I have about 500 such cities.

I’ve run across a couple places in the US named Osaka: one in Virginia and one in Alabama. I don’t automatically assume they are named for the city in Japan, I need some kind of confirmation. So can anyone provide this?

Another is Shanghai, VA. Can anyone confirm it’s named for the Chinese city? (There’s a Shanghai in WV, but it’s named for a local business.)

So why don’t I just assume these names can be traced untimately back to the Asian cities? Well, that isn’t necessarily so. They could be, for example, from a native American word that happens to be pronounced the same as, or close enough to, the cities’ names. An example:

There’s several places in the northeast named Jamaica, including a section of Queens. Why are they named after a Caribbean island? Well, they aren’t. There’s a word in Lenape which means “beaver” that’s pronounced about the same and is spelled the same. All those “Jamaica” places in the northeast, and there’s some in other states besides NY, get their name from the Lenape word. No doubt the name of the island influenced the spelling, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t from the Indian word.
Another one I’m not sure about is Varna IL. Is it named after the city in Bulgaria? Have no idea.

Eastern Europe is a problem in general. For instance I have no examples of places named for any city in Romania. OK, there’s Transylvania, but that’s a region, not a city. I can’t even find anywhere in the US named Bucharest, and the capital is usually the first place that gets a namesake.

For the rest of eastern Europe, I have a quite a few in Poland, Czechia, and Greece, but only a handful otherwise: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Odessa, Sevastopal, Sofia, Riga, Belgrade, Budapest, and Vilnius. And maybe Varna, as I said above. By eastern Europe, I mean east of Germany, Austria and Italy, although I only have a couple in Austria (Vienna and Freistadt), so any more there too.

I’d appreciate any help I can get on this.

2

Sorry to post a tangent and nitpick so early. But according to Wikipedia at least, the Boston neighbourhood of Jamaica Plain was probably named after a member of the Massachusetts tribe. So “All those ‘Jamaica’ places” could be inaccurate.

3

But it’s possibly related. Massachusett and Lenape were both Algonquian languages, so the member may have had a name refering to beaver. But whether that’s true or not, my basic point does not change.

4

One I always remember is Putney, Vermont, because I was brought up in the original Putney in London. I’d imagine you would find plenty of placenames copying UK, and particularly English, placenames, throughout the original 13 states.

5

I have loads of English names (perhaps half of them), but don’t have Putney. So thank you for that one.

6

I live in Hanover, PA, which was named after Hanover in Germany. Originally it was called McCallister’s town after the guy who settled it, but the name was changed to appease the mostly German population that settled here. It was also called Hickory Town for a while, but Hanover was the name that stuck.

Hanover is in York county, but it’s not clear if the county was named after the city of York in England, the shire of York, or if it was named after the Duke of York.

There are a lot of cities and towns like Hanover that got their name from areas where people came from. I’m thinking that you are going to end up with a very long list.

7

There’s a neighborhood in DC called Trinidad, named by 19th century speculator James Barry, who had once lived on the Caribbean island.

8

Jena, Lousiana is named after Jena, Germany.

Gretna, Louisiana is named after Gretna Green, Scotland.

9

An interesting hobby.

Osaka Virgina is an unincorporated community in Wise County and may be named after the Osaka mine there in Wise County. That mine is owned by Osaka Mining Corporation, a subsidiary of Cumberland Resources Corporation and may not have anything to do with Osaka, Japan.

10

Look along the “Hi Line” in Montana, basically US highway 2. There’s a series of town names like Havre, Glasgow, Malta, Harlem, Zurich …

A commonly circulated story is that the names all come from names given to railroad sidings by a having a railroad employee spin a globe and put their finger down on it. I don’t believe that, as they seem to be predominantly European names. It is plausible that Burlington Northern DID simply name their sidings for a rather random sounding set of names of other places, though.

11

According to Henry Gannett’s The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States (1905), Varna IL was named after the city in Bulgaria by its founders who were from there.

(You can get the book free online, and may find it helpful).

12

I have always wondered about this stuff too.
Around me, we have a Cuba, MO. Which was named after Cuba the country during a time when Cuba was still open to US travellers and there were a lot of people enamored with Cuba.
Another one close by is Japan, MO. It was also named after Japan the country when everyone was talking about the 'mystery of the orient". During WW-II, the local residents started pronouncing it “JAY-pan” in order to distance itself from the enemy at the time… In fact, it is still pronounced that way today.

There are several places in my state that are named after European cities and other states. Someday I would like to take an “around the world vacation”, but never leave Missouri. Geeky, I know, but I think it would still be fun.

13

Oostburg, WI (home of the Oostburger, a bratwurst & a hamburger patty served on a hard roll) is named after Oostburg, Zeeland, Netherlands.

14

There’s a lot of Hanovers in the US, especially on the east coast. Most were named because we once had kings whose line came from there. Ditto for places named Brunswick.

The Hannover in Germany is spelled with a double N, as I did there. Virtually all the Hanovers in the US are spelled with a single N. This is one of many cases where the spelling doesn’t quite match the foreign place name.

It’s already a long list, but I expect it may double in length before I’m done.

Don’t have a Trinidad. There’s several Trinidads in the US, but I couldn’t find any that related to the island. Trinidad means “trinity” in Spanish, and that’s what all the others come from.

Excellent. Didn’t have either. I have quite a few German places, but I’m sure there are many I don’t have yet. I did notice Gretna, but couldn’t establish it was named for Gretna Green.

Thanks. Unless it’s a fairly new acquisition, you’re probably right. They probably named the mine after an exotic location (well, it was exotic a century ago or whenever).

Thank you very much. That will come in handy.

Another I don’t have. Thank you.

15

I’m guessing you already have the towns from Maine?

16

Which touches on a related subject - in how many of these cases does the local pronunciation differ from the more famous counterpart? That lists some in Maine. But we have Berlin, NH or TX - accent on the first syllable - “BURR lin” or “BAR lin”. Cairo, IL - “kay-ro” or “care-oh” (like the syrup), depending on who you talk to, but not “Chi Rho”. And then we have Greenwich, OH, which the locals pronounce as spelled - it might be “Gren Itch”, England, or “Gren Itch” Village in NY, but it’s “Green Witch”, OH.

17

I’m aware of the pronunciation issue, but am ignoring it for this project. It really deserves a separate thread. In fact, I’m sure we’ve had threads on it before. Try looking for them.

18

This particular Hanover was named by the guy who laid out York County, and he suggested the name because he was originally from Hanover in Germany.

It may be misspelled (according to the original), but it was named by a guy who was a native of the properly spelled version. :slight_smile:

19

In Maryland there’s Lisbon and Dundalk.

Virginia has Dublin, Dungannon, Kinsale, and Mallow (all Irish places).

“Ardmore” is fairly common across the US (there are at least 8 places in the US with this name, most of them unincorporated areas).

20

Starting south of Oostburg, and driving (circuitously) north to Door County one could travel to Belgium, Oostburg, Batavia, (New) Holstein, Schleswig, Valders, Denmark, Pilsen, Luxemburg, (New) Franken, and Brussels.