Help with place name origins

Factual Questions
21

My sister and brother-in-law live outside the small town of Persia, Iowa. It was named after the country when it was founded in 1882 but I’m having a hard time verifying that. The Wikipedia article says BBC Persia did a short piece on the town in 2012 but I can’t get the video to play. There is also an online article by an Iranian writer who saw the exit sign while driving by on I-80 and stopped in for a visit in 1996. The town is still pretty much the way he described it.

Edit: My parents are from the small town of Cadiz, Ohio which was named after the city in Spain, except the residents pronounce it CADD-is.

22

Portland, Oregon was named after Portland, Maine … which in turn was named after Portland, England … how does this fit in with your project?

23

Likewise, Scio, Oregon was named for Scio, Ohio, which was the Italian name for the Greek Island Chios. Probably doesn’t qualify, though.

The OP mentions Moscow, and I know of three. The origin of Moscow, Idaho is not verified as being named for the Russian city, however, although the official papers filed for the town name were completed by a man named Neff, who was from Moscow, PA and who later moved to Moscow, Iowa. Weird.

24

Scio, Ohio is right up the road from Cadiz, Ohio. My aunt worked at Scio Pottery for many years.

25

In Maine [ul]Acton after Acton, London
[li]Berwick after Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland[/li][li]Buxton after Buxton, Derbyshire[/li][li]Limerick after Limerick, Ireland[/li][li]Limington after Limington, Somerset[/li][li]Wells after Wells, Somerset[/ul][/li]
In New Hampshire [ul]
Madbury after Modbury, Devon
[/ul]There are a lot of places called Rochester in the US but I don’t know if any of them are named directly for the city in Kent. The one in New Hampshire is named for an Earl of Rochester, the one in New York is named for Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, and the one in Minnesota is named for the one in New York.

26

In New York[ul]
Brighton after Brighton, East Sussex
[li]Lyons after Lyon, France[/li][li]Palmyra after the ancient city in Syria[/li]Parma after Parma, Italy[/ul]There is also a Riga in Monroe County, but I can’t confirm it’s named after the city in Latvia

27

Don’t spend any time on for me, please. Persia is a country and I’m only doing cities.

The Portland in England is also not a city. It’s a geographic feature called an attached island, technically a peninsula.

That a new one to me, but I already have all the Maine cities you suggested. Thank you.

According to my list, the one in Massachusetts is named after the one in England. None of the others, though. The rest seem to be named after the one in NY.

There’s one in Michigan too, and that Gannett book someone suggested above says that it’s the one in Latvia. Well, actually it says it’s the one in Russia, but it was published in 1905 when the borders were different. So I appreciate the effort, but I don’t need that one.

Thanks for the contributions, everyone. But please note that I have all the big cities in Europe already checked out. That includes all the capitals. I only need one US place per city since I’m not trying to catalog every city in America that’s named for somewhere else. So I don’t need to know there’s a Berlin here, a Warsaw there, and a Dublin over yonder.

28

New Braunfels, Texas, after Braunfels, Germany

New Hradec, North Dakota, after Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

New Minden, Illinois, after Minden, Germany

New Offenburg, Missouri, after Offenburg, Germany

New Riegel, Ohio, after Riegel am Kaiserstuhl, Germany

New Smyrna Beach, Florida, after the ancient city of Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey)

New Ulm, Minnesota, after Ulm and/or Neu-Ulm, Germany

If former names are allowed, Novoarkhangelsk (now Sitka), Alaska, after Arkhangelsk, Russia.

There is both a city and a canton in Switzerland called Glarus. I’m seeing conflicting information about which of them New Glarus, Wisconsin, is named after.

Several states have towns called Pekin, an old transliteration of Beijing. Nikep, Maryland, is Pekin spelled backwards, perhaps so named because it was thought to be “opposite Pekin.”

Canton, Ohio, is named for Guangzhou and not for the English common noun.

29

Havre, Montana, is named after Le Havre in France, because the first homesteaders, Simon Pepin and Gus DesCelles, were from France, and Gus’ parents were from La Havre in specific.

The Billings Gazette has more.

30

Do you count a second-hand naming?

Albuquerque, New Mexico is named after Francisco, 8th Duke of Alburquerque, whose title derived from the town of Alburquerque, Badajoz, Spain.

There are many explanations for the difference in spelling. Some say it was due to differences in dialect (the Spanish town is close to the Portuguese border). Others say that an American postmaster deliberately altered the spelling.
Carlsbad, NM is named after Carlsbad, Bohemia (today, known as Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic).

New Mexico also has:

Cleveland
Cordova
Galisteo
Glencoe
Hanover
Tyrone
Valencia

which may be named after European places, or may be named after older American places. I have yet to find any definitive statements. Cordova, Galisteo, and Valencia are cities in Spain, but they are also common family surnames.

31

Johannesburg, CA is named for the South African city (because of similar mining aspirations), and has to be one of the few US places named sub-Saharan African cities.

Also if there is a separate league table of biggest difference in population between US city versus foreign namesake it has to be up there. Population of Johannesburg, CA: 172, population of Johannesburg, South Africa: 4.4M

32

Here’s a small list from Oregon:

Berlin, Linn County
Troy, Wallowa County
Toledo, Lincoln County
Waterloo, Linn County
Liverpool, Linn County
Manila, Yamhill County
Elgarose, Douglas County
London Peak, Josephine County
Rome, Malheur and Marion Counties
Paris, Lane County
Dundee, Yamhill County
Bandon, Coos County
Malin, Klamath County

That site didn’t mention Damascus, but they recently unincorporated so maybe it got cut.

33

Don’t forget New Fane, New Paris, and New Lisbon (tho that last one is on the other side of the state.)

34

`

This is a new one to me. Thanks.

According to Wikipedia (which is not authoritative, of course), New Ulm MN is named after Neu-Ulm and New Ulm TX is named after Ulm. Works for me.

Have to think about that. Hasn’t come up before.

If there’s a foreign city/region with the same name and one’s the capital/major city of the other, I just accept it. I assume most people basically treat them the same as far as naming after goes. This one’s a new one to me, so thanks.

Knew about them. In the case of Nikep, the Post Office arbitrarily reversed the spelling because they were having trouble delivering Pekin MD’s mail to Pekin IN and vice versa. Apparently the abbreviations “Md.” and Ind." looked too much alike when written in cursive.

Knew about that one too.

If it’s something closely related to the city, such as a battle (i.e. Battle of Waterloo), I accept it. But not when it’s a person’s name. I figure those go into the different category of places named after people.

There was a different guy whose name goes back to the same place, but he spelled his name like the city. He was a Portuguese general/admiral and never came near New Mexico, but he was quite famous. So his name may have influenced the name of the city.

Ooh, another I don’t have.

Already have two Cordovas, one named after the city in Spain and one after the city in Mexico. I don’t have Galisteo and Tyrone, so I’ll check them out.

Note that I’m not interested in places named for other American cities. That would be a list almost as long as the one I already have.

35

Hanover–originally spelled Hanoffer–is a very old German word that means “large plastic pretzel barrel.” Tell me I’m wrong.

36

In the USA you have various names from Scotland, including Dallas, Hamilton, Oban, Montrose, Paisley, and Rutherglen, as wee as the more obvious Glasgows and Edinburghs.

37

Melbourne, Florida. Can’t be too many named after Australian cities.

38

Damn. As “well” as. Not as “wee” as. :smack:

39

The various Dallas’s and Hamiltons in America are virtually always named for people. Don’t know of any exceptions. Already have Montrose and Paisley, but I’ll check out the other two.

Have that one; also have a Brisbane CA, which may be another.

40

Forgot to reply to this one.

Have it, and it is in fact the only sub-Saharan city in the list.

For this kind of thing, you want the ratio, not the difference. Otherwise it’ll always be whatever is the largest city in the list. That’ll be Shanghai, if that turns out to be valid, otherwise Beijing/Pekin.

Not sure about American cities, but Calgary, Alberta may have the largest ratio. It’s hard to say, because Calgary, Scotland is so small Wikipedia doesn’t give a population.