Let’s start with an example of something whose name derives from a place, although the place is less well known than its namesake. Identify the region it’s named after, then give your suggestion.
To begin: RMS Lusitania
Lusitania: The ancient Roman province corresponding to modern-day Portugal.
Edam cheese
Edam is a town in the province of North Holland, Netherlands.
Romaine lettuce
Which is near a dam on the river E,
Romaine lettuce is named after Rome, because it was imported into western Europe by way of that city.
Tuxedo.
Tuxedo Park, New York, where the story goes that younger members of the Lorillard tobacco family rakishly decided to cut the tails off their formal tailcoats. But according to the Wall Street Journal, the black dinner jacket was commissioned by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, in 1865; he wanted something less formal than a frock coat or cutaway.
Paisley.
The original Persian droplet-like motif is considered to represent a floral spray combined with a cypress tree, a Zoroastrian symbol of life and eternity. The East India Company via the ‘silk routes’ brought the textile pattern to Europe in the 18th centuary and it found a particular home in the textile mills of Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland.
gingham
Either from a Malay word meaning “Separate, divided” or from the town of Guingamp in Brittany, where the fabric may have been made — take your pick.
The world of fabrics provides many words of this kind. Calico.
Coarse, unbleached and undyed cotton fabric originally from the city of Calicut, India made by weavers known as cāliyans.
grog
Bzzt! Infringement!
Grog, alcoholic drink in general, comes from naval slang grog, rum diluted with water for issue to sailors, which is called after Old Grogram, the nickname of one Admiral Vernon who ordered the dilution, so called because he habitually wore a cloak made of grogram, a coarse blend of silk, mohair and wool stiffed with gum which is relatively water- and wind-resistant, which comes from the French gros grain, a large or coarse grain.
A fascinating etymology, but no placenames involved anywhere along the way.
Nothing new posed on the previous entry, so here’s a two-stage toponym:
dollar
A coin collector question! Comes from the German word thaler, which was the old Austrian currency.
guitar
Which means “valley”, specifically one with mines in Joachimsthal in modern Czech Republic.
“Thal” is Germanic for “valley”, but Thaler was a contraction of Joachimsthaler = "from Joachim’s Valley, in present day Czech Republic. ETA ninja’d
I’m not finding any geographic association for guitar.
Originally from Greek kithara.
OK, Chefguy, you’re missing the point here. Kithara doesn’t refer to a place. Re-read the OP and post something else!
Slight diversion:
I’ve always liked “Battle of the Little Bighorn” for its incredibly long chain of what it’s named for…
whoops…
sigh
I think less than half the posts so far conform to the OP’s idea for a game: answer the implied puzzle of the previous post by supplying the place that corresponds to the toponym, then pose one of your own.
Should we give up on this? I still like the idea.
Here’s a good one:
Cerasum (latin), an ancient Roman town in what’s now Turkey. It’s now called Giresun.