# New York, New Jersey, New England...: how many US names with a memento of the old homeland? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 3, 2013, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387 "2013-05-03T05:49:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![KittenKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kittenkat/32/306_2.png) [@KittenKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KittenKat)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/21 "2013-05-03T17:03:35Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Off the top of my head, there’s a New London near me, as well as a Manchester and Portsmouth. There are two Manchesters, actually - one in New Hampshire and one in Vermont. And Boston, of course. There’s also a Manchester, CT. And are you referring to New London, NH? There’s one of those in Connecticut, too. Also in Connecticut are Glastonbury, Marlborough, Windsor, and Groton, to name just a few more. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/22 "2013-05-03T17:21:36Z")
> [@KittenKat](#): > > There’s also a Manchester, CT. And are you referring to New London, NH? There’s one of those in Connecticut, too. > > Also in Connecticut are Glastonbury, Marlborough, Windsor, and Groton, to name just a few more. The New England region in general is ridiculous about having a standard set of names from Merry Old England that appear in each of the six New England states or most of them anyway. The states aren’t that big so it can get confusing when two or more places with the same name are within easy driving distance. It is like the early English settlers brought a book of existing place name when England with them and they thought those were the only ones they could pick from. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/23 "2013-05-03T17:23:39Z")
There’s a number of Versailleses, most of which are pronounced with shameless disregard for the French. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/24 "2013-05-03T18:34:02Z")
Within easy driving distance of my former home in Harrisburg, PA, there are towns called York, Carlisle, Lancaster and Reading. There are also smaller settlements named Shrewsbury, Manchester and Campbeltown. As far as I can tell, Scotland, PA is a suburb of Chambersburg. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/25 "2013-05-03T18:34:12Z")
> [@moriah](#): > > Hundreds and hundreds of place names refer to the Old Country. If it ain’t Old Country name, then it’s most likely American Indian. Just look at county names. **ahem** As a Hispanic comedian put it a number of years back, in a line delivered after working up Anglo audiences: “Hey! If it wasn’t for us you people wouldn’t have any place names!” (Which lets me slide in a plug for Harry Turtledove’s _Case of the Toxic Spell Dump_, which hilarilously rewrites Southern California on an all-Anglo basis.) ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/26 "2013-05-04T03:02:34Z")
Birmingham, Alabama. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/27 "2013-05-04T03:18:35Z")
Both Rome and Athens are in Georgia, but probably only wine aficionados notice that Valle d’Aosta is too. ---
**Author:** ![Cerealbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Cerealbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerealbox)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/28 "2013-05-04T03:22:06Z")
I know Virginia was named after Queen Elizabeth I. She was unmarried and thus was called, slyly, “the Virgin Queen” (because everyone knew she wasn’t). To my knowledge Virginia remains the only state whose name calls British monarch a whore. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/29 "2013-05-04T03:29:30Z")
What is your basis for this interpretation? ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/30 "2013-05-04T04:31:11Z")
> [@Cerealbox](#): > > She was unmarried and thus was called, slyly, “the Virgin Queen” (because everyone knew she wasn’t). She almost certainly was, at least in the technical sense. The risk of getting pregnant would have been far too great (in the sense that she would have been executed, and the country would probably have ended up ruled by Spain, and returned to Catholicism). Which isn’t to say she didn’t have a certain amount of fun with her favourites. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/31 "2013-05-04T05:08:40Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Taunton sounds kinda like Saugus (also in Massachusetts, and an Indian name). It also sounds like the animal Luke and Han rode around on in _The Empire Strikes Back_. And you thought they smelled bad on the _outside_! ---
**Author:** ![SecretaryofEvil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/32 "2013-05-04T08:53:50Z")
There’s Dover, Delaware and Dover, New Jersey. And Newark, Delaware and Newark, New Jersey. There must be hundreds, if not thousands of answers to this question. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/33 "2013-05-04T08:58:36Z")
American places that are _not_ named after places in (someone or other’s) old country would probably be a shorter list. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/34 "2013-05-04T09:11:59Z")
Is New Castle named after Newcastle ? ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/35 "2013-05-04T20:43:28Z")
Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland. Named for King George II, Charles I (both N and S), and Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I, respectively. Then Louisiana for King Louis XIV. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/36 "2013-05-04T21:01:57Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Certainly not. > > Baltimore, Maryland was named after Lord Baltimore, who was from Baltimore, Ireland, and Baltimore comes from the Irish for “town of the big house”. Baltimore also has an area called Dundalk, presumably named for the Irish town of that name. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/37 "2013-05-04T21:48:46Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Certainly not. > > Baltimore, Maryland was named after Lord Baltimore, who was from Baltimore, Ireland, and Baltimore comes from the Irish for “town of the big house”. The title “Lord Baltimore” does derive from an Irish placename (although not the well-known village in Co. Cork), but the holders of that title were not Irish, had no personal connection to Ireland and probably never visited Ireland. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/38 "2013-05-04T22:30:04Z")
Paris, Tx Odessa, Tx Dublin, Tx New Braunfels, Tx Muenster, Tx ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/39 "2013-05-04T22:53:57Z")
New Orleans ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387/40 "2013-05-04T23:03:39Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > Paris, Tx > Odessa, Tx > Dublin, Tx > New Braunfels, Tx > Muenster, Tx Boerne, Bergheim, New Sweden, New London, Scotland, Somerset, Palestine and even Delhi can be added to to the Texas List. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-york-new-jersey-new-england-how-many-us-names-with-a-memento-of-the-old-homeland/657387.md?page=3)