Why do Americans always refer to cities by both their name and the state (or country) they are located in?
Is there more than one New York? more than one Los Angeles? more than one San Francisco? more than one Helsinki, Moscow, Vienna or Paris?
We don’t, really. Where did you get the idea this was something we did regularly? Generally, I (and all Americans I know) will only mention the state or country if there could be some confusion (such as if someone were to visit one of the Springfields).
We address mail with the city and state, of course, but I don’t think that’s what you’re talking about.
There is a Paris, Texas. And an Odessa in Texas, Canada and Russia.
It’s something I encounter very often, I’m in England. I just started working with someone who is from “Oklahoma city, Oklahoma”. but I’ve also met several people who tell me they are from “New York, New York” or “Houston, Texas” or “Fort Lauderdale, Florida” etc.
It seems that they think I’ve never seen an atlas.
I think you’re right that it’s done a lot. Just a quaint local custom. Part of it is probably that states have more political importance (I think) than do counties in England; states are like individual countries, 50 of them banded together.
I’m aware that several cities have been “cloned”.
If you met someone who said they are from London and they had an English accent you would probably guess that they are not from Ontario.
If I met someone with a southern American accent who told me they are from Paris I’d guess they weren’t from France.
Ah, but I believe there are other towns called Paris too, in other states. And the only reason people have heard of Paris, Texas is because of the movie. Most people probably want to be identified with a state rather than just “the South.” Not sure why this would really bother anyone, to tell you the truth.
It’s possible they think you’re geographically dense or something, as you say. Certainly, I’ve never heard anyone announce to me, “I’m from New York, New York!” Hell, many of those from New York City, if they don’t just go straight to saying their borough of origin, just say they’re from “New York”.
For what it’s worth, the way I tend to tell it to people, I live in Chicago, but I’m from Florida. “Florida” is easier to say than “St. Petersburg”, plenty specific enough, and is less likely to get confused with a location in Russia.
That’s true, New York City is not one I’ve heard identified along with the state, unless they’re giving a mailing address or singing that song.
There are 30 cities and towns named Franklin, 29 named Clinton and a number of other names attached to more than 20 locations, so adding a state name does sometimes eliminate confusion.
But mostly it’s because the U.S. is such a damn big nation. It’s not really that informative to say “I’m from Brownsville,” – a rather generic place name that is found in 18 states – or “I’m from Texas,” – when Texas is larger than France. “I’m from Brownsville, Texas” narrows it down considerably.
It is true, though, that it’s done with some cities that are large enough you’d think it would be understood. Houston, Texas is one I heard a lot even when I lived in Texas.
It doesn’t bother me at all, I was just wondering why people feel the need to point it out. Paris is probably not the best example.
New York needs no further explanation, nor does Oklahoma city or Houston.
I like to think a person from England would know that Los Angeles was California and New York was New York, and it’s not that hard to figure out which state Oklahoma City is in (although there is an Arkansas City that is not in Arkansas and a Kansas City that’s not in Kansas). But I wouldn’t necessarily expect a person from England to even know the names of all the states in the US, let alone that Las Vegas might be Nevada or it might be New Mexico. They are just trying to narrow it down for you.
I used to tell people I was from Los Angeles. I wasn’t really–but I figured they knew of or had heard of LA, whereas they probably wouldn’t have heard of Lemon Heights. For a person in England I probably would have just said California and left it at that.
We do it a fair amount in Canada too, though not as much as in the US (we probably say “Toronto, Ontario” less than Americans say “Chicago, Illinois,” but substantially more than, say, Germans say “Dresden, Saxony”). I imagine it’s for two reasons:
- a very strong federalist tradition, combined with
- obligatorily writing the city and province/state/territory on addresses. (It’s always “New York NY” or “Toronto ON” and so forth, which it rarely is in other countries – you don’t write “Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône” or “Madrid, Provincia de Madrid”, you just write Paris or Madrid.)
It’s a quirk of North American speech. We probably say “Paris, France” and “London, England” and “Tokyo, Japan” more than other English-speakers and speakers of other languages do.
Yeah, but that’s Texas. Texans, as a general rule, have a compulsive need to inform everyone around them of their Texan-ness, even when they’re in Texas at that particular moment.
Oklahoma City is not one I’ve ever heard identified with state, again unless they’re telling a mailing address, as in “1234 Main Street, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.” Except for a case like that, usually if the state’s name is incorporated in the city’s name – like New York or Texas City – the state is also not identified except for ironic purposes.
Ironic purposes I’m sure is part of why I’d here “Houston, Texas” even when I was in Texas, just rednecks trying to play up their redneckness.
I see you’ve been to Texas. 
Well, in general, New Yorkers just say they’re from “New York” or, perhaps “the City.*”
“New York, New York” comes from a variety of things.
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When giving a mailing address, you always give the city and state (640 Broadway, New York, New York**). Many businesses were headquartered in New York City, so if they were asking for you to send a letter (back a century ago), they’d say “New York, New York.” It became even more common on the radio. People got used to the usage.
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The phrase started being used in songs: “New York, New York, it’s a wonderful town/the Bronx is up and the Battery’s down.” Thus, people got even more used to hearing it.
As far as other cities are concerned, it depends on the size of the city. Newspaper style manuals have lists of cites that don’t require any state when their in an article; some include Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Denver, Phoenix, St. Louis, New Orleans, Miami, etc. As a rule of thumb, if a city has a major league sports team, you don’t specify the state, even if there could be confusion (e.g., Portland means Oregon, not Maine). In a case where there are two cities with the same name, the bigger one can go without the state designation, while the smaller one gets it (e.g., Portland vs. Portland, ME), unless one city is nearer to you than the other (if you live in Maine, Portland is Maine, while Portland, OR, is the other city).
So, in general, large cities don’t mention the state; smaller cities do. What defines “large” and “small” is a matter of opinion.
*I understand San Francisco uses this, too.
**The address of the Empire State Building. No, not that Empire State Building. The other one.
This is an ongoing gripe with the city in North Carolina called Charlotte. Newspapers genearlly have a set of cities that they always “qualify,” and those that they don’t. For instance, they wouldn’t qualify Chicago or Philadelphia. But they still say Charlotte, North Carolina. Charlotte always makes the push that they are big enough and well enough known so they don’t need the qualifier anymore.
That said, when I listen to shortwave, it still sounds odd to me when foreign stations called it Chicago, USA or Philadelphia, The United States or even Kansas City, USA. I’m so used to the qualifer being a state and not the nation.
Remember the episode of All In The Family when Archie got into trouble for sending a shipment to London, England instead of London, Ontario.
I never considered “New York, New York” (the song) meant NYC, NY. I always assumed the name was being repeated, like “Chicago, Chicago, that wonderful town…” Oops.