The most common name for a US community not named after a person (behind Washington [George], Franklin [Ben], and Arlington [Earl of]) is “Centerville”. Strangely enough - eight of the 36 Centervilles are in Illinois. Some must be named after each other.
It’s the first thing that came to my mind, mainly because it’s where I’m from.
WHY would you do that? You’d never say “Hey, I really like Twinkies. Therefore, I’m going to start baking brownies and call them Twinkies.” or “I love Beatles music. I’m going to start a totally different band and we’ll call ourselves The Beatles, even though we’re playing a different genre of music… poorly.”
Hmmm, maybe I’ll film a screwball comedy and and name it “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two”…
Seriously, you create a unique town and then try to sabotage that uniqueness by giving it the same… I don’t get it. Especially when you end up with eight Centervilles in Illinois.
Funny thing, before I saw this thread I just mentioned on a work zoom Tuesday that when I’m in charge of the world, no more cities with the same name. Even if you pronounce them differently (and badly… I’m looking at you “Des Moines with an S”, Washington), it’s confusing as hell.
Most places were named when they weren’t a unique town. They were just a very small settlement in a newly settled area. A lot of them were named after the place the settlers, or at least one of them, came from. A few grew to much bigger cities, most either stayed small or disappeared.
As far as descriptive names like Centerville, those are usually not the result of naming after a former home. They’re just describing some aspect of the new town. In this case, usually because it’s in the center of a county or halfway between two more important places on a railroad line. Something like that. Such descriptive names are among the most common place names. Other examples are Fairview, Five Points, and Riverside.
IMO , the New Mexico Carlsbad is by far the most well-known of the 3, because of the eponymous caves.
Though New Orleans, Louisiana, has roughly three times the population of its namesake Orleans, France, Id’ say that, on balance, the two are roughly of the same significance historically. In different contexts, of course (one related to its own country’s history, the other to world history and that of Christendom).
A weird one for me has always been Georgia the state and Georgia the country.
What’s going on there?
The names of the state of Georgia, and the country of Georgia, appear to be utterly unrelated.
The state was originally a British colony, and was named after King George II, who had issued the colony’s charter.
The country of Georgia is apparently not called “Georgia” by its citizens; they refer to it as Sakartvelo. However, the name “Georgia” (as Westerners refer to the country) likely comes from a Persian word which was used to describe the people of that area.
bibliophage “For instance, if you mention Troy out of context, I would assume you’re talking about the abandoned ancient city near the Dardanelles, not the small city of 50,000 in New York.”
Give it another century for Troy, N.Y. to be abandoned and the similarities will be even more striking.
Plymouth, UK and Plymouth, Mass. Both quaint and yet bustling ports with lots of tourists and Knick knack shops and not much else of an economy but a fishing boat or two.
There are a few Galicia’s in Europe, apparently regions that had Celts, so they have that in common.
Why name one town after another? Maybe the founders felt that “there’s no place like home”:
"The area [Rochester MN] developed as a stagecoach stop between Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Dubuque, Iowa near the Zumbro River. The community was founded by George Head and his wife Henrietta who built log cabin Head’s Tavern in 1854 and named the city after his hometown of Rochester, New York."Rochester, Minnesota - Wikipedia
Richmond VA is much bigger than Richmond in London, but funnily enough the Richmond in London one is a rare example of a sizeable settlement in England being taking its name (indirectly) from another sizeable place in England. The original Richmond in Yorkshire was itself named after a place in Normandy.
Yes, but size is not the only factor in ‘importance’, which is what the OP asked for. As an extreme example, the Vatican City has an extremely outsized amount of importance compared to its size. The only problem is, it’s hard to judge relative importance when things are important for different reasons.
Worcester, MA and Worcester, UK? Both smallish cities 30-40 miles from much larger cities (Boston and Birmingham). Modest claims to fame - one is the home of liquid fueled rocketry, the other of Worcestershire sauce…
Similar to Worcester, it seems to me that the two Gloucester’s, England and Masschusetts, are roughly equal in importance.
First time I’ve heard Plymouth (UK version) described as ‘quaint’ with an economy based on tourists and a fishing boat or two; It’s the home of the largest naval base in Western Europe, as well as having a university with half as many students as its Massachusetts namesake has citizens (including, until very recently, me, which is why that springs to mind rather.) By UK standards it’s a reasonably large place, it not a major city.
My suggestion is Newcastle (upon Tyne) in the UK and its namesake Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. Similar population size, both coal ports built up on industry. The UK one does have a more culturally significant accent, but otherwise they’re reasonably well matched.
The biggest US city that looks up at a namesake is Glendale, California, with 191,000 people. Glendale, Arizona, is slightly bigger, as 226,000. Both are metro suburbs in a desert, and probably nearly indistinguishable.
There are Victorias of nearly equal metro size, and both state/provincial capitals, in both Canada and Mexico… Canada’s named for the queen, and Mexico’s for the first president of the republic… Victoria, Texas, weighs in to make it the only NA trifecta. Only a quarter of the size (80,000), it is the second oldest city in Texas, and was founded when still in Mexico…
Any connection with St George? He’s their patron saint and appears on their flag, so I always assumed that’s where they got the name from. Happy to be wrong on this.