The borough of Brooklyn was not named such because there was a brook nearby, but was named after the Dutch town of Breukelen.
Charlotte, NC, is named for King George III’s wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and Charlotte’s county, Mecklenburg, derives its name from her title.
Given the number of Charles II-derived place names in the Colonies, most people assume Charlotte a feminized place name related to him. We have a state name for that. 
Lots of use of “Clinton” in Pennsylvania and none is related to Billery in any way.
I’m more surprised by names we would never consider today that still remain. If you are ever around Altoona/Ebensburg, break out your GPS and visit Jewtown (some maps have it as Jew Town) just to say you were there.
Liberal, KS was supposedly named for an early resident’s “liberal” policy of giving water to travelers.
… is in the southern portion of the state, explaining why Dixie State University is there.
Its full name is the Outerbridge Crossing - the Port Authority thought “Outerbridge Bridge” would be too clumsy.
Rededicating probably fits. King County was originally dedicated to William Rufus DeVane King and then it was rededicated to Martin Luther King.
Nome was also known as Anvil City during the gold rush there. The “? Name” explanation was given by Britain’s Chief Cartographer around 1900.
Chicken, Alaska was supposedly called that because nobody knew how to spell ptarmigan. I think that’s likely an apocryphal story, as ‘chicken’ is synonymous with ‘ptarmigan’ in that part of the world.
Wyoming is not a Plains Indian word, but an east coast Indian word. The territory was named for the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania.
Sort of apropos, Brazil is named for the nut-bearing tree with reddish wood (root related to “brazier” – burning embers)…so the nut is a “brazil nut,” lower case, because it had a name before the landmass/country did.
Interesting… a lot of people in Rochester probably don’t know that. There’s a Catholic college there named after St. John Fisher, and the name was chosen because Fisher had been the bishop of Rochester, before he was put to death by Henry VIII.
Lyon County in Nevada is named for the first Union General killed in the Civil War. And why the hell not? 
Tuba City, AZ, named for a Hopi headman, not for a confluence of brass instruments.
“Coney” was an old-fashioned name for either rabbits or rabbit fur.
There used to be a lot of wild cottontail rabbits in what’s now Brooklyn, and the neighborhood of Coney Island was named for the rabbits who used to be found in large numbers there.
Not quite. The country was named after the wood of the brazilwood tree (Caesalpinia echina). The nut comes from an entirely different tree, the Brazil nut tree (*Bertholletia excelsa *), which is named after the country as far as I can tell.
Yes, but what’s “taters,” Precious?
Coalinga, CA. Generally pronounced Co-ah-LING-gah, which makes it sound like some exotic foreign word. Started as a railroad siding - “Coaling A”.
Lord only knows what people might guess about Two Dot, MT. The land was donated by a rancher known as “Two Dot” because he branded his cattle with a very simple brand consisting of two dots.
There are educational institutions (including some universities) in Pennsylvania named California, Wyoming, Indiana, Delaware. Washington and Ohio. (And maybe some more I can’t think of.)
The longest river entirely within Texas is the Colorado.
Missouri has towns named California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada.
Within Kansas, the Arkansas River is pronounced /ar-KAN-zus/, as is Arkansas City, Kansas…
nm
It was originally named after a racist, pro-slavery VP. The agitation was to rename it on those grounds, and there was an exceptionally convenient figure to rename it after.
Makes perfect sense and justice to me…
Now let’s see if someone can explain Toad Suck Ferry, Arkansas.