# Univision weather: why Nueva York y Nueva Orleans, but not Cuidad Kansas and Bufalo? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 7, 2008, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/univision-weather-why-nueva-york-y-nueva-orleans-but-not-cuidad-kansas-and-bufalo/459220 "2008-08-07T21:44:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/univision-weather-why-nueva-york-y-nueva-orleans-but-not-cuidad-kansas-and-bufalo/459220/1 "2008-08-07T21:44:40Z")
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP3ZH0vbueU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP3ZH0vbueU) \* The title is the question: why are the Spanish names used for NYC and New Orleans (“Nueva York” and “Nueva Orleans”), but not for Kansas City and Buffalo? (“Cuidad Kansas” and “Bufalo”)? - (Yeah, I know as a heterosexual male, I shouldn’t be looking at the city names. Still, as a geography geek …) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/univision-weather-why-nueva-york-y-nueva-orleans-but-not-cuidad-kansas-and-bufalo/459220/2 "2008-08-07T22:42:04Z")
Why do I feel hot all of a sudden? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/univision-weather-why-nueva-york-y-nueva-orleans-but-not-cuidad-kansas-and-bufalo/459220/3 "2008-08-07T23:30:41Z")
Significant Spanish-speaking local population? Another possibility is that NYC & NO register on the international scene in ways that KC & Buffalo do not, so Spanish-speakers abroad have a word for some U.S. cities and not others. Much the way we speak of Florence and Naples rather than Firenze and Napoli, but have no problem discussing Piacenza and San Gimignano in Italian. (Sorry, I couldn’t think of any Spanish examples.) And no doubt irrelevant, but as far as I know the only U.S. city the Welsh discuss in Welsh is _Efrog Newydd_, even when there’s an obvious translation (Los Angeles = Yr Angylion; St. Petersburg = Llanpedr / Lampeter). ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/univision-weather-why-nueva-york-y-nueva-orleans-but-not-cuidad-kansas-and-bufalo/459220/4 "2008-08-07T23:52:32Z")
[QUOTE=Dr. Drake] Much the way we speak of Florence and Naples rather than Firenze and Napoli, but have no problem discussing Piacenza and San Gimignano in Italian. (Sorry, I couldn’t think of any Spanish examples.) [/QUOTE] Assuming you meant Spanish language as opposed to geographically Spanish, how about Mexico City vs Ciudad Juarez (sometimes just Juarez, but never Juarez City)? ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/univision-weather-why-nueva-york-y-nueva-orleans-but-not-cuidad-kansas-and-bufalo/459220/5 "2008-08-08T02:55:28Z")
I’ve never heard anything called Ciudad in English. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/univision-weather-why-nueva-york-y-nueva-orleans-but-not-cuidad-kansas-and-bufalo/459220/6 "2008-08-08T03:34:06Z")
[QUOTE=SmackFu] I’ve never heard anything called Ciudad in English. [/QUOTE] I can’t think of any other cities off the top of my head with Cuidad in the English name, but it seems pretty common for Ciudad Juarez. Cite: [Google Search](http://www.google.com/search?q=ciudad+juarez&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a) ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/univision-weather-why-nueva-york-y-nueva-orleans-but-not-cuidad-kansas-and-bufalo/459220/7 "2008-08-08T03:43:11Z")
What they said. There is a varying, hard-to-pin-down convention among various Western languages that links the practice of translating and/or transposing to your own phonetics the name for a place or person, with how and when the name entered the consciousness of the majority of a language’s speakers. Similarly, in Spanish it’s **Jorge** Washington, but **George** Bush; it’s “Londres” for London but Liverpool is what it is. “Nueva” Orleans of course has the particularity that from 1769 to 1802 that _WAS_ the official name, while you bet anglophones and francophones were still calling it “New” and “Nouvelle” on their maps just the same. And I very much want want her to tell me about the effects of mountains on climate patterns in deep valleys, Og help me… ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/univision-weather-why-nueva-york-y-nueva-orleans-but-not-cuidad-kansas-and-bufalo/459220/8 "2008-08-09T02:31:11Z")
[QUOTE=Dr. Drake] as far as I know the only U.S. city the Welsh discuss in Welsh is _Efrog Newydd_ [/QUOTE] Which is??? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/univision-weather-why-nueva-york-y-nueva-orleans-but-not-cuidad-kansas-and-bufalo/459220/9 "2008-08-09T05:03:31Z")
[QUOTE=Do Not Taunt] Assuming you meant Spanish language as opposed to geographically Spanish, how about Mexico City vs Ciudad Juarez (sometimes just Juarez, but never Juarez City)? [/QUOTE] There’s actually some logic to that. The actual name of Mexico City is “Mexico.” “City”/“Ciudad” is not part of the formal name, but just appended to distinguish it from the country. So it’s not “Ciudad Mexico,” but “Ciudad _de_ Mexico.” The same goes for Guatemala City and Panama City; their names are simply “Guatemala” and “Panama” respectively. (Panama City, Florida, however, actually is called “Panama City.”) Ciudad Juarez is different, in that “Ciudad” is actually part of the name. It is sometimes called Juarez for short; however, it is never called “Ciudad de Juarez,” indicating that Juarez alone is not the city’s name. The same thing applies to city names in English. The formal name of New York City is “New York”; it can also be referred to as “The City of New York.” This is not the case for Kansas City or Jersey City, where “City” is a integral part of the name. You would not refer to them as “The City of Kansas” or “The City of Jersey.” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/univision-weather-why-nueva-york-y-nueva-orleans-but-not-cuidad-kansas-and-bufalo/459220/10 "2008-08-09T05:18:59Z")
[QUOTE=SmackFu] I’ve never heard anything called Ciudad in English. [/QUOTE] Ciudad Juarez is by far the best-known one, but there are also Ciudad Obregon and Ciudad Victoria in Mexico, and Ciudad Bolivar and Ciudad Guayana in Venezuela; there are others. Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic was formerly known as Ciudad Trujillo. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/univision-weather-why-nueva-york-y-nueva-orleans-but-not-cuidad-kansas-and-bufalo/459220/11 "2008-08-09T06:22:06Z")
[QUOTE=HeyHomie] Which is??? [/QUOTE] Sorry. Efrog = York (both from Eboracum) and Newydd = New, in other words New York.