# US cities - three words or more? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 9, 2022, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974 "2022-10-09T14:28:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/21 "2022-10-09T16:25:01Z")
These villages on Long Island: Head of the Harbor Village of the Branch North Great River North Bay Shore Shelter Island Heights Cold Spring Harbor Great Neck Estates Garden City Park Malverne Park Oaks ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/22 "2022-10-09T16:27:47Z")
Fine, we’ll stick to the theme. > **[Cut and Shoot, Texas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_and_Shoot,_Texas)** > > Cut and Shoot is a city in eastern Montgomery County, Texas, United States, about 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Conroe and 40 miles (64 km) north of Houston. Until 2006, Cut and Shoot was considered and called a "town". Then, the town council elected for it to be considered and referred to as a "city". The population was 1,087 at the 2020 census. > According to one local legend, Cut and Shoot was named after a 1912 community confrontation that almost led to violence. According to differing versions of... ---
**Author:** ![jjakucyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jjakucyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjakucyk)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/23 "2022-10-09T16:29:21Z")
Honorable mention to Niagara-on-the-Lake. It’s actually in Canada but right on the border. Near me there’s a Sixteen Mile Stand and a Mt. Healthy Heights, but they’re just census designated places, not incorporated municipalities so boo. Still, I wouldn’t say Mt. Healthy Heights necessarily follows the upper/lower or north/south exclusion per se. There is a city called Mt. Healthy nearby, but their names don’t play on one another. Similarly there’s a legit North College Hill (an independent municipality as distinct from the Cincinnati neighborhood College Hill), so there isn’t a South College Hill or any other municipality with College Hill in its name. Here’s one to mull over. In Ohio, incorporated municipalities are either villages or cities. A village automatically becomes a city when the population reaches 5,000 and vice versa. Well, the residents of Indian Hill wanted to pretend they’re still a village even though the population grew above 5,000 by 1970. So they renamed the city “The Village of Indian Hill” which technically means it’s “The City of The Village of Indian Hill”, showing up under either T or V in alphabetical listings. I was beaten to Washington Court House, oh well. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/24 "2022-10-09T16:33:21Z")
I considered adding North College Hill and Indian Hill but I figured they didn’t meet the OP’s limitations. ---
**Author:** ![jjakucyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jjakucyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjakucyk)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/25 "2022-10-09T16:50:26Z")
Indian Hill would have to count considering its actual name is five words. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/26 "2022-10-09T16:55:16Z")
As a technicality only. Everyone calls it “Indian Hill.” That’s what its name is meant to be. But also, I would consider “the Village of” to constitute a descriptive element ruled out by the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/27 "2022-10-09T16:57:58Z")
According to Wikipedia’s [list of US cities by population](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population), the largest (by population) three-word placename in the USA would be the country’s 79th largest city, North Las Vegas, Nevada, at about 250,000. If we exclude that because of “North” being similar to the excluded “Upper” (and because it’s generally thought to be part of metropolitan Las Vegas, I suppose), then the next in line is Port St. Lucie, Florida (population 205,000, 105th largest city in the USA). I wouldn’t count cases where (as in Los Angeles) the polysyllabic name is only historical and neither commonly used nor official under current law, but it’s surely possible to disagree on this point. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/28 "2022-10-09T17:01:07Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California. > > a/k/a Cardiff Also, Carmel-by-the-Sea and Half Moon Bay, both in California. And Croton-on-Hudson, New York. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/29 "2022-10-09T17:14:20Z")
South Lake Tahoe, CA. Ciry of Industry, CA. Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. Santa Fe Springs, CA. ---
**Author:** ![jjakucyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jjakucyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjakucyk)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/30 "2022-10-09T17:15:59Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > As a technicality only. Everyone calls it “Indian Hill.” That’s what its name is meant to be. But also, I would consider “the Village of” to constitute a descriptive element ruled out by the OP. But isn’t technically correct the best kind of correct? 🙂 Technically any village can be called “The Village of…” or any city can be called “The City of…”, but the fact that they added “The Village of” to the actual name, despite it being a city, means it’s not a descriptive element, because it’s wrong. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/31 "2022-10-09T17:19:44Z")
Truth or Consequences, NM ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/32 "2022-10-09T17:21:50Z")
Is its complete and official name “The City of The Village of Indian Hill”? In that case, I’d say that the “The Village of…” part is not a technicality but part of the actual name. If the complete name is, however, “The Village of Indian Hill”, then I’d say that the “The Village of…” part is a technicality, analogous to the “City of…” part in the official names of many other cities, even if it is wrong in substance. A similar case, in Canada, is Dawson City, Yukon, which is officially called the City of Dawson although it has been downgraded from a city to a town. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/33 "2022-10-09T17:24:25Z")
It’s still a descriptive element. And “only technically correct” to me is of a lesser class than “correct.” I consider bureaucratic shenanigans to be less definitive than actual usage. For example, back when the official name of Washington Court House was “the City of Washington,” I considered the “official” name less correct than the commonly used name. ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/34 "2022-10-09T17:31:11Z")
Being the OP, i would like to exclude any geographic terms in the city/town names - thus rejecting most of those Long Island names. ---
**Author:** ![jjakucyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3d9bf3/32.png) [@jjakucyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjakucyk)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/35 "2022-10-09T17:55:45Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > Is its complete and official name “The City of The Village of Indian Hill”? According to Wikipedia yes, but you know how that goes. I don’t think that in Ohio “The City of” or “The Village of” are required as part of the complete and official name, they’re just prepended automatically in much the same way as Mr. or Mrs. It’s like Indian Hill got married, but still wanted to be called Miss instead of Mrs., so they added Miss to their given name, leading to Mrs. “Miss Indian Hill”. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/36 "2022-10-09T18:08:53Z")
Palos Verdes Estates, CA ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/37 "2022-10-09T18:10:04Z")
Florida has them by the dozen, even if you delete ones with “North” or “Village.” You can’t do better than Sea Ranch Lakes, which is an enclave inside Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. BTW, the OP makes a mistake so common that even I’ve done it. There is no place named New York City. It’s just New York. People automatically add “City” to distinguish it from New York State. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/38 "2022-10-09T19:28:59Z")
Are apostrophe’d and contracted names acceptable? Does Coeur d’Alene in Idaho count? ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/39 "2022-10-09T19:40:06Z")
[_La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís_](https://www.straightdope.com/21342420/most-towns-beginning-with-santa-are-named-after-saints-so-who-was-fe), the real name of Santa Fe ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2022, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974/40 "2022-10-09T21:40:48Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > [Town and Country](http://www.city-data.com/city/Town-and-Country-Missouri.html), Missouri (a wealthy suburb of St. Louis) And Town and Country, MO abuts Crystal Lake Park and completely surrounds Country Life Acres. Just a few miles north lies Portage des Sioux. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-cities-three-words-or-more/972974.md?page=3)