Michigan has Paradise and Climax, but nowhere near each other. I always thought it would make for some great stories “Kids, I was twenty when I first came to Climax.”
The name origin may be “beau fleuve” rather than “beau fleur”:
“The claim that the name is an Anglicized form of the name Beau Fleuve (beautiful river), which was supposedly an exclamation uttered by Louis Hennepin when he first saw the stream, is a likely explanation”
Thanks – seems considerably more believable than the “fleur” option. On reflection – I was very young and naive when I had the conversation to which I referred: it might be that the guy was talking about “fleuve”, not “fleur”, and I misconstrued.
Bend, Grand Rapids, ~ Falls
Offhand, that gives me Oregon, Michigan, and South Dakota (Sioux Falls)
Also Snowflake Az
Ignorance fought–it’s often kids who think they have the answers
As for the title question of this thread, while New York State has many Native American names downstate (like Manhattan) and many cities named for classical Greek and Roman towns or people (Syracuse, Troy), it still has its share of English names:
Upstate:
Auburn
Fairport
Weedsport
Parish
Old Forge
Watertown
Fort Drum
Downstate:
Middletown
Highland
Cold Spring
White Plains
Long Island:
Queens (not a city or town on its own, one of NYC’s 5 boroughs, but it has a population of 2.4 million)
Floral Park
Little Neck
Great Neck
Garden City
Valley Stream
Freeport
Cold Spring Harbor
East Meadow
Bay Shore
Stony Brook
Riverhead
Greenport
Southold
Orient
Although the name does mean something in English, Ft. Drum is named after Lt. Gen. Hugh A. Drum.
Both Hell and Paradise, Michigan, have been mentioned, and I’d forgotten about Climax, so I’ll contribute “Bad Axe.”
We have “Royal Oak,” which, I suppose is kind of low effort, but not as a low effort as mentioning “St. Clair Shores,” which meaning is obvious in English.
Here in Indiana, several towns have picturesque names. Gnaw Bone leaps out. Aroma is north of here, as is Mexico. French Lick was mentioned about 60 posts ago, and I’ll tell you that Lick Creek runs through it, and it was settled by French fur traders. Right near here is the town of Lapel, which was named for the shape of the original streets on a map. Closer yet is a little place called Hardscrabble.
Has Horseheads, NY been mentioned yet?
There’s nothing catchy about the name. It wasn’t named after an obscure historical figure and it isn’t some non-English phrase that has an unfortunate sound. The city really was named after a pile of horse heads.
Oxford … there are 3 (at least) in Iowa and they have nothing to do with the same city in England. They were built on rivers and the name referred to the fact there was a low enough spot to get across with your wagons drawn by castrated bulls. Ox ford.
A ways east of Quartzite, take the road that goes northeastward (along which I recall seeing a very large propane take that seemed to belong to “Passmore Gas”), go through a small town there and as you continue up the road, you will see a large, fancy sign that says, verbatim, “Your Now Beyond Hope”.
The story I heard (unverified) is that 20th Century Fox sold off their studio lot to pay the exorbitant expenses run up by the production of Cleopatra, at the time the most expensive film ever made. The resulting real estate development became Studio City, CA. (More aptly Used-to-be-A-Studio City, CA).
Yikes, I had to look it up, and here’s the Horseheads story: Horseheads, New York - Wikipedia
Looking at it on the map, I see several towns nearby with names that mean something in English:
Painted Post
Gang Mills
Big Flats
Pine Valley
Millport
Beaver Dams
Alpine
Southport
Greenwood
West Union
South Hill
Candor
There’s also Cooper’s Plains but I don’t know whether that’s named for a person with the surname Cooper or if it was named for someone who had that occupation.
I live in Port Orchard, WA
There’s also Port Gamble and a few other "Port"s, as well as Friday Harbor, Gig Harbor and Oak Harbor. Plenty of other generic city names nearby, like Maple Valley, University Place, and Mill Creek. And tons of "Lake"s including Bonney Lake, Medical Lake, Mountlake Terrace, and my favorite, the indecisively named Lake Forest Park, WA.
There’s Federal Way, WA, which is right up there with Newport News, VA for eyebrow raising weirdness.
One odd coincidence in Washington is a series of towns in a row along the North Cascades Highway. If you drive east from Sedro-Woolley* you’ll soon pass through Concrete, Rockport and Marblemount (and Corkindale if you need something softer).
*: doesn’t quite fit the category, but sounded out it is “seed-row woolly.” It also sounds like a name of a Muppet character.
Cities in TX that I know of:
The Colony
Blessing
Rose Hill Acres
Trophy Club
Mineral Wells
Grapevine
Mesquite
Big Springs
Big Lake
Little Elm
Sunset Valley
Salt Lake City