We also use a whole ton of Native American names for places, though badly mangled in pronunciation I'm sure.
I suppose that still makes us fairly uncreative with place names.
this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2025
166 points (98.8% liked)
History Memes
1052 readers
1453 users here now
A place to share history memes!
Rules:
-
No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, assorted bigotry, etc.
-
No fascism (including tankies/red fash), atrocity denial or apologia, etc.
-
Tag NSFW pics as NSFW.
-
Follow all Piefed.social rules.
Banner courtesy of @setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world
founded 6 months ago
MODERATORS
Spanish names too in the west
The spanish names are always funny since they're often just descriptions.
El Paso: The Pass
Los Angeles: The Angels
Los Alamos: The Poplars
Frio County: Cold County
And many many other examples.
Florida -> Flowery
What ... what exactly does "The Angels" describe
Los Angeles is actually a shortening of a much longer name, the specifics of which is unknown. It seems to be poetically named after Mary, some variant of "the city of our lady of angels". Many places along the west coast were named after religious figures, hence the prevalence of "san" or "santa".
They said often, not always π
Someone else who lived in the Seattle area!!
The PNW for sure, but also all over. Milwaukee, Tallahassee, Tucson and Connecticut are all Native American in origin.
Oh true.
Many made up to sound like names they came up with.
Every state in the union has a "Springfield" just so it keeps the state The Simpsons live in ambiguous. Kinda wild that the founding fathers planned that out.
Any State which joins the Union shall and must have one town named "Springfield", trust me it will pay off.
Notorious time traveller and sex worker enthusiast Ben Franklin, 1775
"New place in europe" and "place in britain/france specifically but mispronounced" are also valid options
Memphis, Alexandria, and Cairo are my favourite ones.
They also have 25 cities named Washington, 25 named Lincoln, 32 named Franklin, 30 named Clinton, 22 named Milton and 22 Oxford, 19 Winchester, 24 Manchester... some of the cities with repeated names are even in the same state :S
Pain in the ass when checking weather for a particular city or booking flights/hotels. Need to triple check it is actually the right place.
How many Springfields?
Lafayette
Most of the places east of the Ohio River were named by Europeans, we just took the idea, enhanced it and made it nation wide. Why do we need six towns named Paris? Though, we do have a lot of places named after places in the Middle East/Egypt, thereβs about five Cairos and a bunch of Bethlehems
Yeah ohio has a Medina (meh-die-nuh) and a mecca (idk how you'd pronounce it wrong but by the gods they probably do)
They also have a Defiance which got a punk band named after it, so that's a creative name. Must balance out the Circleville, Centerville, Middletown bs
The most incredible place for me is the Mohawk Valley... Rome, Utica, etc.
There's a Venice in California.
Wish they'd at least stick with "New [place in Europe]". In effect it tends to end up as "[place in Europe], [US state]" anyway. Though I guess you end up with the latter anyway if reuse some names 20+ times.