Not necessarily. The majority of current US was colonised long after it became an independent state.
I'd argue the majority of English-based naming though are in the original 13 colonies and were named prior to 1776. Having lived on both coasts, it sure seems that is the case.
A lot of the other places are likely due to later immigrants building their own communities west of those colonies, and then there are a lot of coincidences as well.
And then there's a ton of cities named after Bible references.
I’ve lived in the Midwest, and after moving to New England, this it very much the case. Most of the 4-5 states that make up New England are full of towns with the same names from old England used over and over.
But in the plus side we don’t sound like idiots when we visit and know how to pronounce Gloucester and Worcester.
French Canadians in New England did the opposite though, and seem to aggressively mispronounce their French locations (Calais, Barre, Montpelier).
And a tiny village in the east of the Netherlands nowhere near the sea, funnily enough
US did it with a whole country named after a continent. What's your country? those states who decided to unite. Which ones? The ones of America. Ah those ones.
It's not 'United States of North America', it's just United States of America. America is actually two continents.
Not like that makes it any better LOL, just saying..
We're also not the only union of states in the Americas either. Mexico and Brazil both have states, too.
At least as united as the US states... which is not a high bar most days of the week.
Could I refer to the US, Mexico and Brazil collectively as the not-united-united-states? (As in, they're each united states, but they're all not united)
On second thought, I hereby petition all three countries to unite together to form the United United States of the Americas
Edit: and just for funsies, because that name is too long, they insist on calling themselves the United Nations. Their citizens call themselves Americans. 🙃
You're aware that there are multiple geographic models, right? In some, "America" is a single continent spaning from Alaska to Patagonia. Also, in many "Australia" isn't a continent - that would be Oceania.
Europeans love to point that stuff out. They always say it with this sort of relish like 'you call yourselves Americans, but isn't that the continent name?'
What the alternative, Statesians? US American? Who do they think named it anyway? It's not like we just made the call - it was their anscestors as much as mine who did it!
I understand there are people who say that while being serious, but just in case I was joking in the same sense as the New Zealand one. I'm sure if we look up real meaning of some old countries names they turn out to be weird or too simple.
Oh yeah sorry if my annoyance seemed directed at your post, that wasn't my intention. I had to rant because those who are serious and all smarmy about it really grind my gears.
It's originally a city in North Yorkshire, so the English aren't all that original with their city names either.
Hey now. York isn't THAT bad, even though a Google search for "York PA" has a video called "York Pennsylvania Sucks" as one of the top results...
I used to have a motorcycle that was manufactured there.
EDIT: I checked out of curiosity and I still have a motorcycle that was manufactured there.
Sometimes they don’t even put new in front of it. Illinois has a Milan, but they pronounce it My-lan. Smh
There's a Bagdad in Tasmania too, went past it when I was down there a while back (as well as Jericho and the Nile River).
Supposedly that city is named after a dad who ran a mining operation loading stuff out in bags. Ridiculous.
There's also a Bagdad in Florida.
I've heard that but I highly doubt it. seems like a post 9/11 freedom fries kinda deal. When I was a kid I remember hearing that they named it that way because the founder had been to Baghdad and thought it the most beautiful desert city in the world, so he wanted to invoke that spirit. Doubt the spelling was nearly as standardized back then.
Like so many cities in the US, the name is used a lot because of biblical references to it. American Christians are not a very creative bunch.
Joke can be equally made with Native American names, especially Michigan which is named from Algonquin word "Mishigamaw," meaning “big lake” or “great water,” deriving its name from the lake of the same name.
Native American words for landmarks are so cool, much better than the colonial equivalents.
Mt. McKinley - Denali
Mt. Adams - Klikitat
Mt. Jefferson - Seekseekqua
Mt. Rainier - Tacoma
Mt. Shasta - Ako-yet
What's always seemed so strange to me is how common the amount of vehicles that steal indigenous names from various places.
Cherokee (car and a plane)
Comanche
Tacoma
Cheyenne
Dakota
Taos
Pontiac (entire company)
Winnebago
Touareg
Indian (motorcycles)
Aztek
Chieftain
Star Chief
Super Chief
Thunderbird
Chief
Scout
Dark Horse
Qashqai
Oroch
Black Hawk
Chinook
Apache
These are all brand names, names of cars, motorhomes, motorcycles, military vehicles, etc. Apparently decades ago, the manufacturers didn't even shy from how these were named, and there were a lot of questionable ads.
Probably tons more throughout the world.
A lot of the Seattle area has retained its original indigenous names... Seattle itself was the name of the local chief, Tukwila, Sammamish, Issaquah, Tacoma, Puyallup, Snoqualmie.
Thia should be a post on thia sub on its own instead of a throwaway comment on a meme. This is the kinda stuff I would love to see here!
Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can't say
People just liked it better that way
I live in New England, USA. I was talking with a Brit about the British show The Archers. The Brit asked me whether I could tell which places were made up for the show and which were real. I told him that if I new a place in New England named something, it was probably a real place in the UK.
Pennsylvania has a York and a Lancaster. And their very own War of the Roses.PA War of the Roses
The third one in this series is my favorite
York isn't just a city in England, it's also a city in Pennsylvania.
Also, the existence of New Caledonia and New Britain tells me it's not just Americans doing this.
I mean, they weren't always Americans at the time, but it's still funny :)
Besides, it was the new world (in that it was new to Europeans)
There are like twelve Londons in the US. Looks like we exported only the best and the most creative.
We even do it to ourselves
Indigenous PNWers call white folks bostoners because of how many of them originally came from Mass and named their new settlements after towns in Mass
I remember flying to NYC from Europe and being very confused at seeing the very same names on the in-flight map as when we departed. Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris.. they had all of them!
