The Global Origins of Town Names in Every U.S. State (With Maps!)

It’s easy to forget that place names are all just words at the end of the day, and so—just like words in a dictionary—they all have histories, etymologies, and origin stories of their own.

The history of the United States is such, though, that many of its towns and cities have simply been given names honoring other towns and cities elsewhere in the world—more often than not the home city or start-point of colonists, immigrants, and new arrivals coming to America for the first time. And now, an analysis by language blog WordFinderX has sought to uncover the trends behind these geographical namesakes, taking a deep dive into the the global origins of American place names. 

The study identified some 1396 separate locations from all across the United States that are known to be named after places elsewhere around the world (including ancient and historical names and locations). The data was then analyzed to reveal which nations around the world have provided the U.S. with the most place names.

The Most Common Origin for Town Names in Each State

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the country’s history of colonization, the most common source nation of local place names in 18 different U.S. states was England. Most of these states were clustered around America’s northeast, with only a handful of western outliers and exceptions, including Utah, South Dakota, Iowa, and Alabama.

Next came Germany, which provided the highest number of overseas names in a total of seven states, including Ohio, Louisiana, and Missouri. Italy came out on top in five states (Florida, Georgia, California, Nevada, Idaho), while France surprisingly scored just two states (North and South Carolina).

Among the countries to come out on top in just a single state were Norway—which has provided Minnesota with more place names than any other nation—and Spain, which ranked first in New Mexico. Some less predictable winners, however, were those in Texas, where the Czech Republic provides the most overseas names; West Virginia. which crowned Scotland as its winner; and Arizona, where Greece came out on top.

American Towns and Cities Named After Places in the UK

Among the great many names America borrowed from the United Kingdom is Boston, the most populated city in Massachusetts (and in New England as a whole, for that matter). As the analysis points out, thanks to its current population of around 650,000, America’s Boston now greatly overshadows its original English namesake, which remains a relatively small rural market town with a population of just 70,500.

Other UK namesakes include Brentwood and Westminster in California, Edinburg in Texas, Reading and Lancaster in Pennsylvania, and Hartford, Milford, and Stamford in Connecticut. Mapping the most highly populated U.S. towns with UK namesakes revealed a noticeable cluster of British-origin names in Massachusetts especially—including Worcester, Beverly, Weymouth, Plymouth, Cambridge, Dorchester, and Haverhill.

Traveling Around the World of Place Names in New York and California

The analysis also uncovered sufficient foreign-origin place names in New York to make it possible to take a round-the-world trip without ever leaving the state’s borders. Should you be so inclined, you could travel from the southern New York city of New Rochelle (namesake of the city of La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast of France) all the way to Newburgh (named for Newburgh in Scotland) by way of local places named Delhi, Barcelona, Hamburg, Warsaw, Geneva, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Athens, and Cairo.

California was also found to have a globe-spanning list of names within its borders, and WordFinderX put together a round-the-world driving route that included 19 separate locations named after towns and cities in other countries. Starting in the old mercury mining town of New Idria in San Benito County (namesake of one of Europe’s largest quicksilver mines, Idrija, in modern-day Slovenia), you could head south through places named Alhambra, Westminster, and Mecca, before turning north back through Ontario, Johannesburg, and Timbuctoo, completing your journey via the likes of Nice, Sebastopol, Brisbane, Dublin, and Interlaken.

Discover More Fun Maps: