# Do smaller cities with famous names get confused?



## Fabri88 (Feb 9, 2011)

NordikNerd said:


> Hollywood, FL
> 
> London, ON
> 
> ...


I always thought Hollywood, the land of movies, to be in Florida 'cause I read the name "Hollywood" on a Florida's map and I always thought so.

BTW, I am not fond of cinema so this is the cause of misunderstanding.

Then, two or three years ago I discovered that Hollywood is in California.

Talking about the other locations I think you have to understand circumstances and I think inhabitants have the habit to always specify which town is!

In Italy many towns are named after saints but after the name there's always another name to specify the town. For example, we have:

• San Giovanni Valdarno (Tuscany)
• San Giovanni Rotondo (Apulia)
• San Giovanni in Persiceto (Emilia - Romagna)
• San Giovanni in Fiore (Calabria)

...and so on!


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## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

Jonesy55 said:


> Isn't Manchester, NH bigger than the CT version.


Much bigger, but he talked about the one in CT because that's where he lives.


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## FAAN (Jun 24, 2011)

Here in Brazil, state of Maranhão there a city called New York and another called Philadelphia.


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

isaidso said:


> How many people live in Manchester, CT? I imagine if it were fairly large, they'd be more confusion. In Ontario, half the time when people say London they mean the one in Ontario so it does need clarification unless it can be deciphered by the context in which it was said.


About 58k, one of the anchor towns in the Hartford metro, also a major retail hub in the state. I'd say that the vast majority of the time when people refer to Manchester, they are talking about the one here but people are aware of the fact that there is a much larger one in the UK. I'd say it's actually similar to your London example!


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## funnyhouse88 (Feb 18, 2012)

i never mix them up...


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## koolio (Jan 5, 2008)

isaidso said:


> That type of thing tends only to happen close to the less famous/smaller version city with the same name. The further away one is, the less confusion. I doubt few people in France would think of Vancouver, Washington when people say Vancouver. Likewise, it's only in Canada that there's confusion between London, Ontario and London, UK.


That is true. But about London, I think it is only us suckers in Ontario who have to constantly clarify as to which city we are referring to. I don't think people in other provinces have that problem. I don't think most Canadians outside of Ontario even know about London, ON.


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## Rekarte (Mar 28, 2008)

FAAN said:


> Here in Brazil, state of Maranhão there a city called New York and another called Philadelphia.


Nova Iorque not New York,we speak portuguese
there are two Filadelfia,one in Tocantins other in Bahia

Nova Iorque,Maranhão,Brazil
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=703958

Filadelfia,Bahia,Brazil
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1361999


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## NordikNerd (Feb 5, 2011)

koolio said:


> That is true. But about London, I think it is only us suckers in Ontario who have to constantly clarify as to which city we are referring to. I don't think people in other provinces have that problem. I don't think most Canadians outside of Ontario even know about London, ON.


Rename London, ON then. Call it New London, Londonia, Londina, Londonium, Londoone, Londingham, Londino or Londonino.


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## potasio (Feb 18, 2012)

In Chile there is a city called Los Angeles, make no mistake that this city was founded before his namesake in USA.


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## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

NordikNerd said:


> Rename London, ON then. Call it New London, Londonia, Londina, Londonium, Londoone, Londingham, Londino or Londonino.


I'd rather they just came up with a Canadian name for their city. We have enough cities and towns named after European places already. An Ojibwe First Nations inspired name would be fitting. The only city I recall switching is Berlin, Ontario changing to Kitchener in 1916 due to war with Germany.


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## SydneyCity (Nov 14, 2010)

There have been a few stories of British tourists finding a dirt cheap airfare to Sydney, only to find that it is in fact to Sydney, Nova Scotia. 

There are also cities with English names (eg Perth and Newcastle), but when somebody is talking about Perth everybody generally assumes it's the one in Australia, but if a non-Australian is talking about Newcastle they will generally say "Newcastle, Australia".


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## NordikNerd (Feb 5, 2011)

SydneyCity said:


> There have been a few stories of British tourists finding a dirt cheap airfare to Sydney, only to find that it is in fact to Sydney, Nova Scotia.
> 
> There are also cities with English names (eg Perth and Newcastle), but when somebody is talking about Perth everybody generally assumes it's the one in Australia, but if a non-Australian is talking about Newcastle they will generally say "Newcastle, Australia".


Talking about Boston I generally think about Boston, MA than Boston, UK.

The Size of the city decides which city you think of.


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## xtraxxl (May 27, 2007)

isaidso said:


> Before amalgamating with their counterparts in Toronto there was the NYPD: that's the North York Police Department. I also find it really amusing when I see people in North York (population 700,000) wearing these:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


There's actually no "North York Police Department". It's the North York division of Toronto Police.

http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&safe=of....,cf.osb&fp=bb87acda14707407&biw=1066&bih=590


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## xtraxxl (May 27, 2007)

England, Canada, and New Zealand all have Hamiltons and Stratfords. There's a Hamburg in Ontario, Canada as well.


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## woutero (Jan 14, 2008)

In the case of Manchester NH, I have been confused once at an airport. There were some problems with my flight from Detroit to Amsterdam, when I noticed a flight to Manchester. I informed if I could be rebooked to fly to Amsterdam via Manchester. It turned out to be Manchester NH. I did not even know it existed...

I know that residents of the village of Zurich (in The Netherlands) regularly get their mail quite late, because of a route through Switzerland.

Some examples The Netherlands:
- Zurich
- America
- Nieuw Amsterdam

One that I know causes problems is Oudega. There are three in the province of Friesland, two are very close to each other. They are identified by the first letter of the municipality they are in. Further complicating this one is that all three are in a bilingual area (Dutch/Frisian) so they can be either Oudega or Aldegea.
- Oudega (W), Oudega (G-S), Oudega (S)

Some more confusing ones:
- Winsum (FR), Winsum (GN)
- Hasselt (Belgian Limburg), Hasselt (Dutch Limburg), Hasselt (OV)

And then there are the examples in the New World, but I don't think anyone confuses these:
- Willemstad (NL), Willemstad (Curacao)
- Rotterdam, NY
- Amsterdam, NY
- Harlingen, TX
- Groningen, Suriname

There's a list on wikipedia: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijst_van_gelijkluidende_Nederlandstalige_plaatsnamen


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## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

xtraxxl said:


> There's actually no "North York Police Department". It's the North York division of Toronto Police.
> 
> http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&safe=of....,cf.osb&fp=bb87acda14707407&biw=1066&bih=590


Due to the creation of Metro Toronto in 1954, police departments were merged on January 1, 1957 to form the Metropolitan Toronto Police Force. Prior to this the police force in North York were indeed called the North York Police Department. 

NYPD did exist here. Check the section titled '20th century' in the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Police_Service


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

NordikNerd said:


> Talking about Boston I generally think about Boston, MA than Boston, UK.
> 
> The Size of the city decides which city you think of.


I think even people in the UK probably think of the US city in this case.....

How about Birmingham, UK and Birmingham, Alabama, both are pretty big. Which would somebody in Canada or New England think of if it wasn't specified?


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## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

I may be wrong, but I'd say most Canadians think of the one in the UK.


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## erka (Apr 26, 2003)

In the Netherlands you have a small village called Zurich, but you must be a complete moron to confuse it with the Swiss city. Nevertheless once in a while a truck driver is indeed wrong


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## NordikNerd (Feb 5, 2011)

woutero said:


> ,
> And then there are the examples in the New World, but I don't think anyone confuses these:
> - Willemstad (NL), Willemstad (Curacao)
> - Rotterdam, NY
> ...


New York City is full of dutch names. Yonkers is also a dutch city. The first settlers in New York were dutch with Mr Pieter Stuivesant as the Governor.

For Scandinavia: There is a true story about an asian traveller who wanted to go to Kristianssand, Norway but ended up in Kristiansstad, Sweden.

Swedish cities like Stockholm, Karlstad, Mora, Boxholm have US-twins in MN & IA. But they're so small that there's no risk of confusion.


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## woutero (Jan 14, 2008)

NordikNerd said:


> New York City is full of dutch names. Yonkers is also a dutch city. The first settlers in New York were dutch with Mr Pieter Stuivesant as the Governor.


Yes, it used to be called New Amsterdam, and the colony it was in was New Netherlands.

NYC area names are often spelled different because of English transliteration.

Some examples:
Brooklyn = Breukelen
Harlem = Haarlem
Yonkers = Jonkers
Coney Island = Konijneneiland (rabbit island)
Flushing = Vlissingen
Gravesend = 's-Gravesande
Bushwick = Boswijk


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## DanielFigFoz (Mar 10, 2007)

Didn't know there was a Gravesend near New York too, theres one in Kent too.

In fairness, on hearing 'Boston' most British people will think of the one in the US, the one here is known as 'Boston, Lincolnshire' and the one in the US as 'Boston', although this is probably different in Lincolnshire


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## Ekumenopolis (Feb 2, 2005)

A typical example of this for Spaniards is Toledo, IL.


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## Occit (Jul 24, 2005)

*This is the most populated Valencia, and BTW is not in Spain:*


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## Kazurro (Jan 23, 2005)

Occit said:


> *This is the most populated Valencia, and BTW is not in Spain:*


Valencia in Venezuela in fact took his name from my family town, Valencia de Don Juan, in León and not from the levantine city, as the founder of Valencia (Venezuela) was from Valencia de Don Juan.

In Valencia de Don Juan people for avoiding confussions with Valencia (Spain) there are two solutions. The first one is to use the widely used old name of Valencia de Don Juan, Coyanza. Another solution, specially among elder people is using the name Valencia del Cid for the levantine city, in reference to El Cid Campeador


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

How about Cordoba, Spain and Cordoba, Argentina? The Argentine city is bigger I think....


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## LuisClaudio (Sep 13, 2011)

Brazil,Indiana and Brazil,the country.


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## Ryan. (Feb 4, 2011)

There is a town in North East England called Washington with a population of about 50k about 10 miles from where I live. Washington Old Hall was the family home of George Washington's ancestors.

People in North East England talking about Washington will generally be referring to the one here and in most cases if someone was to talk about Washington DC they would have to make sure they state the 'DC' to avoid confusion.

Although I don't think outside North East England people will have this problem because I imagine the town is relatively unknown in other parts of the UK.


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## tongue_tied_danny (Nov 25, 2007)

Ryan. said:


> There is a town in North East England called Washington with a population of about 50k about 10 miles from where I live. Washington Old Hall was the family home of George Washington's ancestors.
> 
> People in North East England talking about Washington will generally be referring to the one here and in most cases if someone was to talk about Washington DC they would have to make sure they state the 'DC' to avoid confusion.
> 
> Although I don't think outside North East England people will have this problem because I imagine the town is relatively unknown in other parts of the UK.


There's also a village called New York in the north east, not far from Newcastle.


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## Severiano (Jul 5, 2006)

Florida has St. Petersburg, I lived across the bay from it. I always maintain that St. Petersburg is in Florida, and Sankt Peterburg is in Russia. 

We also have Jupiter, Florida.


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## NordikNerd (Feb 5, 2011)

Severiano said:


> We also have Jupiter, Florida.


Sounds Funny ! I'm going to Jupiter over the weekend, not the planet !


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## poshbakerloo (Jan 16, 2007)

Birmingham, AL 










Birmingham, UK










*Birmingham council uses picture of city skyline in leaflet to encourage civic pride... but it's Birmingham, Alabama*

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ncourage-civic-pride--Birmingham-Alabama.html


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## Bricken Ridge (Feb 16, 2008)

mw123 said:


> I have heard a few stories about people who wanted to go to Sydney, Australia and ended up in Sydney, Canada.
> http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/833526--sydney-mix-up-happens-again-as-couple-lands-in-n-s-instead-of-australia
> 
> Sydney, Nova Scotia by sbox, on Flickr


you've got to have a better pic of Sydney, NS, Canada than this. it is actually a beautiful city with an interesting waterfront. don't miss the supersized fiddle.


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## calaguyo (Nov 28, 2008)

Philippines

Espana, Manila
Mexico, Pampanga

And a lot of "San Francisco" towns.


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## GM (Feb 29, 2004)

Jonesy55 said:


> How about Cordoba, Spain and Cordoba, Argentina? The Argentine city is bigger I think....


In French, the Spanish Cordoba is referred as "Cordoue" and the Argentinian Cordoba as "Cordoba".


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## Occit (Jul 24, 2005)

Kazurro said:


> Valencia in Venezuela in fact took his name from my family town, Valencia de Don Juan, in León and not from the levantine city, as the founder of Valencia (Venezuela) was from Valencia de Don Juan.
> 
> In Valencia de Don Juan people for avoiding confussions with Valencia (Spain) there are two solutions. The first one is to use the widely used old name of Valencia de Don Juan, Coyanza. Another solution, specially among elder people is using the name Valencia del Cid for the levantine city, in reference to El Cid Campeador


Here, we should use part of the complete name of Valencia, i mean Nueva Valencia (New Valencia, in english). It's funny when people think that Valencia, Venezuela is just a tiny town, when this city has already 2 millions of inhabitants, skyscrapers, highways, international airport, metro system and several car factories including Ford xD


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## kubabh (Mar 29, 2012)

haha,well i think i should build my own Eiffeltower in my garden


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## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

Bricken Ridge said:


> you've got to have a better pic of Sydney, NS, Canada than this. it is actually a beautiful city with an interesting waterfront. don't miss the supersized fiddle.


I'm sorry, but Sydney NS is one of the most depressing towns in the country. The photo he posted is flattering. The surrounding area is beautiful.


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## Taller Better (Aug 27, 2005)

:lol: we have both a Paris and London here in Ontario. Neither are as large or glamorous as the
originals! hehe...:









http://www.google.ca/imgres?hl=en&b...&tbnw=122&start=0&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:0

This is what the Canadian Paris looks like... quaint, and a nice enough town to visit, I suppose. My own pic:


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## NordikNerd (Feb 5, 2011)

Taller said:


> :lol: we have both a Paris and London here in Ontario. Neither are as large or glamorous as the
> originals! hehe...:


The question is:

What name has the most cities ? if you see what I mean?

Is it London? how many Londons are there in the world?


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