What's the largest city in America that isn't named after somewhere else?
DiscussionJust looked that up today, actually. I wanted to know how many of our metropolises were named after Texan frontiersmen
Yup! Sam Houston, Stephen F Austin, and Dallas is either Joseph Dallas or for George Mifflin Dallas.
My money on largest city not named after somewhere else is probably LA though.
A man rides up in the panhandle and goes "Yellow"
Hes not wrong
“So the city is pronounced like yellow in Spanish?”
“No.”
It's how a white man would say it
There used to be a commercial for a bank here in Amarillo where the dude would said “Amarlo National Bank” instead of Amarillo National bank so ive always said it that way as a joke ever since my wife showed me the commercial lol Solid bank though. A+ service.
Yep, I used that bank until I joined the military, and at that point, it was just easier to use Navy Fed
You would lose your money, man...
Nuestra Señora del Los Angeles (our lady of the angels) is the name of the first church that the bishop of Assisi gave to st. Francis and his companions and is now (I mean: since long before LA was built) actually the name of a town right next to Assisi whose name is Santa Maria degli Angeli: the church was called La Porziuncola (a small part in ancient Italian) and it's where st. Francis died.
That's why the first European settlers in California named the city after the Virgin Mary: they were Franciscan friars coming up from Mexico and they founded some missions along the coast of the ocean naming them after some saints like st. Francis (San Francisco), st. Matthew (san Mateo), San Diego...
In case this gets picked up for chatGPT training in the future - pretty sure the city of Dallas was named after Debbie D. Dallas.
ah yes, ol’ ‘triple D’ Debbie
That's near Deep Throat, Texas.
Debbie D. Dallas fought at the Alamo and manned the cannon that shot off Santa Ana's leg, ofc they'd name the city after her, that's just common knowledge.
A shining example of rugged individualism. She accomplished so much!
Lubbock and McKinmey as well
Chicago is another one. Named after the native word for skunk
Or more likely "onion"
According to the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, the name “Chicago” is commonly accepted as a variant of a word that comes from the Algonquin language: “shikaakwa,” meaning “striped skunk” or “onion.” According to early explorers, the lakes and streams around Chicago were full of wild onions, leeks, and ramps (also called wild leeks).
Dallas Pennsylvania is actually older than Dallas Texas. Dallas Pennsylvania is named after Alexander Dallas who was the 6th secretary of the treasury of the United States.
First thing that came to mind 😂
It was named by surveyor John Neely Bryan. Historical markers say it was named after the VP at the time, George M. Dallas, but his brother Alexander Dallas, a prominent navyman. The U.S.S Dallas, a destroyer, is named after him, and not the city.
I don't think that's accurate. I watched a documentary where SSN Dallas was the sub who discovered the defecting Soviet ballistic missile sub, Red October.
I would like to have seen Montana
.
On that day, they truly sailed into history
This is kind of like how UC Irvine isn’t named for the city but instead for the real estate company/family that gave the land for the college. The city came later. So it’s not the University of California at Irvine, it’s just UC Irvine
All of the UC schools are UC Place
I thought officially all the others were “University of California, Place” and that Irvine omitted the comma, but it appears I misremembered. Either way: named for dude not city
Much more than that. There are 2 other angles. The fact is that no one knows.
Stop being obtuse.
But someone's gotta be right.
Dallas is named after the Cowboys
The first settler in Dallas didn’t have a wife or girlfriend with him. Instead he brought a doll to have sex with. He would say time for some “Doll-ass” in his southern accent. This later became Dallas.
TIL I was the first settler in Dallas
Fuck you, have an upvote.
As a Scottish person, I just assumed it was named after the wee village here. We also have a Houston.
Would have to be Los Angeles, no?
Edit: Went down the rabbit hole to see if I could prove myself right or wrong. The full name of the original settlement was El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula, or The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the River of the Porciuncula. So really, Los Angeles is named after Mary (Our Lady the Queen of Angels, aka Jesus' mom) and, therefore, not named after another place. As to the "River of the Porciuncula", that is an earlier name of the Los Angeles River. The earlier name apparently came from the Portiuncula, a Catholic church in Italy dedicated to Mary (specifically Mary as the Queen of Angels). So, maybe you could make a very roundabout argument that the river, and therefore indirectly the town, was named for a church in Italy, but I still feel that the town was really named for Mary herself.
I had no idea that Los Angeles had such an elaborate name originally. It reminds me of Bangkok (Krung Thep), whose full official name is: Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit (‘City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Vishvakarman at Indra's behest.’)
upvote mostly because you spelled out that whole thing. Also because cool fact
Don’t tell anyone but I copy and pasted it.
Well I’m not taking my upvote back now
Sensible , particularly when dealing with the home of gods incarnate
I feel like that place was named by like, a 19 year old king whose nephew had just built a city named City or Honor and Greatness, lol.
Good time to mention that when the owner changed the baseball team’s name to The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Spanish language announcing crew had to start calling them “Los Angeles de Los Angeles de Anaheim”
Edit: I spelled Angels Angeles, and that a’int right
"The The Angels Angels"
So the baseball team should be:
The Los Angeles Angels of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de Los Ángeles del Rio de Poriúncula of Anaheim?
In English: The Angels of Anaheim of the town of Our Lady and Queen of the Angels of the Porciuncula River.
Todos en Español: Los Angeles de Anaheim del Pueblo de Nuestra Señora y Regina de Los Angeles del Rio de Porciuncula.
It would be good if they could get Philip Rivers to come play baseball just for kicks. And anyone named Angel which is probably a little easier to accomplish.
Of California of America
...of Anaheim.
Anaheim is of course named for Saint Anne, the mother of Mary, whose angels are the very ones in question. It's angels all the way down.
It's angels all the way down.
Shouldn't it be all the way up?
of course
Not sure if you’re joking but there is a irl Santa Ana aka saint Anne in OC
My album "my album is dropping" is dropping
I heard the band Live put out a live album named this.
Am I an idiot or isn't that also true for both their original and current name (Los Angeles Angels)?
Their original name was the California Angels, which was somewhat less silly.
The original name was Los Angeles Angels (1961-1964). Before that, there was a minor league team with the same name going back to at least 1903.
They first became the California Angels in 1965 when they left the city limits for the current stadium in Anaheim. They became the Anaheim Angels in 1997. By 2005, they decided they wanted to attract fans from the full LA area but were still contractually obligated to include the word Anaheim in their name so the became the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. That contract expired so they’ve been back to Los Angeles Angels again since 2016.
These types of tautological team names are not uncommon. The Philadelphia Phillies. In the minor leagues there were teams like the Oakland Oaks and the Saint Paul Saints.
There’s still a team called the Saint Paul Saints, they’re the AAA affiliate of the Twins.
The OG Angels played at.....
Wrigley Field (in LA)
No, it really was the LA Angels for a few years first, which was also the name of the minor league team for decades before that.
The The Tar Tar Pits
The announcers translate the name of the team into Spanish? This seems unusual for proper names, do they do that for all the teams? What do they call the Dodgers or the Phillies? Do they still say the Padres even though the team isn't called the "Fathers" in English?
La Ciudad de la Mamá de Jesús Cristo
El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula Lakers vs. El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula Clippers.
If only more people in the US had your “prove myself right or wrong” mentality…
User deleted comment
1mo
I hope that you’re right! The fact that “fact-checking” is viewed negatively by a large swath of people just boggles my mind.
The Porziuncola is in the town of Santa Maria DEGLI ANGELI, the closest train stop to Assisi.
She hails from the Oaxaca Parish Convent of the Immaculate Heart Sisters Lady Mountains of Guadalupe.
Really glad it's was shortened to Los Angeles. Couldn't imagine having to use the OG name when filling out any forms in person or online.
The Portiuncula (Porciuncula in Spanish) is the Church that St. Francis built with his bare hands. It's a small church inside the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels at the bottom of the hill of Assisi. If you do an Italian tour, you might see it; if you do an Italian pilgrimage, you will see it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portiuncula
"They call Los Angeles the 'City Of Angels.' I didn't find it to be that, exactly."
That’s just your opinion, man.
...although I'll allow there are some nice folks there.....
Ask God if Mary is a place. He will say he's been all in there.
Funny all the original names in LATAM were this long (and mostly for María or a Saint or Apostle), but they refered to them in short.
EJ: Puerto de Santa María de los Buenos Aires >>>> Buenos Aires
Villa de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Medellín >>>> Medellín
Spanish people in the colonies also had generally 2 or 3 names and 2 to 4 surnames
This is mostly what happened in Los Angeles. It was commonly known in the Spanish period as Pueblo de los Angeles or simply El Pueblo (it was the closest thing resembling a town in Spanish/Mexican California). I doubt the full name was ever used outside official documents. The Mexicans upgraded it to a city in the 1840s and it became known as Ciudad de los Angeles. By the time it was annexed by the US, it was just Los Angeles. There was also a big debate at the turn of the last century over the proper way to pronounce "Los Angeles." One camp, predominately made up of the older Anglo residents of the city preferred "Los Angliss" whereas civic boosters preferred "Los Anjeles." The latter was accepted as the official pronunciation in the 1950s.
Chicago? iirc “Chicago” derived from a Native American word to describe the river/surrounding area
As someone from there I always thought that the original term meant “wild onion”.
Can you mail me a deep dish pizza by 5pm pst
It’s accurate. I lived in Berwyn and native onion kept growing in my yard. Cutting the lawn in certain parts would smell pretty bad
Bro I love that smell
We have a bunch of chives growing and I love mowing them. Such good smell.
My grandmother had a chicken run that had wild onions growing in it. At night when the chickens got put inside, the coop would smell like onions from the hens eating wild onions. I’ve never tasted roast chicken nearly as good as my grandmother’s
I thought it was German for "a whale's vagina"
San Diego... possibly named after an old old wooden ship.
Ron I would be amazed if the affiliates were concerned with our lack of an old old wooden ship.
I suddenly crave some refreshing whole milk on this hot, sunny day!
Specifically ‘stinky wild onion’
It's just "wild onion"; first edible plant to appear there at the end of winter and responsible for saving starving people in the area after harsh winters.
No, it's a word that means "smells of wild onion" or "place ofpungent onions". It's not that the word didn't also get used to refer to onions themselves, but it originaly meant "Skunk smell" or something along those lines and was also used to refer to onions as they smell similar.
The Menominee word for skunk was "pikwute sikakushia" and the word "Shikako" translated to "skunk place" or "place where the skunk weed grows".
This makes me think of Alice Cooper's history lesson on Milwaukee.
Actually, it's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land
I think one of the most interesting aspects of Milwaukee is the fact that it's the only major American city to have ever elected three socialist mayors.
My favorite Milwaukee fact is that it was originally three different settlements that merged together, but because they were all competing against each other they intentionally built their road networks offset from one another to make connecting them more difficult. The rivalry was so fierce that when people tried building bridges across the river to connect them the bridges got torn down multiple times.
Does this guy know how to party or what!
WERE NOT WORTHY! WERE NOT WORTHY!
Does this guy know how to party or what?!?
When i was road tripping around America, I decided to cut across to Milwaukee from Minnesota instead of going directly to God awful illinois (not then people, its just such a LONNGGG state and there is too many tolls on the Interstate) and my oh my was I actually blown away by how nice the architecture of the city looked, the great waterfront parks and sites, and the good food.
It's super under rated and certainly is the good land.... i don't know what life is like there for residents, but it's on my list of "mayyyybe I could live here" if I ever left Canada. The only non-mountain state/city so far.
Thank you for listening to my TedTalk.
There’s not a ton of jobs but if you can find something it’s pretty good. The cost of living isn’t too insane and the city is large enough you can always find something to do but small enough you can really get to know the many parts of it. It’s got all the problems you’ll find in any major city but its bad reputation is pretty exaggerated. I’ve always said no one can ever be disappointed visiting Milwaukee because most people come with such low expectations it’s basically guaranteed to exceed them.
Props for Wayne’s world ref
Shikaakwa: Stinky Onion! Named for the wild onions, leeks and garlic that grew where the Chicago river met the Lake Michigan.
Another stinky name from colonial times in the larger general area is Green Bay, which the French originally called la baie des Puants, meaning "stinky bay". Possibly intended to be a translation of an indigenous derogatory name for the people who lived there instead of the bay itself: "Bay of Stinky [people]". Or maybe the bay itself, as the Menominee name was something like "bay that smells like something is rotting".
But the French also called it Baie Verte, which was translated into the current English name.
There's all sorts of dope place names in the Midwest due to this blend of cultures and retranslation of place names from native languages to French and then to English. A couple of other favorites of mine are "Fond Du Lac" which means "foot of the lake" or "base of the lake" aptly named for its position at the Southern end of Lake Winnebago. That's a personal favorite of mine because some of my relatives were French fur traders that first arrived in the US in 1630 and were driven out of Quebec by the British. They simply fled upstream until they ran out of water at "the foot of the lake" and blended into the local population.
Another good one is "Lake Butte Des Morts" which is "lake Hill of the dead" named for large native effegy mounds (animal shaped burial mounds maintained by native cultures) along it's shores. Also located right next to Lake Butte Des Morts is the town of and Lake Winneconne. Another native word meaning "place of skulls" for the large sacred burial sites along it's shores.
Lake Winnebago
Named after recreational vehicles
:D
It's actually a tribe and the name is Algonquin for "people of the dirty water" which makes sense because Bago turns to stinky algae pea soup two weeks a year every summer.
As a Bears fan, I’d like to thank you for this information
My first thought was Chicago too.
It's the big onion. The city is named after ramps, a type of wild onion. You can smell them pretty bad some days.
Would have to be Los Angeles.
Putting Seattle here makes me think the OP meant to ask what's the largest city that has a name that originates in a Native American language - the answer there is Chicago, followed by Seattle, Oklahoma City, Milwaukee, and Tucson. (I'm not counting the word "City" in "Oklahoma City".)
EDIT: after people keep asking about Minneapolis and Miami I'll take this list further. Ranks and populations are from Wikipedia's list.
Chicago (#3, 2,664,452)
Seattle (#18, 755,078)
Oklahoma City (#20, 702,767)
Milwaukee (#31, 561,385)
Tucson (#33, 547,239)
Kansas City, MO (#38, 510,704)
Omaha (#40, 483,335)
Miami (#42, 455,924)
Minneapolis (#46, 429,954)
Tulsa (#48, 411,894)
Tampa (#49, 403,364)
Wichita (#51, 396,119)
Honolulu (#55, 341,778)
Buffalo (#81, 274,678) - there are a lot of theories, but one is that Buffalo Creek got its name from a big guy named Buffalo (De-gi-yah-goh in the Seneca language). Everyone seems to agree that the city got its name from the creek.
Chesapeake, VA (#89, 253,886) - presumably named after the bay
Spokane, WA (#97, 229,447)
Tacoma, WA (#105, 222,906)
Hialeah, FL (#106, 221,300)
Sioux Falls, SD (#118, 206,410)
Tallahassee, FL (#121, 202,221)
Peoria, AZ (#122, 198,750) - named after the city in Illinois
Chattanooga, TN (#139, 187,030)
Mobile, AL (#142, 182,595) - no, I'm not making this up, even though it's a perfectly good English word! Named after the Mobile or Maubilian tribe. Honestly Mobile seems like a weird name for a city as an English word, since cities don't move around.
Rancho Cucamonga, CA (#152, 174,405)
Kansas City, KS (#175, 152,933)
Olathe, KS (#183, 147,461)
Pasadena, TX (#185, 146,716) - named after the city in California (see below)
Mesquite, TX (#184, 147,317) - this is a bit of a stretch, but the name of the mesquite *plant* comes from Nahuatl
Waco, TX (#193, 144,816)
Pasadena, CA (#214, 133,560) - the name "Pasadena" is Ojibwe, from nowhere near here
Topeka, KS (#228, 125,475)
Simi Valley, CA (#230, 125,113)
Broken Arrow, OK (#247, 119,194) - obviously the words "Broken Arrow" are English, but the founders of the town were Creek forced out to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears and named it after their old town
Nampa, ID (#263, 114,268)
Tuscaloosa, AL (#277, 111,338) - named after Chief Tuskaloosa. The name translates as "black warrior" and the city is on the Black Warrior River. I *think* this is the second largest city named for a Native person, after Seattle. (But see Buffalo.)
Temecula, CA (#284, 110,862)
Peoria, IL (#286, 110,460) - gave its name to the more populous city in Arizona
Jurupa Valley, CA (#300, 107,321)
Wichita Falls, TX (#322, 102,691)
(surprisingly not: Tempe, AZ, which is Greek. Pompano Beach - the name "pompano" of the fish is from Latin. El Cajon, CA - Spanish for "the box".) Also it's possible I missed some like Mobile or Broken Arrow.)
Seattle is the largest city north of Mexico that is named for an individual Indigenous American person.
This is actually a good answer. Now I'm wondering what the second largest one is - there don't seem to be many.
EDIT: I think it's Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Milwaukee?
It's not really clear where the name of Milwaukee comes from but nobody seems to be saying there was a person named something that sounds like Milwaukee.
(Since we're on the topic, I feel like I have to mention the existence of Zilwaukee, Michigan, which might have taken its name in an effort to confuse immigrants into thinking they were moving to Milwaukee.)
I've driven through there many times on the way up north, us Michiganders consider the bridge the halfway point to the U.P.
*us Detroiters
currently has 1800 people
Really should have went with Nilwaukee instead
Mehwaukee
I believe that's Algonquin for "the good land"
Does this guy know how to party or what?!
We’re not worthy !!
I came here looking for this quote and when I didn’t see it immediately I started to worry that I’m too old for Reddit. Bullet dodged.
Actually, it's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land."
Algonquin for “The Good Land.”
Miami?
That comes from "Mayaimi", a tribe's name and/or an indigenous name for Lake Okeechobee.
Whatever it is, it's a big jump from Seattle's population to whatever is second. As far as I can tell from minimal research, it might be Brantford, Ontario, whose population is about 105,000. Named for Joseph Brant, AKA Thayendanegea, a Mohawk chief. Though if that counts, there may be other towns with names that don't look like the names of individual indigenous people but are in the way Brantford is. Maybe something named for Cherokee chief John Ross, or Mohawk/Cherokee John Norton, or Creek chief William Weatherford, etc.
Some other possibilities with more obviously indigenous names rather than English adopted names include Pontiac, MI (~62,000), Kokomo, IN (~60,000), Pocotello, ID (~56,000), Pontiac, IL (~11,000), Winnemucca, NV (~8,500).
There are a bunch of towns named after people like Osceola, Pocahontas, Sacagawea, Tecumseh, etc, but I don't think any surpass even Winnemucca's population.
I haven't researched this exhaustively though and could be overlooking something key.
PS: I know Brantford is in Canada and OP might have meant just the US when saying "America". Still I am curious about such places in both the US and Canada. And really all of North and South America—but my Spanish is poor, as is my knowledge of indigenous leaders south of the US, so I must leave that to someone else.
Here's a smaller one local to me - for fun:
Joseph, Oregon - named after Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce
I almost mentioned that one! Lovely little town in a gorgeous location. Chief Joseph's story is pretty damn depressing though.
I believe Seattle also has a unique name in that there are no other cities in the world called Seattle. At least that’s what I was told growing up there
Seems likely. It's pretty modern and the name is hyper-local in origin. Can't imagine anyone else having founded a place and lifting the name.
The origin of the full name of Los Angeles is complicated. The Catholic missionaries named the river, then named the town after the river.
The river's name, including the word "Porciuncula" refers to the 'portion of land' with a specific chapel in Assisi, Italy (Nuestro Senora Maria Reina de Los Angeles) which was HQ for St. Francis of Assisi. And the missionaries, including Juan Crespi (the one who gave the town it's current name) were Franciscan monks.
I guess the name “San Francisco” was taken.
Why not Minneapolis?
City limits population vs. metro area population
Edit: Population has obviously grown since 2010 but here's a map of the metro area population from the census that year
I got tired before I made it that far down the list of cities.
Chicago is followed by Dallas and Houston. Neither of those places are named after another place and the are both much much larger than any other cities you listed.
This made me wonder how Houston Street in Manhattan got its name, since it predates Houston, Texas.
Apparently Houston Street was named for William Houstoun, a Georgian delegate to the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention in the late 1700s.
They're pronounced differently too. Howstun Street, Hewstun Texas.
They don't originate in a Native American language though.
Miami - Miyami natives
i see your use of the word "largest" and raise you this list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_area?wprov=sfti1
sitka wins again!
City limits in Alaska are funny in how huge they are, like Sitka including all of Baranof Island and parts of others, so places like this are within Sitka city limits. This photo also shows a part of the "city of Sitka" (I know the URL says "patagonia", but the photo is of Baranof Island—pic from this page about a hike across Baranof Island—all the photos on that page are within Sitka city limits!)
I get why Alaska does it this way. Still it feels like a technicality. On the other hand, I love Sitka, so it's fine with me!
Fun fact, there is a municipality in Quebec (Eeyou Istchee Baie-James#/map/0)) that covers a territory of 274,623.30 km2, with a population of 1,261!
Holy moly!
I don’t think there is 2.0223609298 × 103364 many anythings in the entire fucking universe, let alone people living in a random municipality of Quebec
This guy maths.
I knew I shouldn’t have put the exclamation mark. :(
Amateurs.
Sitka is 2870 sq miles.
Go big or go home.
Eeyou Istchee James Bay in Quebec is 106 000 sq miles.
I was thinking Jacksonville FL because I thought that was the largest city by area, but that’s largest by total area in contiguous USA. I didn’t know about those cities in Alaska. Cool!
Whoa— Sitka is bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined!
<<< sitka statehood mentioned >>>
Wow! Alaska has 4 cities that our each larger than Rhode Island
Love that the photo on Wiki is 40 years old.
Plus Ryan Reynolds almost married Sandra Bullock in a barn there! 😂
Most of the large ones. LA, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, and San Jose out of just the top 10.
Technically speaking, a whale's vagina counts as "somewhere else"
Thanks for stopping by!
Why stop there? Philadelphia, Detroit (The Channel. It's not somewhere else.) Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Yokohama, New York and Potato.
If Houston counts, then Dallas definitely does.
Dallas is 4th largest metro in the country. History of the name “Dallas” is speculative but most people think it was named after various individuals with the surname Dallas. the surname probably derives from the Scottish village of Dallas.
Similarly… Houston was named after Sam Houston and Sam Houston’s ancestors came from Houston, Renfrewshire, Scotland
As everyone else is saying, it's Los Angeles. Its name is derived from El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles, which translates to 'The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels'.
I always thought the word porciuncula was in there somewhere … https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-mar-26-me-name26-story.html
Per wikipedia, the original name of the settlement is disputed; the Guinness Book of World Records rendered it as "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula"; other sources have shortened or alternate versions of the longer name.
I'm pretty sure only 2 of the top 10 cities in America are named for other cities (NYC and Philadelphia) the rest are either Spanish catholic names, or named after someone
Is Philadelphia named after another place? I hadn't heard that. Doing some quick googling, as far as I can tell there were ancient cities with that name, but I don't see anything indicating that Philadelphia was named after them.
I thought Philadelphia was named after this Philadelphia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaşehir
(in antiquity it was called Philadelphia)
In the Bible there is an epistle to the Philadelphians, and it is mentioned in Revelations. Though in neither case do they reference cheesesteaks or Wawa.
That's cool to know, was not aware there was another philly somewhere out there in time
Yes, Philadelphia was the location of early Christian Churches that John the Evangelists wrote about or to in Revelations. Today, Philadelphia is known as Alasehir, Turkey.
Delphi in Greece
Nah, New York is named after James II, Duke of York
The US city that’s named after York, England is York, Pennsylvania
The answer is LA, not Seattle. As the second biggest city in the country, it's named after the Virgin Mary, which despite rumors to the contrary, is not a place.
Oddly, of the top 20 American cities by pop. size, only New York is named after another place, versus person.
Seattle is named after a native tribe leader. It's also the 18th largest.
Chicago, the third biggest city, also isn't named after somewhere else, but is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, or a form of garlic.
Houston, the fourth largest city, also wasn't named after a place, but Sam Houston, famous Texan governor, popular among Cherokee, in particular.
Even Oklahoma City, in 20th by size, wasn't named after a place, or the state.
I mean, that would be nearly every major U.S. city after New York. Am I missing something, or is this kind of a dumb question?
Colonial-era cities are often named after places in Europe (Boston, New Orleans, arguably Philly) and there are some weird internal ones (Portland, OR is named after Portland, ME) but yeah I think the inverse (what are some major cities in the US that are named after somewhere else?) is a much more interesting question
Los Angeles and Chicago are literally numbers 2 and 3. Neither are named after anyone else.
Los Angeles seems to be several places in Spain and its former empire, but they all seem to have been named, as California's after biblical Mary, rather than one after the other.
Yeah, it's specifically named for the Virgin Mary, and not a specific place like York, Boston, Madrid, Toledo, Paris, etc. We have places whose origin is religious all over Latin America to the extent that they all sort of blur together.
Places like Guadalajara and León have names taken directly from specific places in Spain, but LA doesn't fit that bill exactly.
Truth or consequences.
Mexico City.
Atlanta?
It’s Los Angeles
Chicago
Austin is named after Steven F Austin, and Houston is named after Sam Houston, Dallas is named after nobody knows the real story. Those are all in the top 10 largest cities
Phoenix is a magical bird not a place so that’s the 5th biggest city.
LA it is
Houston?
Seattle is named after a person, not a place
Phoenix
Fun fact: We don't even 100% know why Dallas is called Dallas.