It was Europeans who named those places.
Yeah, people from that city or place moved there and named their new home after their old home. There’s a very Dutch area of Michigan with many immigrants from the Netherlands still there. Want to know a couple town names? Holland and Zeeland.
And at some places they even reassign them new genders: The coat of arms of Berne Switzerland has a bear with a red penis. The US town: New Berne has a bear without a penis as a coat of arms. This means during the sea transport, Berne’s bear outed themselves as Transgender and changed their sex to a lady-bear. (At least in my head cannon)
Almost certainly typical American Puritanism.
Wow, history is fascinating!
You can still see it, it just became bigger and black and moved a bit backwards
Behold the BBBBBC (Berne’s Bear’s Big Black Backward Cock)
Meanwhile, Alexander the Great: You’ll be me lol
“Americans” as in white Europeans?
It would be amazing if they had arrived to the Americas and ask some natives about how they call a place and they said “this? This is New Amsterdam. We don’t know what’s Amsterdam but this is a newer version of it”
“It’s called Noo Amsterdam, I don’t know why you think it’s referencing some place we’ve never heard of, it just means big harbor”
That sometimes leads to confusing results. When Europeans arrived on the Saint Lawrence river they asked what they called the place. The indigenous people thought they were asking about what the word for village was so told them that word. Then every village they went they thought they were asking the name of the place but were actually asking “is this a village?” and the response was “yes, this is a village.” So that led to the assumption the entire region was called that.
Yeah so the indigenous word for “village” was “canada”. Woops! When they figured out the mistake it was already on all the maps, so whatever I guess.
My ancestors had great names for places. Then the white invaders killed most of us and named our land after their home.
I think this meme would be better suggested to say white European immigrants to America.
Exactly - they weren’t “Americans” yet.
Let’s name our town “New [someplace we miss back home].”
Other than the earliest settlements, most cities in the US were named by people born in North America.
There’s a lot of places in America that are named after native American tribes. I guess it’s the least our predecessors could do considering how badly they fucked over and slaughtered the natives.
“Yeah, we’re naming this river after you guys in honor of your stewardship of the environment. No, it’s not going to catch on fire or anything like that. How could a river catch on fire?”
Sure but calling them Americans is likely, mostly, sorta true but also ignores an important fact… They were Europeans (or near descendants of) calling the places that. Often a place was named that place because it reminded them of home / to honor their parents home.
Some other notable examples: New Zealand
São Carlos, Brazil
Munich, Saskatchewan
Liverpool, New South Wales
Nueva York, Colombia
So is nueva York named after York or new York?
Even old New York was once New Amsterdam.
Why’d they change it?
I can’t say…
True, but I think we may be the only country other than India to name a major city after another major city in the same country. Portland Oregon was named after Portland Maine
Super interesting. Didn’t know that. Thanks.
Memphis, Tennessee has entered the chat, y’all.
Along with Paris, Tennessee
I’m fairly sure Paris is Europe, not Africa.
Tennessee just loves being cultured. Did you know that Nashville has a full-scale replica of the Parthenon?
They say of the acropolis where the Parthenon is …
Did you know Bourton On The Water model village even has its own model village? It’s like model village Inception.
Paris, Texas has a pace in my cinematic heart.
TIL it’s an ancient Egyption capital.
I mean haven’t you seen the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid? It’s obviously a tribute to ancient Egypt.
Upstate NY I went to Rome, Alexandria, Mexico, Florence, Norway, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Denmark, Coppenhagen, etc
EDIT: don’t forget Swastika, NY
Well-travelled.
But you forgot, we also have to mispronounce it then get mad if you don’t mispronounce it the right way.
-someone that was born in New berlin, not “new berLIN”, But “new BURlin”.
How about naming the town after a city in Austria, but still the Roman way? Not just once, not just twice, but
(EDIT: I’m having déja vu after the last time had I brought up the several dozen Springfields)
That’s just how Wien is spelled in English. We also pronounce it how it’s spelled in English. No different from calling Österreich Austria
Strong levi-o-sa energy.
100% it’s all in the emphasis. It’s subtle, but just different enough that you can tell if someone is from the area based on their pronunciation.
For a better example: Versailles, Kentucky. Guess how that one is pronounced.
I will go with ver-sales
Winner!
Oh God,I had an ex from Georgia that would hit me with these. Let’s go with “verse-ay-lees”.
Verse-ales
Yea apperantly Worcester is pronounced “wis-tah”
If you think of Worcestershire sauce it make sense.
First read this as “naming new borns” and I was thinking of names like Paris or London, and all of the comments kind of made sense but were still slightly off. It was a fun, confusing time for me, until I scrolled up and re-read OP. Thanks for listening to my story.
More evidence that Egypt is European.
There is a small village in Ohio named Buena Vista.
The locals pronounce it in a way that rhymes with Loona Fista
Wow, really? We have a own with the same name in CO as well. We pronounce it like, “Byoona Vista” too.
Yeah those people are idiots though. They even claim it’s the Spanish words, they just don’t want to pronounce them like Spanish. So fucking stupid.
We also have a town named Limon.
Guess how that’s pronounced.
Lol there’s a “byoona vista” is south Ga as well.
And a Bone-a-Vista in NC.
There is a town in Georgia called Martinez.
They pronounced it Mart-inn-ez
Ohio also has a town named Versailles. Imagine the worst way to pronounce the name of the historical palace in France. That’s right, they pronounce it (VUR - SAY- els).
Lima Ohio. Pronounced lime-uh
Well yeah, like a lima bean
A new place of europe.
With a mangled pronunciation if the place is French!
TBF, the French should pronounce their own language right if they want the rest of us to as well.
French is the language of “we paid for the whole alphabet so we’re going to use the whole alphabet”
Boom. French roasted.
Yeah, like “Pointe au Roche”, “Isle La Motte”
Hebron, Lebanon, and Bozrah CT have entered the chat.
Jamaica, VT has entered the chat
I see your Jamaica, VT and raise you Jamaica Beach, TX.
As does Medina OH. We have a lot of middle eastern names in the country actually.
Also Memphis TN is named after the city in Egypt, and I swear I’ve seen some Cairos around this country.
