It seems to me that Indiana has an unusually high concentration of places named after other places. When I tried to ask my aunt about this, she didn’t think it was weird that her state has cities named things like Kokomo and Brazil. She brought up the fact that a lot of states have places named after presidents, for example.
But I’m not talking about the various Madison Counties or other places named after notable people or landscape features. I mean the ones named for a very different and far away place for no obvious reason. In Arizona, we have Miami and Florence. Indiana, however, has cities named Peru, Rome, Warsaw, Mexico, Cairo, Dublin, Paris, Alexandria, London, Manhattan, Jordan, Holland, Versailles, Shanghai, Milan, in addition to those above.
Does that seem unusual to anyone else?
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I don’t think it’s weird to notice it at all! I wonder where they come from. Here in Western NY we have Greece, Egypt, not too far away there’s a Peru, there’s a Corfu, and a York… Maybe in the US there are all these places named after other cities where immigrants came from and settled here? Or maybe civic planners have a wicked sense of humor.
Those are good theories! Interesting that the same kind of exotic town names exist in NY too.
Oh you must visit eastern and south central PA, especially Lancaster county! We have fun names like Blue Ball, Bird-in-Hand, Peach Bottom, Paradise, Mount Joy (which is near where I went to college), Virginville (technically in Berks county, not Lancaster) and everyone’s favorite, Intercourse. Intercourse is actually a really nice town to visit, I’ve been a bunch of times to the Kitchen Kettle Village which is a bunch of little shops including a quilt shop where you can buy handmade Amish quilts. It is also very common to see Amish horse and buggies in Intercourse. It certainly is interesting how certain places got their names! Thanks for sharing! :)
That’s great! I spent a day in Lancaster County once and definitely want to go back and spend more time there. Thanks for the recommendations – and amusing place names!
Wow! Yeah, that does seem a bit unusual to me as well. Interesting perspective. :D
Glad I’m not the only one!