The Names of USA Cities Explained

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SOURCES & FURTHER READING

[NameExplain]

Let me know if you are watching from one of the cities I mentioned. It’d be cool if we could have at least one person from each city check in!

[wstuart]

San Francisco also has a Chinese name. Most foreign place names get characters that attempt to sound like the original, but San Francisco was and is an important trading and immigration hub for China that it has its own name in Chinese: 旧金山. These are the characters for "Old Gold Hill".

[Bacopa]

Cincinatti is named after Cincinnatus because George Washington was compared to Cincinnatus. Just as Cincinnatus gave up his dictatorship, Washington resigned his commission and relinquished power when he could have become an emperor.

[Jan_Koopman]

The Dutch city of Almere is planning to add a new district, which they'd call "New Brooklyn", after the US American county. However, Brooklyn being derived from the name of the Dutch town of Breukelen, I have decided that I will only ever refer to the future district of New Brooklyn as "New New Breukelen"

[mitchelmodine]

Fun facts: the University of Memphis in Tennessee has a well-renowned department of Egyptology; their basketball team used to play in a pyramidal structure known colloquially as “the Tomb of Doom” (it’s now a Bass Pro Shops); and there is a high school called Raleigh-Egypt with “Pharoahs” as team name.

[thattimestampguy]

*The Atlantic Coast*
1:06 New York City. Duke of York, King James II.
1:40 Baltimore. Cecil Calvert Baron Baltimore.
1:57 Boston. Boston Lincolnshire England.
2:09 Philadelphia. Philos + Adelphos, Loving Brother.
2:36 Pittsburgh. William Pitt.

*The Midwest*
2:44 Cleveland. Moses Cleveland.
3:01 Cincinnati. Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus.
3:24 Detroit. Detroit, French word meaning Straight.
3:39 Indianapolis. Indian City.
3:47 Chicago. Bad Smell. Place of Skunks.
4:22 St Louis. King Louis IX.
4:51 Milwaukee. "The Good Land" In Algonquin.
5:05 Minneapolis. Minnea City.
5:11 Fargo. William Fargo.

*The West Coast*
5:23 Seattle. Native Chief Seataf.
5:31 Portland. Portland Maine.
5:41 San Francisco. San Diego. Saint Francis, Saint Diego.
6:04 Los Angeles. The Angels. The Town of Our Lady of Angels.

*The Desert West*
6:25 Las Vegas. The Meadow.
6:43 Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake of Utah.
6:52 Phoenix. The Phoenix.
7:10 Denver. James Denver.

*The Central Plains*
7:24 Omaha. The Upstream People, The People Against The Flow.

*The Desert West*
7:35 New Mexico

*Texas*
7:52 Houston, Austin. Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin,
8:07 Dallas, George M. Dallas.

*The South*
8:24 New Orleans. Old Orleans.
8:36 Nashville. Francis Nash.
8:45 Memphis. Ancient Egypt's Memphis.
9:15 Charlotte. Queen Charlotte Sophia, wife of King George III.
9:20 Atlanta. The Atlanta Railroad.
9:45 Miami. The Miami River, Sweetwater.
10:00 Orlando. Orlando Reeves.

*Off The Continent*
10:14 Anchorage. Anchor spot for Ships.
10:22 Honolulu. Calm Port.

*Washington D.C.*
10:34 Washington D.C.

[gabemorrison]

2:43 Pittsburgh, PA is spelt with an h at the end

[robertmiller]

The way you guys pronounce Los Angeles is even weirder than Nevada.

[FryJones]

Pittsburgh has an H at the end! It was named by John Forbes, a Scotsman, in the 1700s. The 'burgh' was a contemporary Scots interpretation of the word 'borough' rather than the Saxon 'burg' meaning a castle or fortification. We Pittsburghers are weirdly proud of the H spelling and it is included when we affectionately refer to our city as the Burgh.

[Buzzygirl]

Minneapolis, Minnesota is a combination of two words: "Minne" (from the Dakota word for water, "Mni") and "Polis, " from the Greek word for city. If you've ever been there, you know why it's named this way... it's known as the "City of Lakes" for the large number of lakes within its city boundaries.

[alejandrobalderrama]

Alburquerque is not named after the city in Spain, but after a Viceroy in the New Spain (New Spain was the Spanish name for their colony in North America stretching from Guatemala to Alaska and it was around for 300 years, not some time) which was honestly a pretty interesting guy.

[montecorbit]

At 5:22
Wells Fargo....

They started out as a stagecoach company, the specialized in transporting money. They moved to armored cars and such in the 20th century. They then found that it was basically a vertical expansion to get into banking and so they did. They also do credit cards....

It would be more correct to consider them a financial institution now....

[RCJones]

In New York state, we have the towns of Oswego, Owego, and Otsego. TOTALLY not confusing

[randyreese]

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico used to be called Rose, but changed its name in a contest held by a popular game show in the 50s called, you guessed it “Truth or Consequences”

[lindawolffkashmir]

Kalamazoo is translated from the Potawatomi as “boiling water”, or “where the water boils”.

[idrk]

8:29 that "small settlement in France" has a population over 100, 000

[informer]

Nice video-e.
I have been wondering about these names-e.

[kotaowens]

Omg! I just got the Atlanta, Atlantic connection. Thank you for the info!

[B.Huntley_Sharpe]

A couple thigs: New York was originally New Amsterdam, and Wells Fargo was originally a stage coach company. Surviving today from it's Old West pioneer roots. Check out companies logo history. ( Note the stagecoach). 11:46

[ThatEverydayEnthusiast]

I just want to say, in the U.S. Midwest atleast, the word ‘city’ does imply skyscrapers or economical significance, but in certain contexts, like this, it can also refer to everyday towns.