Have you been to…

It occurred to me as we were passing through city after city on our trip to Chicago recently that there are just some City Names that people like to use over and over and over again. For instance, we drove through Smyrna, Tennessee (home of Nissan). This wouldn’t be too odd, except that there’s a Smyrna, GA not but a couple of miles from my house.

We also drove through at least two Lebanon’s (not the one in Beirut). One in Indiana and one in Tennessee. It causes me to wonder, is there something about these names that people really, really like, or is it that they have a tie to the location.

For example, there’s a LaFayette, Louisiana, which was renamed for General Lafayette, a French military hero who fought with and significantly aided the American Army during the American Revolutionary War. I happen to think that its original name of Vermilionville is more unique and that they should have stuck with that. LaFayette, Indiana was officially named for General Lafayette, a French military hero who fought with and significantly aided the American Army during the American Revolutionary War. Imagine that. Georgia has one too and it was renamed in 1836 after the Marquis de LaFayette, the French aristocrat who assisted American colonists during the Revolutionary War.

Its understandable why cities are named after other cities (Paris, Rome, Athens, Smyrna) but you would think we could be a little more imaginative with other things. It seems odd though that there are no other cities like San Francisco, New York, Chicago (have you ever heard of a Chicago other than the one known for wind and the Cubs?). Why do you think that is?

2 Comments to “Have you been to…”

Melanie 15 January 2009 at 3:05 pm #

Maybe you’re being rhetorical here, but…

It seems to me that our cities are relatively young, compared to most other cities in the developed world–especially the cities our own are named after. By the time Chicago, Miami, Seattle, etc became well established cities in a self-sustaining nation, there weren’t that many places left to settle. Besides, we were so busy building & exploring the lower 48, we didn’t really go out & build cities in other lands. Also, the British had colonized most of the tropics & the south Pacific (everywhere from Jamaica to Barbados to Fiji), and those cities were often renamed (again) after British towns/ports. This also explains why English became the “world’s first language”–not because the US speaks it, but because the British set out to colonize half the world.

As a side note, most of the cities on the west coast (from San Diego to San Francisco, any way) are in fact named after the Spanish missions/missionaries who originally settled the land, long before the British got here.

It’s funny–I used to hate American history. As an adult, I really enjoy it!

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- admin 19 January 2009 at 3:51 pm #
  
  @Melanie: Yes, I was being a little rhetorical, but it is odd that SOOOO many of our damned cities are named after the same French General from the Revolution. Couldn’t we have changed it up a tiny bit? /me trundles off to read the History of Stupidity (finally)
  
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