Favourite City Names

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by AviationGuy

Haha...I kept waiting for someone to see that. It was a joke, of course (Schaumburg at the end of my list). I should have put it in the middle to see if people were really paying attention.

Translated from German, Schaumburg would be "Foamtown", no?

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Translated from German, Schaumburg would be "Foamtown", no?

I have always liked Katmandu

[Baronvonellis]

Salzburg means Salt Castle/fortress. Festung Hohensalzburg is the name of the giant castle on the mountain above the city that protected the city for a thousand years. Litterally- High Salt Castle Fortress. Like there's a freaking huge tall castle on top of this mountain here that's guarding our salt industry so go bother another city, if your even thinking about attacking us. And no one even tried to attack the castle by force, as it was so imposing. Festungsberg is the name of the Mountain the castle sits on. Fortress Mountain.

Mountains were fortifications for ancient peoples, the names berg and burg are related to each other as ancient fortifications. Castles/Mountains. English, German, and Dutch are related to Proto-German. The names stand for strength and protection. In English the word Borough was derived from ancient German and originally was a fortification or castle to protect people from Viking raids. The cities developed around the castle as the people had protection from Viking raids.

Schloss is the name for Palaces that weren't fortifications.
Salzburg has Schloss Mirabell and Schloss Hellbrunn which are palaces without any defensive fortifications.

Burg Hochosterwitz is the name of a massive castle on top of a mountain in Austria.

Nürnberger Burg is the name of Nuremberg's Castle on top of a ridge, one of the strongest castles in the Middle Ages that the Holy Roman Emperor would use as the unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by Baronvonellis

Festung Hohensalzburg is the name of the giant castle on the mountain above the city that protected the city for a thousand years. .

Yeah, but when I took a guided tour of the place the guide seemed most proud of the fact it was an SS headquarters/prison during the unfortunate years.

Salzburg is probably my favorite city in Europe anyway, though and the castle is very impressive.

[Pedestrian]

My vote: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula

[StethJeff]

Hates:

New ______
San/St./Santa/São ______
_______ City
_______apolis
_______ville
_______burg
_______grad

New York City fails on multiple grounds. And Minneapolis/St. Paul is the dreaded double whammy of successive failures.

Names should be unique, nonconformist, aesthetically pleasing, not too short or worse yet monosyllabic (Berne, Bonn). I'd say they shouldn't be too long either but frankly some of the longer polysyllabic city names sound the most elegant (Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Dar es Salaam, Cartagena)

[BnaBreaker]

For some reason ever since I was a child, I've loved the British Columbia town names of Kamloops and Nanaimo. Everytime I drew a map of a made up country I would include those names as some of the largest cities in my made up world.

[Metro-One]

Haha, that’s awesome!

I love those names too.

Another one I really love from BC (just a shame that it is a small town) is ”Keremeos”

In fact there are many great names in the BC interior: Okanagan, Similkameen River, Oyama (which actually sounds very Japanese), Kelowna, Penticton, etc...

[The North One]

Originally Posted by StethJeff

Hates:

New ______
San/St./Santa/São ______
_______ City
_______apolis
_______ville
_______burg
_______grad

New York City fails on multiple grounds. And Minneapolis/St. Paul is the dreaded double whammy of successive failures.

Names should be unique, nonconformist, aesthetically pleasing, not too short or worse yet monosyllabic (Berne, Bonn). I'd say they shouldn't be too long either but frankly some of the longer polysyllabic city names sound the most elegant (Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Dar es Salaam, Cartagena)

I hate those too, especially apolis and burg. I don't mind San and São though, they sound better than Los. New is just painfully lazy, like you couldn't be bothered to come up with a unique name for a place that you're going to create your whole life in?

I'm not sure longer names are always better, it's very hit or miss (Philadelphia is an absolutely horrid name and its nickname is even worse IMO). Rio de Janeiro can get away with it's long name since it's easily shortened to "Rio" which sounds good and is easily recognizable.

[Doady]

I like city and neighbourhood names that start the "The" word, like The Hague and The Bronx.

[Busy Bee]

Philadelphia Philly Phila

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by Don't Be That Guy

Just an aside, I love the city but I don't care for Pittsburgh as a city name. Add "Pitt," which can have a negative homophone with "Burg," which sound small and provincial and you get a name that doesn't project well.

I know what you mean. It has the sound of "Hicksville" or something.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by StethJeff

Names should be unique, nonconformist, aesthetically pleasing, not too short or worse yet monosyllabic (Berne, Bonn).

Monosyllabic names are often very memorable and strong due to their simplicity. Some of my favourites are monosyllabic: Rome, Seoul, Perth, Prague, Minsk, Cork, Flint, Fez, York, Nome. I also like the name Maine.

[StethJeff]

Originally Posted by The North One

I hate those too, especially apolis and burg. I don't mind San and São though, they sound better than Los. New is just painfully lazy, like you couldn't be bothered to come up with a unique name for a place that you're going to create your whole life in?

I'm not sure longer names are always better, it's very hit or miss (Philadelphia is an absolutely horrid name and its nickname is even worse IMO). Rio de Janeiro can get away with it's long name since it's easily shortened to "Rio" which sounds good and is easily recognizable.

Philadelphia doesn't offend me that much from an aesthetic stand point. However it irritates me the same way that Smyrna, Memphis, and a host of other smaller hamlets just lifted their name from antiquity. That's arguably worse than every other city naming sin.

[Busy Bee]

^I couldn't disagree more. I love "honorary" namings. The tying to antiquity was important for a young country and a lofty attempt to install a sense of permanence to these early settlements. I've always really liked near east or orient honor namings. But to each their own I guess.

[Acajack]

My kids always get a kick out of Mexico, NY.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4625...7i13312!8i6656

It's about an hour or so south of the Canadian border, and in the middle of a major snow belt. Always funny seeing road signs pointing to "Mexico" surrounded by huge snowbanks.

[Acajack]

Not too far from me in central New York state, the Syracuse area has many interesting place names:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centra...Military_Tract

[tayser]

Originally Posted by Laceoflight

I love Québec when pronounced right (/ke.bɛk/) and hate it when pronounced in english (/kwɪˈbɛk/ City). There's no "W" whatsoever in the name.

Others I always loved :

• Saskatoon (Canada) -> WAY better than Regina -_-
• Mississauga (Canada)
• Rimouski (Canada)
• Chattanooga (USA)
• Bâton-Rouge (USA) (lol)
• Acapulco (Mexico)
• Brest (France)
• Köln (Deutschland)
• Melbourne (Australia)
• Vladivostock [Владивосто́к] (Росси́я)
• Osaka [大阪市] (Japan)
• Tegucigalpa (Honduras)
• Maracaibo (Venezuela)
• Montevideo (Uruguay)
• Lusaka (Zambia)
  etc.

But... can you say Melbourne properly..... i.e Kebec versus Kwebec?

North Americans, drop those f**k'n rhotic Rs!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by tayser

But... can you say Melbourne properly..... i.e Kebec versus Kwebec?

North Americans, drop those f**k'n rhotic Rs!

Melb'n

[suburbanite]

I say Melbourne with a hard r when I'm traveling just to piss off the Aussies.