"London, England" Syndrome: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

There are a great deal of American cities and towns named after places from Europe: mostly British places, but French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch names crop up across the USA, not to mention numerous variations and simplifications of Native American spellings. This reflects the USA's origins as being colonized by people from across the world. Interestingly enough, lots of major American cities are far bigger than their European counterparts ever were ([[Cleveland Rocks|Cleveland]], Boston, Stockton, Rochester and Portland are the most obvious examples, and the only two major exceptions are Birmingham and Manchester).

 

{{examples}}

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Played with in an early [[Cable]] story where Cable goes on a date with [[Action Girl|Domino]]:

* In ''[[American Gods]]'' the main character spends some time in Cairo, Illinois, and meets some [[Physical God|beings from the other Cairo]].

* A plot point in one of [[Agatha Christie]]'s [[Tommy and Tuppence]] stories is that there are two towns in England called Maldon; one in Surrey and one in Sussex. The characters know of Maldon, Surrey, so don't bother reading the "Maldon, Su..." address on a telegram properly, Only later does Tuppence realize that the telegraph office only give the county if they need to specify between two places with the same name. (The ''real'' town of Maldon is in Essex, however.)

** But thanks to [[Lou Reed]], to a lot of people it's always going to be "Miami, F-L-A".

* In James Blish's classic ''[[Cities in Flight]]'' series, Earth's cities, fitted with antigravity generators and spacedrives, roam the Galaxy looking for work. Nevertheless, they still use names like "Chicago, Illinois" or "Scranton, Pennsylvania". This even becomes a plot point when one character spots the error in a city's name and realizes it's actually an alien battlestation.

* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000|MST3K]]'' mocked this once when a caption said "Illinois, USA". As opposed to Illinois, Mongolia.

* Played with in ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' in the Cycling Tour episode when any time a city is mentioned it cuts away to Eric Idle in a military uniform standing in front of a map and pointing out the city's distance from 3 unrelated cities around Europe. By the third or fourth time he's eventually told to shut up by the characters in the sketch.

{{quote|'''Maj. Winchester:''' Yes, Massachusetts, you geographic whiz.

'''Maj. Winchester:''' ''(through gritted teeth)'' ''No!'' It's spending the weekend in ''Florida!'' }}

* Averted in ''[[The Man from U.N.C.L.E.]]'', which regularly used scene-setting "Somewhere In (Insert Place Here") captions.

* [[Picket Fences]] had an episode that dealt with [[The Pope]] going to Rome. Not Rome in Italy but Rome, Wisconsin (the setting for the show).

* In one episode of ''[[The Lucy Show]]'', Lucy takes the trope even further by specifying that she's taking a trip to "London, England, In Europe."

* ''[[Night Court]]'': Dan's grandfather named the tiny town of Paris, Louisiana where Dan grew up, after the city he was station in during [[World War I]] - Paris ''Illinois'', that is.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In one episode of ''[[Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?]]?'', the detectives figure out they need to head to a river that's between Cairo and Memphis. When they arrive at the Nile, they find out they should have gone to the Mississippi.

 

*** In Taiwan, here's also New Taipei City, formerly known as Taipei County, not to be confused with the capital of the Republic of China, Taipei, one of two enclaves of New Taipei.

** There's also Quebec City, Quebec.

* Someone in Vancouver, Washington has printed T-shirts reading "Vancouver (not B.C.), Washington (not D.C.), Clark County (not Nevada), next to Portland, Oregon (not Maine)".

** Speaking of Washington, do you mean the state on the west coast, or the nation's capital in the District of Columbia on the East Coast? For further confusion, before it was made a state, Washington was known as Columbia Territory.

* When [[George Bush]] met Charlotte Church, he allegedly asked her what state [[Land of My Fathers and Their Sheep|Wales]] is in.

** Before computerisation, it was not at all uncommon for luggage, and sometimes passengers, for Melbourne, Florida to wind up in Melbourne, Australia. It still happens, but nowhere near as often.

*** There is also Melbourne, England- it's a small town in Cambridgeshire. There's also the towns of Portugal and America.

** Likewise Nogales, Sonora, Mexico and Nogales, Arizona, USA. Note, however that as described above Vancouver, Washington is on the Oregon state line, ''opposite'' the [[Stargate City|Canadian border]].

** There's also Texarkana, Texas and Texarkana, Arkansas. Again, they border each other.

* Most places in Vermont that appear to be named after places in England, are in fact named after places in Connecticut that were named after places in England.

* Until late 2007, [[The Other Wiki]] was headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida. There have apparently been cases of stuff intended for them ending up in St. Petersburg, Russia.

** There is also an [[wikipedia:Ontario, Oregon|Ontario, Oregon]].

* There is ''a lot'' of cities named Warsaw, mostly in the US, but also in Canada, all named after the capital of Poland. Being mostly settled by Polish immigrants might have had something to do with it.

* There's a [[wikipedia:Washington, Virginia|Washington, Virginia]] not far west from the more well known D.C., and signs that lead there say "Washington, Va." The denizens there call it "Little Washington."

** Justified as according to [[That Other Wiki]], G.W. himself surveyed the area, and the town was incorporated before his death. Also, it's the oldest town of Washington in the U.S.A.

*** Likewise there is the town of Washington, North Carolina. It is also referred to as Little Washington.

* There's half a dozen Californias in England, and there used to be an annual Washington to California cycle race.

* The tiny island of Kiritimati has a London, a Paris and a Poland.