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{{trope}}
{{quote|''London, England. Not to be confused with London, Ontario.''}}
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).
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Unfortunately, this results in some confusion and frustration for many Americans. Since the USA is big and absolutely full of cities, and many of these cities have similar if not identical names (for instance, there are nine states that have a city named "Dallas"), Americans often describe an American location as "''City Name''", ''State''", and describe a foreign location as "''City Name'', ''Country''" to parallel that. This works well in the USA, but becomes rather jarring and annoying for foreigners, who find it annoying that after being shown Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament, and St Paul's Cathedral [[The Mummy Trilogy|all in one shot]], they still need to say "London, England."
In France, the tendency is to ram the identifier into the town name itself, so one gets places like Saint-Marie-Sur-Aube and Saint-Marie-Sur-Orne and Saint-Marie-En-Provence, etc. The American equivalent would be if towns were actually named "Springfield-in-Massachusetts" and "Springfield-in-Illinois."<ref>
The Japanese equivalent is to rename a town or city that shares its name with a more famous counterpart so that it also includes the name of the ancient province. Nagano City in Osaka had the same name as that ''other'' Nagano (the one with all the skiing), so they changed it to ''Kawachi''-Nagano. Happens a lot with similarly-named train stations, too.
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Gets used in the [[Title In]] a lot. An example of [[Creator Provincialism]]. Often mocked, although it's still a popular trope. Named by Bill Bryson. [[wikipedia:List of the most common U.S. place names|The Other Wiki]] has a list of the most commonly used city names.
In case you were wondering, there are twelve U.S. states that have a "London." (And one "New London"<ref>In Connecticut, if you were curious.</ref>).
{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* "Free — free / a trip to Mars / for 900 / empty jars / [[Burma-Shave]]". When a shopkeeper presented 900 empty jars in 1955, he and his wife were given the free trip to Moers ([[It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"|pronounced "Mars"]]), Germany.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Played with in an early [[
{{quote|
'''Domino:''' I like Paris.
'''Cable:''' Paris, '''Oklahoma'''? }}
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Indiana Jones and
* Parodied in ''[[Team America: World Police]]'': Every time the location changed, there would be a subtitle that stated the place's name and its distance in miles from AMERICA!.
{{quote|
** A similar, but more extreme, parody
* Subverted in the movie ''[[Paris
** Incidentally, the real Paris, Texas looks nothing like what is shown in the photo. ''Paris, Texas'' the movie is shot in the deserts of West Texas, which is all rugged desert, while [[wikipedia:Paris, Texas|Paris, Texas]] the city is in East Texas, which is mostly grass plains and forest.
* Country-based example from ''[[Transformers (
** That may be more of an assumption that [[Viewers are Morons]] than any other issue.
** Combined perhaps with Creators Are Morons, since the same movie also gives us the caption "[[The Pentagon]], [[Did Not Do the Research|Washington D.C.]]"<ref>The Pentagon is actually located in Arlington County, Virginia--over the Potomac river from D.C.</ref>
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** However, possibly because there's no other Hamunaptra and possibly because it's such a pivotal location, no labels tell us that Hamunaptra is in Egypt.
* Parodied in John Cleese's made-for-TV film ''The Strange Case of the End of Civilization As We Know It'', in which a dim-witted US President (a [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] version of Gerald Ford) orders a secret service agent to catch "the first plane to London, France."
* Parodied in ''[[Orgazmo]]'', where the opening shot is the Hollywood sign followed by the caption "Hollywood, California".
* Deliberately averted in the title of the movie ''The Cars That Ate Paris'', which is set in Paris, Australia.
* ''[[Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny|J.B.]]'' travels to Hollywoods all across America before he gets to Hollywood, California.
* ''[[Scotland, PA]]'' takes place in modern-day Scotland, PA instead of [[Macbeth]]'s Scotland.
* The gays-and-Italians comedy ''Mambo Italiano'' plays with this trope as part of its Old World in the New World theme.
{{quote|
** His dad explains the naming misconceptions involved in a simple immigration:
{{quote|
* ''[[The Naked Gun
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[The Bourne Series (
* The [[Dan Brown]] novel ''[[Angels
* Most of those "solve-the-mystery" books (including ''[[
** To be more general, the discovery that [[There Is Another]] place where something happens is a staple of [[No Man of Woman Born]] stories.
* In ''[[
* A plot point in one of [[
* In Cordwainer Smith's "[[Instrumentality of Mankind]]" series, one of the most important cities on Earth is "Meeyameefla," obviously meant to be Miami, Fla. - note that FL is the more common abbreviation of Florida since ZIP codes were introduced.
** 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 [[Piers Anthony]]'s THE MACROSCOPE, an amateur astrologer, on being told that the subject was born in Philadelphia, feels the need to ask "Pennsylvania or Mississippi?"
* In the ''[[
* In the [[Tom Holt]] novel ''[[Here Comes The Sun]]'', a trainee [[Painting the Frost
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* When ''[[
* In an ''[[All in The Family]]''' episode, Archie loses his Christmas bonus after he messes up a shipment meant for London, Ontario.
* In ''[[In the Heat of
{{quote|
'''Police Chief Gillespie:''' ''Philadelphia, Mississippi?''
'''Tibbs:''' ''Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.'' }}
* [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] on ''[[One Life to Live]]'', blue-blooded matriarch Vicki (then Davidson) decides she needs to go on a trip to find herself and get her head together. When she calls her family, she tells them she's in Paris. Instead of clarifying, she deliberately lets them think she's in the famous Paris, rather than working as a diner waitress in Paris, Texas.
* In a ''[[3rd Rock
{{quote|
'''Big Giant Head''': Not ''that'' Mars!
'''Dick''': [[Big No|Nooo!]] }}
* The mystery show ''[[
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' is rather bad at this. Not to mention a teleported character being described as "Somewhere in Africa" (which, to be charitable, ''might'' have been intended to reflect his own confusion), and another [[Title In]] informing us that Peter is in Cork, ''Ireland'', there is a whole subplot set in Odessa, Ukraine - apparently just for the sake of a joke, since [[Contrived Coincidence|Noah is from Odessa, Texas]].
* ''[[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.
* Played with in an episode of ''[[
{{quote|
'''Maj. Winchester:''' ''(through gritted teeth)'' ''No!'' It's spending the weekend in ''Florida!'' }}
** Crowned during the episode's denoument, during which he is finally able to send a sober and confessional telegram to his sister, as dictated over the phone to the telegraph operator:
{{quote|
* Averted in ''[[Jericho]]''; going on the title alone you'd have no idea it took place in the United States, let alone Kansas.
* Mentioned in an episode of ''[[Full House]]'' when Jesse's grandfather suddenly passes away during a visit. His body is being flown back home for the funeral, and Jesse tells the others that he needs to make sure the airline sends him to Athens, Greece, instead of Athens, Georgia.
* Averted in ''[[The Man
* [[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).
* The 'gives the name of their State as well as their small town name for context' is poked fun at in ''[[Harry
* 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
== [[Music]] ==
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== Theater ==
* In ''[[Hair (theatre)|Hair]]'' Claude has a song about "Manchester England England."
== [[Web Original]] ==
* In [http://notalwaysright.com/giving-the-french-stick/10042 this Not Always Right story], a foreigner learns that there's a reason why Americans do
* Played with [[Stealth Pun|subtly]] in the [[Homestar Runner]] flash game ''"Where's An Egg?"''. Although most of the details in the game suggest that it takes place in Soviet-era Moscow, the [[All There in the Manual|manual]] states that the protagonist is actually part of the Boise police. That might seem odd, since Boise is the capital of Idaho, but it is actually a [[Genius Bonus|sly reference]] to the city of ''Moscow'', Idaho.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' parodied this. Apu tells of his vacation plans to see Paris... in fact, several Parises, including Hilton, Texas, and France. They also revel in its avoidance when discussing Springfield and [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|which state it is (or isn't) in]]. By the way, assuming it were a real American town, it could be any of 28 Springfields in 24 states ([[Department of Redundancy Department|Wisconsin has five]]).
* In one episode of ''[[Where
== [[Real Life]] ==
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** Kansas City is the best-known U.S. example, being a fairly large city that straddles the Kansas-Missouri border. There is both a Kansas City, KS and a Kansas City, MO, right next to each other. And the one in Missouri is ''larger''.
*** If you say Kansas City without a modifier, it is almost always assumed that you mean Kansas City, Missouri. Which can be useful if you wish to mislead someone...there's a reason it's called the [[Kansas City Shuffle]], after all.
** This is not a uniquely American phenomenon. In Japan there are several prefectures that share their names with their capital cities. Osaka, Kyoto and Fukuoka (the last of which is a clue to the location of the [[Excel Saga (
*** Although in Japanese, it's easy to distinguish because the names are given endings to denote location. Cities are [Name]-shi and prefectures are [Name]-ken. Important locations such as Tokyo and Kyoto actually get their own unique suffixes, making it even harder to confuse the areas.
*** 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.
*** Only to English-speakers. Locals simply call it Québec, which is distinguished from the province by the lack of a definite article. (Or an accent on the e: Québec, 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)".
** Vancouver, Washington is just 300 miles from the much larger [[Vancouver]], BC, so it's not uncommon to hear residents of the Pacific Northwest refer to the American town as Vancouver, USA.
** 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.
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** Then there's the deliberate version around twenty years ago in which a Winnipeg radio station had a contest, the prize being a trip to Miami. This being the middle of a frigid Manitoba winter, there was a massive response. The winners were told to show up at the radio station to board a bus, which they presumably thought would take them to the airport. However, it took them to the small community of Miami, Manitoba. They were not amused.
** 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.
* There is a town of Sault Ste. Marie in Ontario, Canada. It's right on the border with... Sault-Sainte-
** 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]].
** Lloydminster, Alberta/Saskatchewan, needs a slash
** There's also Texarkana, Texas and Texarkana, Arkansas. Again, they border each other.
** [[Niagara Falls]], Ontario is quite well-known; not as well known is Niagara Falls, New York, immediately adjacent to it.
* 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.
* Not only can London, England be confused with London, Ontario, but Ontario, Canada ("Ontario, CA") can often be confused with Ontario, California
** 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.
* Ontario (the province) has, in addition to London, communities named
* 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.
*** And of course, they're all named after George Washington, a
* 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.
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* Hamilton, Ontario and Hamilton, New Zealand often have similar cultural events, causing Google confusion.
* Speaking of New Zealand, it is host to the towns of both Palmerston and Palmerston North, which is much more widely known and much bigger (Palmerston North has a population of roughly 81,000, Palmerston has a population of about 2,000)
* When [[Burma
* In Russia and the former [[Soviet Union]], there are several cities that have nearly identical names. A few of these have changed since [[The Great Politics Mess-Up]] due to [[Insert New City Name Here]].
** Novgorod (sometimes called "Velikiy (Great)" Novgorod) and Nizhny Novgorod.
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[[Category:Exposition]]
[[Category:Meta Concepts]]
[[Category:
{{DEFAULTSORT:London England Syndrome}}
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