A large number of places in the
U.S were named after places in
England largely as a result of
English settlers and explorers of the
Thirteen Colonies.
Some names were carried over directly and are found throughout the country (such as
Manchester,
Birmingham and
Rochester). Others carry the prefix "New"; for example, the largest city in the US,
New York, was named after
York because King
Charles II gave the land to his brother, James, the Duke of York (later
James II).[1][2] Some places, such as
Hartford, Connecticut, bear an archaic spelling of an English place (in this case
Hertford).
^"History", City of Exeter website. Retrieved 2012-Jan-11.
^Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, Calif.: Word Dancer Press. p. 101.
ISBN1-884995-14-4.
^Manchester's founders envisioned it would become a large industrial city like
Manchester, England.
Rennick 1988, pp. 186–87.
^Believed to have been originally named after
Willoughby, England, from where the ancestors of the area's settler's were thought to have emigrated; the name "Williba" was supposedly a corruption adopted by its first postmaster to fit the name on a rubber stamp.
Rennick 1988, p. 320.
^Chadbourne, Ava Harriet (1955), Maine Place Names and the Peopling of Its Towns, vol. 5, B. Wheelwright, p. 73.
^Named after the manor of Kittery Court, located on Kittery Point in
Kingswear, the birthplace of founder Alexander Shapleigh.
Chadbourne 1955, p. 47.
^Coolidge, Austin J.; John B. Mansfield (1859).
A History and Description of New England. Boston, Massachusetts: A.J. Coolidge. pp.
292–299. coolidge mansfield history description new england 1859..
^Nancy M. Warner; Ralph B. Levering; Margaret Taylor Woltz (1976). Carroll County, Maryland: a history, 1837-1976. United States. p. 35.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
^"Olney History". Olney Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
^Upham, Warren (2001). Minnesota Place Names: a geographical encyclopedia. Minnesota Historical Society Press. p. 256.
^George Rippey Stewart (1970), American place-names: a concise and selective dictionary for the continental United States of America,
Oxford University Press
^Wick, Douglas A.,
"Leeds (Benson County)", North Dakota Place Names, retrieved January 10, 2012 (named for
Leeds in Yorkshire).
^McSpadden, Donna Casity,
"Chelsea", Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture,
Oklahoma Historical Society, retrieved January 10, 2012 ("Railroad official Charles Peach named the site for his native Chelsea, England.").
^Wilson, Linda D.,
"Manchester", Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture,
Oklahoma Historical Society, retrieved January 10, 2012 ("Historian George Shirk asserts that the town was named for Manchester, England, while Charles Gould claims it refers to a former hometown in the East.").