The lengths and uniqueness of the U.S. populated places’ names mapped

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There are more than 180,000 populated places in the United States, and most of them have a unique name.

The lengths of the U.S. populated places’ names

First of all, the names of settlements in the U.S. are very different in length. Reddit user Dremarious created maps of the shortest city name in every U.S. state.

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However, using the U.S. Board of Geographic Names database, I found 11 localities whose name consists of only two letters. For example, the settlements with the name Ai can be found even in two states: Alabama (Cleburne County) and Georgia (Gilmer County).

At the same time, six settlements have 33-letters names. The median length of the name of the settlements is nine letters.

The most common length of names of settlements is six letters. There are 19,245 such settlements in the country.

Most of the U.S. states on the East Coast tend to have longer populated place names, while states in the Plains and Intermountain West Region tend to have shorter names of populated places.

The most common length of names of settlements

1. Populated places’ names containing 6 letters – 19,245
2. Populated places’ names containing 8 letters – 19,244
3. Populated places’ names containing 7 letters – 19,044
4. Populated places’ names containing 9 letters – 18,544
5. Populated places’ names containing 10 letters – 17,590

Common words in the U.S. settlement names

The most frequent words in city names usually represent a name of the founder of the place, a famous person, or a noticeable natural object, such as River, Valley Mount, Lake, or cardinal direction, such as North, South, East, West.

The top 5 most common town names in the U.S.

1. Franklin (number of towns with the same name – 30; the most populous city Franklin located in Tennessee (population – 72,939)
2. Fairview (number of towns with the same name – 28; the most populous city Fairview in New Jersey (13,835).
3. Clinton (number of towns with the same name – 27; the most populous city Clinton is located in Maryland (35,970)
4. Madison (number of towns with the same name – 23; the most populous city Madison located in Wisconsin (254,977)
5. Greenville (number of towns with the same name – 23; the most populous city Greenville located in North Carolina (91,921)
6. Marion (number of towns with the same name – 23; the most populous city Marion located Iowa (39,328)

The map below shows the populated places that have the same names as four of the United States’ largest cities.

Places named New York, Los Angles, Chicago and Houston that aren’t New York, Los Angles, Chicago and Houston

Here is the map created by Randall Munroe that shows the more U.S. cities that have towns with the same names.

No, the other one

What about other populated places across the United States where people get smiles when they say others where they reside?

The weirdest U.S. city names

American Fork (Utah), Atomic City (Idaho), Bangs (Texas), Blue Grass (Iowa), Bluff (Alaska), Briny Breezes (Florida), Canadian (Texas), China (Texas), Climax (Michigan), Colon (Michigan), Concrete (Washington), Cool (Texas), Okay (Oklahoma), Cut and Shoot (Texas), Dinosaur (Colorado), Fries (Virginia), Hooker (Oklahoma), Hurt (Virginia), Kill Devil Hills (North Carolina), Last Chance (Iowa), Ninety Six (South Carolina), Oblong (Illinois), Placentia (California), Popejoy (Iowa), Okay (Oklahoma), Pink (Oklahoma), Rainbow City (Alabama), Soda Springs (Idaho), Speed (North Carolina), Superior (Wyoming), Three Way (Tennessee), Truth or Consequences (New Mexico), Whynot (North Carolina), Winnebago (Minnesota), Uncertain (Texas).