It's common to associate the United States with English—but place names in the U.S. tell a more complete story of the languages and people who have lived there! Many names of streets, cities, and states carry more linguistic meaning than is obvious at first glance.
Buckle up for a journey through the U.S. and its place names! 🗺️
What's in a (place) name?
If you look at a map of the U.S., you’ll come across place names that don’t sound like other English words. Many of them reflect the long, complex linguistic history of the U.S., from the Indigenous peoples of North America, to the languages brought during colonization, to more recent immigration, too.
As a result, the U.S. is home to place names from a wide range of languages—here are just a few:
| Origin language | Place names |
|---|---|
| Caddo | Texas (state) |
| Comanche | Tucumcari (town in New Mexico) |
| Dutch | Brooklyn (borough of New York City) Harlem (neighborhood in New York City) Schuylkill River (river in Pennsylvania) |
| French | Algiers (neighborhood in New Orleans) Louisiana (state) Vermont (state) |
| German | Schoeneck (town in Pennsylvania) New Braunfels (city in Texas) |
| Lenape | Manhattan (borough of New York City) Manayunk (neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) |
| Spanish | El Paso (city in Texas) Miramar (city in state of Florida) Palo Alto (city in California) Las Cruces (city in New Mexico) |
While you'll find place names from many languages across the whole country, Spanish is especially prevalent from coast to coast. That's because Spanish has been spoken in the U.S. since long before English arrived, and almost half the U.S. was part of Mexico until 1848. Today, the U.S. boasts states named Florida (“flowered,” a state in the southeast), Colorado (“colored” or “red,” a state in the center, named for the color of a large river), Nevada (“snow-covered,” a state in the west), and Montana (“mountainous,” a large state bordering Canada).
Spanish place names are especially common in the west and southwest—the regions that were part of Mexico—including the cities of San Antonio (Saint Anthony) in Texas, San Francisco (Saint Francis) and Los Angeles (The Angels) in California, Santa Fe (Holy Faith) in New Mexico, and Las Vegas (The Meadows) in Nevada.
How do people pronounce all those names?
Well… in many different ways! A name—just like a word—takes on a new life, and new pronunciations, when it's borrowed or used by a new community. It also depends a lot on the languages that the community speaks.
Today, there are fewer people in the U.S. who speak Dutch, French, German, etc, compared to when these places were named, and so it's most common to pronounce place names from those languages in a decidedly American English way. For example, the Dutch-origin name Brooklyn has long since lost the Dutch vowel in the original Breukelen in favor of the English vowel /ʊ/, as in the words foot and good.
But Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language in the U.S.—in fact, the U.S. ranks #5 in terms of the number of native Spanish speakers, and that ranking is even higher when all the U.S. second language and heritage speakers are included! So while few Dutch speakers have to make a hard decision about Brooklyn / Breukelen, Spanish-English bilinguals have many options for pronouncing U.S. place names that came from Spanish:
- Do you say the Spanish-origin name totally in Spanish?
- Do you say the Spanish-origin name totally in English?
- Are there intermediate pronunciations or other alternatives?
Bilinguals might use one pronunciation when speaking in one language—so using Los Angeles when speaking in English or to people who don't speak Spanish—but a different pronunciation in another context—like saying Los Angeles if they're speaking Spanish or to people who know Spanish. It can also vary depending on the individual and how they want to express something about their identity or to show respect to a language and its communities. Bilinguals have many pronunciations at their disposal!
Surprising U.S. pronunciations
In addition to city names that come from regular words in another language, others were copied directly from existing names in other countries. Because the people who live in these U.S. cities today may not speak the language the name came from—and if it's been many generations or centuries since the name was adopted—the names often have a pronunciation quite distinct from how they are pronounced in the original place.
Compare the pronunciation of the following names in their country of origin vs. in the U.S.:
| Origin place | Origin pronunciation | U.S. place | U.S. pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin, Germany | behr-leen | Berlin, New Hampshire | burr-lin |
| Chantilly, France | shahn-tee-yee | Chantilly, Virginia | shan-till-ee |
| Lima, Peru | lee-mah | Lima, Pennsylvania | lie-mah |
| Mexico | meh-hee-koh | Mexico, Maine | mek-si-koh |
| Milano, Italy | mee-lah-noh | Milan, Illinois | my-lan |
| Orléans, France | or-lay-ahn | New Orleans, Louisiana | or-lins or or-lee-uhns |
| Sevilla, Spain | seh-vee-yah | Seville, Ohio | seh-vil |
| Thames River, England | temz | Thames River, Connecticut | thaymz |
| Versailles, France | vehr-sigh | Versailles, Pennsylvania | ver-sales |
Places (and pronunciations) tell a story!
Many place names in the U.S. reflect the languages spoken in certain areas, both past and present. These names often have multiple possible pronunciations, with no single correct way to say them. The pronunciation somebody chooses can reveal aspects of linguistic, ethnic, or cultural identity.