I was expecting these cities to be very populous or extremely touristy, but San Antonio, Jacksonville, San Jose, and Columbus all have huge populations but are all missing. I am surprised!
Most people incorrectly include Oakland and San Jose as part of "San Francisco." Especially if you aren't from California. San Antonio isn't really a city that I think most people think of when thinking about Texas (even if they do remember the Alamo). I'm more surprised by the omission of Austin. Despite somehow Jacksonville being more populous than Miami, it's not exactly on people's mind when talking about Florida. I think of Panama City and Tampa before I think of Jacksonville. And Columbus is in Ohio...'nuff said there ;-)
But you're probably right about them being very touristy. As a European who has only been to two of these I know them all and obviously so do a lot more people.
San Antonio, Jacksonville, and Columbus are only "very populous" if you look at city proper population. They are not major metro areas. For example, the Miama MSA is over four times as large as Jacksonville, and the Detroit MSA is twice the population of Columbus, despite having smaller city proper populations.
As a proud San Antonian, sadly I'm not surprised it's not here. It may be the seventh biggest city but it's the 31st biggest media market and really only remembered for one tiny church that sits in the middle of downtown. I'm pretty surprised about Austin, Nashville, and Tampa not being on there.
The cities you named have huge populations in themselves, but none of them are really huge metro areas. Well, San Jose is, if you include San Francisco and Oakland.
In parallel, Atlanta itself is not very touristy but is the gateway to more touristy stuff for many people on the East Coast thanks to its massive (and memorable) airport. And logically people first type in the places they remember most. The ants on the ceiling probably helped people remember them. Those were...interesting.
I've been in the Atlanta airport dozens of times and cannot think of anything that is memorable about it. Is that what your "ants on the ceiling" comment is referring to?
Isn't there also a Portland in Maine? That's the one I think of (Too much 'Murder She Wrote'). So how can we be sure which one people were thinking of in the source quiz?
There is a Portland in Maine, it's actually what Portland, Oregon is named after (famously decided in a coin toss). However, I'd argue that the vast majority of the people who guessed Portland were basing it off of Portland, OR. When you look at a map, there are always a million cities in the southern and eastern portions of the country, but only ever Portland and Seattle if you look to the PNW, which can make it stand out.
It's strange how one can remember all the tough ones and somehow blanks out on one particular in-your-face kind of very obvious answer. If it's any condolences I missed New Orleans :)
Aw man, Indianapolis isn't on there. Then again, larger and more important cities aren't either. I was surprised Minneapolis wasn't on there, because when I tell people where I'm from, that's what they hear.
A "Least Guessed U.S. Cities" quiz would be interesting. The moment anyone correctly guessed one of the cities on the quiz, it would have to be removed.
What Kalamazoo is quite a well-known city in Michigan. I've never been to the U.S. but heard of this city from the Glenn Miller song '(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo'.
It's like old musicians.