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Places Named for People

Can you guess these places that were named after people?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: January 28, 2022
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First submittedJanuary 23, 2012
Times taken43,744
Average score75.0%
Rating4.22
5:00
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Place
Named for a ...
Answer
U.S. state
U.S. President
Washington
City in Vietnam
Vietnamese
leader
Ho Chi Minh City
Continent
Italian explorer
North America /
South America
City in Ohio
Italian explorer
Columbus
U.S. state
Queen Elizabeth I
Virginia
U.S. state
Quaker leader
Pennsylvania
City in Egypt
Ancient conqueror
Alexandria
Country
Biblical patriarch
Israel
Country
Biblical king
Solomon Islands
Country in
South America
Revolutionary
Bolivia
Place
Named for a ...
Answer
U.S. state
French king
Louisiana
City in Liberia
U.S. President
Monrovia
City in New Zealand
English general
Wellington
City in Nebraska
U.S. President
Lincoln
City in Northern
Territory, Australia
Naturalist
Darwin
City in British
Columbia
English queen
Victoria
City in Nevada
Frontiersman
Carson City
Australian state
Dutch explorer
Tasmania
Country in Asia
18th century emir
Saudi Arabia
Country in Asia
Spanish king
Philippines
+11
Level 43
Jan 23, 2012
Virginia was named after Queen Elizabeth I (The Virgin Queen). With the number of heirs Queen Elizabeth II has, I don't think we can easily accept the Virgin Queen as her nickname.
+15
Level ∞
Jan 23, 2012
Virgin births, all. j/k. I fixed the clue.
+8
Level 58
Jul 10, 2014
Pesky storks...
+2
Level 44
Jan 24, 2012
It would be nice if you could accept Tazmania. I think that's a common spelling error.
+7
Level 37
Sep 13, 2012
No no no, not acceptable at all. One need only remember that us Aussie's limit our z's and they'll be fine
+13
Level 74
May 25, 2014
We also limit our apostrophes - NOT in plurals
+1
Level 74
Feb 27, 2016
Aha, but both are also truncations (though stretching it a bit for Aussie's admittedly)
+10
Level 65
Oct 7, 2019
Or just that the name comes from Abel Tasman..
+1
Level 59
Dec 12, 2019
Hilarious!
+1
Level 33
Mar 25, 2012
Can you accept "Saigon" for Ho Chi Minh City?
+52
Level 59
Dec 12, 2019
I'm not sure you understand this quiz!
+4
Level 75
Jan 28, 2022
I will confess that I tried that first, if only to avoid typing the whole thing out.
+3
Level 70
Mar 9, 2022
just try HCMC, it always works for me :)
+1
Level 43
Mar 10, 2022
Me too because that is the name the city SHOULD have.
+20
Level 71
Sep 2, 2012
First I was like "why would anyone name a town after a nudist?", then it occurred to me that naturalist means someone who studies the natural sciences.
+2
Level 92
Jan 14, 2015
I was about to throw down a 'what gives' when Hamilton wasn't accepted. Apparently he wasn't an English Admiral, though, but a Scottish Captain.
+1
Level 20
Jan 18, 2017
Where is Austin, Texas and Houston, Texas
+54
Level 66
Dec 11, 2018
They're in the back up file with the other 6,500 world cities named after people.
+7
Level 74
Mar 9, 2022
Surprisingly, Texas doesn't need to be included in everything. I think this quiz is too US-centric even as is, and you're advocating for making it worse... I'm guessing because you're Texan and you never want to shut up about Texas.
+1
Level 67
Jun 18, 2022
They're both in Texas
+1
Level 20
Jan 18, 2017
'_'
+1
Level 47
Sep 13, 2017
it should be yugoslavia
+3
Level 83
Feb 23, 2018
What should?
+10
Level 66
Dec 11, 2018
No, what's on second, Yugoslavia's on first.
+6
Level 82
Jan 2, 2019
What about the Philippines?
+2
Level ∞
Jan 28, 2022
Added that one.
+4
Level 72
Aug 15, 2019
I would like to see a another quiz (#2) like this.
+1
Level 65
Oct 7, 2019
I think there is plenty of material to makes this series go on for quite a while (though ofcouse it will get increasingly obscure, because people wont know the towns with a few thouand people or less.)
+1
Level 76
Dec 12, 2019
Please accept "Hi Chi Min" for the Vietnamese city. Frustrating.
+6
Level 86
Dec 13, 2019
You don't know much about uncle Ho, do you?
+4
Level 69
Dec 12, 2019
Now I have to go look up who the heck Carson was...
+1
Level 75
Dec 16, 2019
Kit Carson was one of the legends of the Old West - mountain man, trapper, guide, etc.
+2
Level 88
Dec 13, 2019
Never heard of the city in New Zealand named for a British Admiral. Fortunately, I only know one British Admiral and it happened to be the right one! ;)
+5
Level 84
Jan 28, 2022
You don't take the capitals quiz??
+4
Level 88
Jan 28, 2022
I've definitely heard of Wellington, which was named for Arthur Wellesley (The Duke of Wellington). I think there used to be a question about Nelson, New Zealand, which was named for Admiral Horatio Nelson.
+1
Level 69
Dec 14, 2019
I got all the non-US ones and five of the US ones. Pretty happy with that.
+17
Level 74
Feb 7, 2021
You forgot Chad, named for Chad of course.
+12
Level 78
Jan 28, 2022
And Paris, named for a Hotel heiress.
+2
Level 89
Mar 9, 2022
The Virgin(ia) state vs. the Chad country
+3
Level 75
Jan 28, 2022
imo this should accept both the person and the thing. in all of these cases they're close enough that to get one you can be sure someone's got the other. first few i was thrown off when e.g. amerigo vespucci wasn't working
+1
Level 68
Jan 28, 2022
Is there a part two of this? I can already think of a couple examples
+1
Level 84
Jan 29, 2022
I think 'Nelson' should be accepted for city in New Zealand.
+1
Level 74
Mar 9, 2022
Nelson was a vice admiral, not a general.
+17
Level 75
Jan 29, 2022
I think "America" should at least be a type-in if not the correct answer for #3. It's commonly known as one continent in many places and, y'know, it's the part that's the name of the chap.
+1
Level 63
Jan 31, 2022
When speaking about both Americas they're often reffered to as "America" but not as one continent. Just like Eurasia is a term but not a continent.
+6
Level 78
Jan 31, 2022
The concept of continent has multiple definitions in many different areas, and it's usually an arbitrary concept that relies on usages that vary from place to place.
+3
Level 78
Jan 31, 2022
The six continents model is studied in many parts of the world. All countries that speaks Italian, French, Portuguese or Spanish as first language use this model.

There is no correct answer, as the criteria used to define a continent has more to do with a convention than actual geography.

+3
Level 46
Feb 3, 2022
I thought the Vespucci idea had long been blown out of the water. America was named after Richard Ameryk, the Bristol merchant who paid for Cabot's 1498 voyage (pre-dating Vespucci). You would be living in Vespuccia otherwise - think of Bolivia, Colomba, Marshall Islands etc.
+1
Level 71
Mar 9, 2022
Agreed, I was hoping someone would have brought this up. Jetpunk should not be supporting debunked theories.
+2
Level 71
Mar 9, 2022
I had never heard this theory before. The Wikipedia page on the subject says simply that "there is no strong evidence to substantiate [the] theory that Cabot named America after Richard Ameryk," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_of_the_Americas#Richard_Amerike, while the page on Ameryk notes that there is no evidence that Ameryk or any other Bristol merchant funded Cabot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Amerike#Richard_Amerike_and_John_Cabot. As for naming it after Vespucci's first name, he was apparently known as "Americus," a Latinization of his first name; the book that accompanied the first attested use of "America" in 1507 stated "I do not see what right any one would have to object to calling this part [that is, the South American mainland], after Americus who discovered it." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_of_the_Americas#Earliest_use_of_name. The Ameryk theory has nothing similar to support it.
+1
Level 74
Feb 6, 2024
"Blown out of the water"? You mean "Mentioned on QI." Not the same thing.
+1
Level 71
Mar 9, 2022
Lovely quiz, I enjoyed it and some of them were possible to deduce.
+1
Level 55
Mar 9, 2022
For the Liberia one I said Buchanan first. For some reason I didn't think of Monrovia first.
+1
Level 66
Mar 10, 2022
The Duke of Wellington was Irish, not English (but a general in the British army). Good quiz!
+1
Level 64
Dec 2, 2022
He did famously say "I am only Irish insofar as anyone born in a stables is a horse" or something along those lines (can't remember the exact quote), so he'd probably not take too kindly to you referring to him as Irish.
+1
Level 78
May 25, 2022
Accept Napier for the New Zealand one? Hamilton was a captain and Nelson was an Admiral but Napier was an actual General
+1
Level 67
Nov 2, 2023
Just missed Darwin
+1
Level 74
Feb 6, 2024
Pennsylvania was named after William Penn Sr, who was far from being a Quaker.