U.S. Cities by Letter - N-O

“The Big Apple” is the country’s most populous and most densely populated city.

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The capital and largest city of Oklahoma, and the site of a 1995 domestic terror attack.

O

The capital and most populous city of Tennessee is known as “Music City.”

N

The largest city in Nebraska shares its name with a mutual insurance company.

O

The eighth most populous city of California received a population bump from San Franciscans fleeing the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake. Its first syllable is a type of tree.

O

“The Big Easy,” the most populous city in Louisiana, was named for a French duke and is known for its annual Mardi Gras revels.

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The fourth most populous city in Florida may have been named for a character in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. It is the home of the embattled Walt Disney World Resort.

O

The most populous city in New Jersey was settled by Puritans from New Haven Colony in 1666. It is the site of one of the airports serving New York City.

N

Nevada’s fourth most populous city was founded by a man who disapproved of Las Vegas. Its name is the name of Nevada’s most populous city preceded by a cardinal direction.

N

The third most populous city in Virginia, which shares its name with a ceremonial English county, is home to the largest naval base in the world and a NATO Strategic Command headquarters.

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The 22nd most populous city of California was named after the man who built a $2 million factory on the site. His surname is an occupational name (like Smith or Baker) derived from the Old English words for “oxen” and “herdsman”: oxan and hierde.

O

The second most populous city of Kansas was incorporated in 1960, when its population was just 28,085. Its name consists of two words. The first word means “travelling or done by land.” The second means “a large public green area in a town, used for recreation.”

O

The fifth most populous city in Virginia is home to Joint Base Langley-Eustis. Its name sounds like it could be the name of a daily periodical.

N

This California city was named by the two Chaffee brothers to honor the Canadian province in which they were born.

O

This California city was founded in 1798 by the Spanish as the village of San Luis Rey. Its current English-language name means “along the sea.”

O

The fourth most populous city of Illinois is named for its founder, whose name rhymes with “paper.”

N

The name of Kansas’s fourth most populous city is a Shawnee word understood to mean “beautiful.” If you don’t speak Shawnee, you can approximate its pronunciation by combining the following.

O

One of the first planned cities in the U.S., this Connecticut city is the state’s third largest, and is the home of Yale University.

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This California city is located in a county of the same name, and is the only city there to have been built around a plaza. Both are named after what was once a principal crop of Southern California.

O

Settled during the Land Run of 1889, Oklahoma’s third most populous city shares its name with the Psycho character who has been played in films by Anthony Perkins and Vince Vaughn.

N

The third most populous city of South Carolina was the site of plantations from 1680, and then smaller farms until it was incorporated in the early 20th century. Its name includes the name of South Carolina’s most populous city preceded by a cardinal direction.

N

A former home of the Presidents Bush, Texas’s 28th most populous city was featured in the 2004 film Friday Night Lights, and shares its name with a Black Sea port in Ukraine.

O

Idaho’s third most populous city was once an important railroad town. Its name rhymes with the name of a Gulf Coast city in Florida.

N

This Texas city was established by a German prince of the mediatized House of Solms, who named it after his home. The city’s name contains two words. The first is an antonym of “old.” You can work out a Texan’s pronunciation of the second word (not the German pronunciation or the correct spelling) by combining the following.

N

The ninth largest Massachusetts city was once an important fishing and whaling town. It was named by the prominent Russell family, whose surname was shared by an English ducal family. The ducal title (Duke of _____) was used as the place name, but had to be preceded by “New” since Massachusetts already had a town whose name matched the ducal title.

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