History Main / DescriptiveVille

* Similar to the French Disney comic example, [[DonkeyKongCountry Donkey Kong]]'s home island is named Donkey Kong Island. It has also gone by the names Kongoland (in ''CaptainNTheGameMaster''), Kongo Bongo Island (in [[Series/DonkeyKongCountry the DKC cartoon]]), and Kong Isle (in the ''DonkeyKong64'' manual).

* In America, there's Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, and one of the two municipalities named Kansas City (however, the larger of the two is [[NonindicativeName in Missouri]]).

* In America, there's Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, and Kansas City (the latter of which is [[NonindicativeName in Missouri]]).

* ''BattlestarGalactica'': Caprica City.

--> -- '''Terry''', being given a lesson on capitols in ''Fattypuffs & Thinifers''

!Examples:

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* Paradigm City in ''TheBigO''.
* ''FullmetalAlchemist''. Most of the action happens in Central City and East City, and it also has a North, West and South City.
* Pretty much every town or city in ''{{Pokemon}}''.
* The planet of ''{{Trigun}}'' is named Gunsmoke. The series is SpaceWestern.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

* Hondo City covers most of Japan in the JudgeDredd ''2000 AD'' comic series (and the ''JudgeDredd Magazine'' strip ''Shimura'' in particular).
** And of course, Mega City One, but that was properly intentional.

[[AC:{{Film}} -- Animated]]
* TheIncredibles live in Metroville (a ShoutOut to {{Superman}}--the name's a portmanteau of Metropolis and {{Smallville}}). Judging by the name of the bank, the opening scene takes place in Municiberg.
* {{Megamind}} takes place in Metro City.

[[AC:{{Film}} -- Live Action]]

-->'''Gibbs:''' Look alive, and keep a weather eye! Not for naught it's called Shipwreck Island, where lies Shipwreck Cove and the town of Shipwreck.
-->'''Pintel:''' You heard him. Step lively!
-->'''Jack:''' For all that pirates are clever cobs, we are an unimaginative lot when it comes to naming things.
-->'''Gibbs:''' Aye.
-->'''Jack:''' I once sailed with a geezer lost both of his arms and part of his eye.
-->'''Gibbs:''' And what'd you call him?
-->'''Jack:''' Larry.
* Champion City in ''MysteryMen'' -- a [[InvokedTrope parody version]] of this trope.
* DarkCity in the film of the same name. It's dark.
** But not necessarily the actual name of the city (if indeed it has one... or indeed ''only'' one).

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

* The ''Literature/{{Honorverse}}'' has Landing City, as in 'the place where the first colonist's shuttle landed, as the capital of Manticore. Helen Zilwiki lampshades it in ''Storm from the Shadows''.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

* [[BattlestarGalactica Caprica City]]
* The titular town of ''{{LazyTown}}''

[[AC:RealLife]]
* In Japan and probably China. Kyoto: capital city. Tokyo: Eastern capital. Beijing: the characters mean "North Capital" (as the opposite to Nanjing, "Southern capital"). May be because Chinese characters force you to have meaningful names, while phonetic alphabets allow a place name's meaning to get lost once the pronunciation changes.
* In America, there's Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, and Kansas City (the latter of which is [[NonindicativeName in Missouri]]).
* In fact, there ''is'' a City of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Townsville,_Queensland Townsville]] in Australia.
** Non-city examples include Australia's westernmost state, called Western Australia, and the southern state South Australia. Of Australia's two territories, the one to the north is called... well, the Northern Territory. Down Under, we're not known for our creativity with names.
* Turns out Long Beach is pretty long.
* Also in the greater Los Angeles area are the cities of Commerce and Industry. Three guesses what happens in those cities.
* An interesting example is the Transoxania region in Central Asia because it has the same meaning in different languages apparently independently. In Arabic it is ''Mal Wara Al-Nahr'' or "What is beyond the (Oxus) river". Westerners call it the Transoxania, which of course means, "What is beyond the Oxus".
* Battery Park, NY is a place where the US army mounted its artillery at one time.
* Arizona's Kofa Mountains -- named for the nearby '''K'''ing '''of''' '''A'''rizona mine -- are marked on early maps as the "S. H. Mountains". This sobriquet was derived from a series of blocky stone slabs that, to the eyes of white settlers, resembled sanitary facilities dating from before the installation of plumbing. [[spoiler:Yeah. The Shit House Mountains.]]



[[AC:TabletopRPG]]
* Greyhawk City (AKA the Free City of Greyhawk) in the ''DungeonsAndDragons'' Greyhawk setting.

[[AC:{{Theater}}]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

* The MMORPG''CityOfHeroes'' is set in "Paragon City".

* ''VideoGame/{{inFamous}}'' takes place in Empire City.

* Shouldn't we have listed [[SuperMarioBros the Mushroom Kingdom]] already?
* In the WarCraft series, both games and novels (those set prior to WoW), the capital city of Lordaeron is known far and wide as... Capital City.
* The main city in the KingdomOfLoathing is called Seaside Town. Three guesses what major geographic feature is nearby.

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]
* [[SinglePaletteTown Azure City]] in ''Webcomic/OrderOfTheStick'', a city which is colored entirely in blue.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* ''PowerPuffGirls'' [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this with the City of Townsville and the Town of Citysville.
** Also the Town of Farmsville.

* The Capital of [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield the state Springfield is in]] is named Capital (or [[SpellMyNameWithAnS sometimes]] Capitol) City.

* The ''{{Thundercats}}'' hail from the planet Thundera.
* Ba Sing Se from ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' means 'Impenetrable City', due to the giant walls surrounding it.

*** For bonus points, Ponyville is located in the kingdom of ''Equestria''.

Note: Not every city that has a name ending in ''City'' is an example of this trope. Even if the name appears to be unimaginative, if it is justified or explained by the backstory, it is not an example of this trope.

* Under St.Petersburg there's "Tsarskoye Selo" - "Royal Village". Three guesses why.
** And Novgorod is short for "Noviy gorod", meaning "new city".
*** Actually averted - it is one of the oldest cities in Russia.
* Several cities and boroughs in Germany are called ''Neustadt'', and then there's the Italian city of Naples (Neapolis). Both mean ''new city''.
** There's even a New City, New York.
** Sweden has ''Nyköping'', meaning "New Town".
** Finland has ''Uusikaupunki'', meaning "New Town".

* ''Burg'' is a Germanic word, meaning fortress. Historically people would settle near fortresses, both for the trade and to have somewhere to go to if raiders paid a visit. Hence the number of towns with "burg" in their name.
** Same in Finland with the word ''Linna'' - towns of Hämeenlinna and Savonlinna have born around the Castle of Häme and Castle of Savo.

* The American Southwest is fairly rife with these. There's a place in Arizona called Canyon de Chelly (pronounced "d'shay"): this is a corruption of the Navajo word "tsegi", meaning "a rock canyon". Which, when you think about it, pretty accurately describes most canyons.
* Constantinople means "Constantine's city", although this was never it's official name until his death.
* Quebec is derived from Kebek/Kepek in Algonquian meaning strait, narrows. Quebec city is located where the St-Lawrence [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin narrows down]].
* In 1079AD William the Conqueror established a "Nova Foresta" where people were forbidden to farm or build villages. Almost a millennium later this region of England is still called, with rather anachronistic charm, New Forest.
* Several of the major rivers in England - the Trent, the Ouse, the Avon, the Severn, to give four examples - have names that translate from ancient local dialects as "water" or "river".

* Ba Sing Se from AvatarTheLastAirbender means 'Impenetrable City', due to the giant walls surrounding it.
* MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic mostly takes place in Ponyville (the same setting as the CGI direct-to-videos, as well as "Twinkle Wish Adventure"). Series creator Lauren Faust originally wanted it to take place in [[JustForPun Fillydelphia]], but she got the ExecutiveVeto on that idea.
** For bonus points, Ponyville is located in the kingdom of ''Equestria''.

* The {{Thundercats}} hail from the planet Thundara.

* Timmy Turner of ''TheFairlyOddparents'' lives in Dimmsdale, which is a town over from Brightburg.

* ''{{Infamous}}'' takes place in Empire City.

* [[SinglePaletteTown Azure City]] in ''OrderOfTheStick'', a city which is colored entirely in blue.

* Certain city names, such as "Cerelan city", in pokemon. If those don't feel uninspired then I guess I'm not wasting time here after all.
** But, also, to be fair the economy is run by kids who left home at 12 to catch critters and make them beat the living daylights out of other little critters.
*** and apparently a few people NEVER AGE.
** Also, originally some names of people were like this, and pokemon seem to be named after WHAT SOUNDS THEY MAKE.

* The [[HonorHarrington Honorverse]] has Landing City, as in 'the place where the first colonist's shuttle landed, as the capital of Manticore. Helen Zilwiki lampshades it in Storm from the Shadows.

* Constantinople means "Constantine's city", although this was never it's official name until his death.

----

* An interesting example is the Transoxania region in Central Asia because it has the same meaning in different languages apparently independently. In Arabic it is ''Mal Wara Al-Nahr'' or "What is beyond the(Oxus)river". Westerners call it the Transoxania, which of course means, "What is beyond the river".

* Emerald City in ''TheWonderfulWizardOfOz''.

* ''TheTick'''s The City.
** Its original French name was Les [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citron Citrons]]. When they first got there, they found ''lots'' of fruit...
*** Yeah, but not citrons... Citrons are called "les cédrats" in French. [[BilingualBonus "Les citrons" is French for lemons]], so the city was obviously named [[TheSimpsons for the sweetest fruit they could find in the area]].

* MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic mostly takes place in Ponyville. Series creator Lauren Faust originally wanted it to take place in [[JustForPun Fillydelphia]], but she got the ExecutiveVeto on that idea.