History Main / LondonEnglandSyndrome

* Most of those "solve-the-mystery" books (including ''Literature/EncyclopediaBrown'', of course) have at least one where the key to solving the mystery is knowing that there are apparently cities named London, Paris, Odessa, Athens, Jerusalem, or Palestine in Texas[[note]] There is not a Jerusalem in Texas, though the other towns exist[[/note]]. It's always one of those four, and more importantly, ''it's always in Texas.''

* Subverted in the movie ''[[Film/ParisTexas''. A man is going around with a photograph telling people it is of Paris, even though it is clear that the photo shows a desert landscape. Incidentally, the real Paris, Texas looks nothing like what is shown in the photo. ''Paris, Texas'' the movie is shot in the deserts of West Texas, which is all rugged desert, while [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris,_Texas Paris, Texas]] the city is in East Texas, which is mostly grass plains and forest.

* Subverted in the movie ''Paris, Texas''. A man is going around with a photograph telling people it is of Paris, even though it is clear that the photo shows a desert landscape. Incidentally, the real Paris, Texas looks nothing like what is shown in the photo. ''Paris, Texas'' the movie is shot in the deserts of West Texas, which is all rugged desert, while [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris,_Texas Paris, Texas]] the city is in East Texas, which is mostly grass plains and forest.

* In British media, the prefix "County" indicates to viewers/readers unfamiliar with Irish geography that the location in question is in Ireland. Irish naming conventions make liberal use of this trope to distinguish counties from identically-named towns and cities within them (the cities of Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick all sharing names with their respective counties). In contrast, the only traditional English county which conforms to this convention is County Durham--again, to distinguish it from the city of Durham.

** You're near Michigan City, Indiana, just 6 miles from the Michigan border (and also located along Lake Michigan). There's also a Nevada City, California (in Nevada County), but it's much further from the Nevada state line. There's also the famous old silver mining town of Virginia City, Nevada (Virginia is on the other side of the country). Or Colorado City, Arizona, home of some Mormon polygamist sects. Then there's Iowa, Louisiana; Virginia, Minnesota; Oregon, Ohio; Delaware, Ohio; Oregon, Illinois; Indiana, Pennsylvania...

** In "Remembrance", we get an estate and country variation with "Château Picard, France." It's interesting to note that there is a real place called [[https://www.mahler-besse.com/en/chateau-picard/ Château Picard]] in Saint-Estèphe, France that has a vineyard and produces wine, although the one featured in this franchise is fictional because it's located in La Barre.

* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': In TheTeaser of "The End Is the Beginning", there's an odd city with ''planet'' variation with "San Francisco, Earth" as the caption. Someone in the production firmly believes that ViewersAreMorons.

** This wasn't really a problem for the two towns of Habo and Håbo until the internet showed up. URLs can't handle umlauts, leading to no small amount of confusion over which website belongs to which town.

** Kansas City is the best-known U.S. example, being a fairly large metropolitan area that straddles the Kansas-Missouri border. There is both a Kansas City, KS and a Kansas City, MO, and they are right next to each other. And the one in Missouri is ''larger''. The name is almost always assumed to refer to that of Missouri, and using this to mislead others gave rise to the KansasCityShuffle.

-->''"I was born in Paris''\\
I was raised in Paris''\\
Went to school in Paris''\\
Where I met a boy,''\\
I was married in Paris,''\\
Almost buried in Paris,''\\

...Paris, Illinois!"''\\

* In UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}, much the same system is used for much the same reason, although place names tend to be derived primarily from British sources, with a scattering of native names and assorted other European names (mostly either those of early explorers of Australia or the sites of battles that British Empire troops fought in). While the situation is not nearly as complicated as that of the US (fewer states generally meaning fewer duplications), there are still, for example, places named "Richmond" in five of Australia's six states[[note]]all but West Australia[[/note]].

* Country-based example from ''Film/{{Transformers}}'': "Qatar, The Middle East".
** That may be more of an assumption that ViewersAreMorons than any other issue.

* "Cities" by Music/TalkingHeads humorously refers to Memphis as being "home to Elvis and the ancient Greeks" - Music/ElvisPresley was born in Memphis, Tenessee while "the ancient Greeks" were of course in Memphis, Greece.

* "Cities" by Music/TalkingHeads refers to Memphis as being "home to Elvis and the ancient Greeks" - Music/ElvisPresley was born in Memphis, Tenessee while "the ancient Greeks" were of course in Memphis, Greece.

* "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" by Music/MagneticFields" includes the line "Be we in Paris or in Lansing" - the mention of Lansing makes it ambiguous whether this means Paris, France or Paris, Michigan.

* Averted with Associated Press style, which calls for datelines in well-known cities to stand alone. Readers would a assume that "London" refers to the city in England, and not London, Ontario, Canada.

** Taken UpToEleven with the ''entire state'' of New Mexico, whose license plates specify "New Mexico, USA" to inform people that the state is indeed part of the United States. Apparently, this is a legitimate problem, with [[https://www.newsweek.com/man-asked-show-new-mexico-passport-when-marriage-clerk-forgets-its-state-1239353 at least one recorded instance]] of a government official asking for a "New Mexico passport" when a citizen of the state applied for a marriage license.