History Main / LondonEnglandSyndrome

** 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. This is not helped by the fact that New Mexico used to be part of Mexico circa 1821 to 1848 (1821 to 1853 for the Gadsden Purchase area).

* A plot point in one of Creator/AgathaChristie's Literature/TommyAndTuppence stories is that there are two towns in England called Maldon; one in Surrey and one in Sussex. The characters know of Maldon, Surrey, so don't bother reading the "Maldon, Su..." address on a telegram properly. Only later does Tuppence realize that the telegraph office only give the county if they need to specify between two places with the same name. (The ''real'' town of Maldon is in Essex, however.)

* "Fairfield" is a locality name for dozens of towns and regions in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and New Zealand. There are multiple examples of towns who share the name in the same state, for example in Ohio there are two Fairfield Townships that have to be disambiguated by their County. One of them is in Cumberland County, which also happens to be a name occasionally used for the region where Fairfield in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia is located.

** ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'': Surprisingly averted. The cities of "Moscow," "Saigon" and "Paris" are listed without the corresponding country.

** Georgia has a lot of Greek and Turkish inspired names, for some reason. Like Smyrna, Atlanta, Clyo, and even Sparta.

** This duplication was also used by Music/TheBeatles in a joking line about "Georgia girls" in "Back in the U.S.S.R.".

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

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

* Speaking of Toronto, not only is there the [[UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}} famous one in Ontario]], but there's a Toronto in Ohio and another in New South Wales.

** Then there's the deliberate version around twenty years ago in which a Winnipeg radio station had a contest, the prize being a trip to UsefulNotes/{{Miami}}. This being the middle of a frigid Manitoba winter, there was a massive response. The winners were told to show up at the radio station to board a bus, which they presumably thought would take them to the airport. However, it took them to the small community of Miami, Manitoba. They were not amused.

-->'''Cable:''' Well, it was either this or Big Macs in Paris.

* ''WebVideo/CinemaSins'' counts this as a sin. Basically, read the page quote, then make a small *ding* sound afterward.

* In Russia and the former [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]], there are several cities that have nearly identical names. A few of these have changed since TheGreatPoliticsMessUp due to PleaseSelectNewCityName.

* In the 1965 BBC radio adaptation of the ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes'' story "The Three Garridebs", when the American Nathan Garrideb announces he's found the third Garrideb in Birmingham, Holmes somewhat sarcastically asks "Warwickshire or Alabamba?"

* Averted in ''Series/{{Jericho}}''; going on the title alone you'd have no idea it took place in the United States, let alone Kansas.

-->'''Angelo''' ''[on the phone to a customer of the travel agency he works for]'' Yes, I apologize, but...I know your client is in the U.K. But you didn't say Glasgow, you insisted on New Glasgow. That's north of Montreal. So I chartered a bus. I say New Glasgow. You misunderstood. I don't mean to be confrontational, but there is no New Glasgow in Scotland. Well, no, they don't need a new one, they have the old one. It's actually quite simple. You see, many years ago, people from Glasgow, Glasconians, left the old Glasgow and they came here. And they built a new Glasgow. And they called it New Glasgow because it was new. According to theoretical physics, eventually we'll be able to fold space so that the new Glasgow will overlap the old Glasgow. But until then, let me assure you that they are quite different places. Did I mention that New Glasgow just got waterslides? Those are fun.

* When Lynn Johnston indicated in her comic strip ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'' that eldest son Michael was going to a university in London, everyone thought that she meant ''London, England''. He ended up attending the University of Western Ontario in ''London, Ontario''. Lynn herself admitted that this was deliberate to throw people off.

** In Taiwan, there's also New Taipei City, formerly known as Taipei County--not to be confused with the capital of the Republic of China, Taipei, one of two enclaves of New Taipei.

*** The mainland maps of Taiwan were used to show sovereignty rather than usefulness, hence depictions of administrative divisions of Taiwan once stayed as if 1949(refusing to acknowledge any changes). However as more and more people visit and even live across the Strait depicting reality becomes more beneficial, hence the disappearance of "Taipei County" before 2020. The ''Guowuyan'' were in fact more far-sighted than mappers having not listed any official shadow subdivisions beyond "Taiwan Province, People's Republic of China", enabling anyone saying "New Taipei" with no political connotations.

*** Also, some cities are adjacent to a county of the same name, e.g. (urban) Handan City is surrounded by Handan County, Handan City (prefecture).

*** What's really odd is that even Taipei and Kaohsiung were once considered "prefecture-level cities" by the PRC and were marked as such on maps, despite the fact that the PRC never controlled them. As of 2020, mainland Chinese maps and media have stopped being archaic: All direct-governed municipalities is deemed prefecture-level cities, including New Taipei (being no longer referred to as Taipei County). The 3 provincial-governed cities are still deemed county-level cities despite prefecture-level cities are also called provincial-governed cities in mainland (they were elevated specially, so deeming them on par with mainland prefecture-level cities is unrealistic). Only Taoyuan (which is elevated last) is occasionally still referred to as a county in mainland media.

*** What's really odd is that even Taipei and Kaohsiung were once considered "prefecture-level cities" by the PRC and were marked as such on maps, despite the fact that the PRC never controlled them. After the actual administrative divisions in Taiwan changed in 2010, this practice declined, although PRC maps are still reluctant to show reality: Baidu maps only marked Keelung, Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung as seven points and displayed several ROC national highways and no details (note that New Taipei is not shown at all-- it's pretended that it's still a county; see also below).

** Anyone from Austria will tell you, if you write them a letter, you have to list the country as "Austria/Europe" (it even says that on people's business cards), otherwise your mail may very well end up in Australia.
* Averted with Cambridge, Massachusetts... or at least their university. Deciding that Cambridge University (or variations thereupon) may get confusing, they called it "Harvard" instead.

** Which continued into ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', when we first meet the Guardians in... "SPACE"