World traveling, at home

Why is there a Paris in Texas? Discover 12 U.S. towns with foreign names

Image: Florian Wehde

You don’t need to leave the U.S. to take a trip around the world. All you have to do is check a map! Scattered across the country are dozens of American towns and cities named after faraway places, from Athens, Georgia, to Barcelona, New York. Did you know about these 12 cities and the origin of their names?

Image: Tom W

Birmingham, Alabama, was founded in 1871 and named after Birmingham, England, to reflect its industrial ambitions. James R. Powell, one of the founders, had recently visited the English city and proposed the name.

Inspired by England’s iron and steel hub, the new Birmingham quickly grew and earned the nickname "The Magic City" for its rapid industrial development.

Image: Chris Karidis

Named after the French capital city, Paris, Texas, was officially established in 1844 and became the county seat of Lamar County before the Civil War.

The name was supposedly chosen by founder George W. Wright in a lighthearted or playful spirit, according to local lore.

Image: Florian Wehde

Berlin, Connecticut, was formed from parts of several nearby towns. It was originally called Kensington before being renamed after Berlin, the then capital of Prussia.

The name likely reflected admiration for Frederick the Great, seen as a supporter of the American Revolution. Unlike its German namesake, the town's name is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable.

Image: David Köhler

Rome, New York, was named after Rome, Italy, following a trend of naming towns in upstate New York after classical European cities. The area was previously called Lynchville, after its Irish settler Dominick Lynch.

The name "Rome" had already been given to the township during the "Classical Naming Period."

Image: Florian Wehde

Madrid, Iowa, was named after Madrid, Spain, but the choice was rooted in personal spite. During the third town survey in 1855, local landowner Gaston named it to irritate his Swedish in-laws and a Spanish employee.

Despite the odd origin, the name remained through subsequent surveys and was officially kept when the town was incorporated in 1883.

Image: Constantinos Kollias

Athens, Georgia, was named after Athens, Greece, to reflect ideals of learning and culture. The name was chosen in 1801 by John Milledge when he purchased land for the University of Georgia.

Inspired by classical traditions, Milledge wanted the new town to symbolize intellectual pursuit, much like its ancient namesake.

Image: Michael Parulava

Moscow, Pennsylvania, was settled in the 1830s, with Reverend Peter Rupert, a Lutheran minister, playing a key role in its founding. The town’s early economy centered on lumbering and agriculture.

It was named after Moscow, Russia, possibly due to Russian settlers or shared religious ties with Reverend Rupert.

Image: Brandy Willetts

Versailles, Kentucky, was founded in 1792 on land owned by Hezekiah Briscoe. His guardian, Major Marquis Calmes, named the town after Versailles, France.

The name honored General Lafayette, a family friend and Revolutionary War hero with strong ties to the French city. It was chosen as a personal tribute and reflected French influence.

Image: Ben Seymour

Oxford, Mississippi, was founded in 1837 and named after Oxford, England, to attract a university. The founders hoped to establish the town as a center of learning.

Their plan succeeded when Mississippi chose Oxford as the site for its first state university in 1841. The university opened in 1848, fulfilling the city’s academic vision.

Image: Lāsma Artmane

Frankfort, Illinois, was named after Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, the hometown of early settler Frederick Cappel. He named it Frankfort Township in 1850.

When the railroad arrived in 1855, it established "Frankfort Station." The village later dropped "Station" when it was officially incorporated.

Image: Joshua Stannard

Venice, California, was founded by Abbot Kinney, who aimed to recreate the charm of Venice, Italy. He designed the town with canals, pedestrian bridges, and Venetian-style architecture.

Kinney envisioned it as a seaside resort with a romantic, European feel. The canals became a key attraction, drawing visitors and shaping the town's unique identity.

Image: Ken Cheung

Barcelona, New York, was originally called Portland and laid out in 1813. In 1836, a local businessman who had spent time in Spain urged the name change to Barcelona.

The village thrived as a harbor in the 1830s and 1840s, but declined after railroads took over regional transport. It later became part of the Town of Westfield.

Some names stick around

From Table Tap Joe to Ziggy Stardust: Who are the best song characters?

Sometimes, a character is the perfect alter-ego to write a song about oneself without self-referencing so much. Other times, a character is just a character. Over the years, musicians have come up with lonely dreamers, fearless heroes, mysterious strangers, and even supernatural villains who have become just as famous as the songs themselves. Some were inspired by real people, others sprang entirely from imagination, but all of them left a lasting mark on music history. Which of these 12 do you remember?

Tom Waits has always had a soft spot for society's oddballs, and few are even stranger than Table Top Joe. Introduced on the 2002 album Alice, Joe is born with only a head and hands, yet grows into a brilliant piano player whose extraordinary talent earns him fame despite the odds stacked against him.

The song unfolds like a forgotten American folk tale, complete with references to Coney Island's legendary Dreamland amusement park and composer Igor Stravinsky. Although many listeners assume the story is based on an old carnival legend, Table Top Joe is entirely Tom Waits' own creation.

Few fictional musicians have ever become as famous as Ziggy Stardust. Introduced in 1972, Ziggy is an alien rock star sent to Earth shortly before humanity's end, only to be consumed by the very fame that makes him a savior to millions.

David Bowie blurred the line between fiction and reality by performing as Ziggy onstage for more than a year. When he unexpectedly announced Ziggy's retirement during a concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon in 1973, many fans believed the character, and perhaps Bowie himself, had truly reached the end of the story.

Tommy Walker isn't just the hero of a song, he's the central figure of one of rock music's first great operas. After witnessing a traumatic event as a child, Tommy becomes deaf, mute, and blind, yet somehow develops astonishing pinball skills that transform him into an unlikely celebrity.

Pete Townshend built an entire musical world around Tommy, exploring themes of trauma, faith, and redemption. First released in 1969, Tommy later became a hit film, a Broadway production, and one of the most influential concept albums ever recorded.

Johnny B. Goode is every aspiring musician's dream. Growing up in rural Louisiana with little more than a guitar and natural talent, he plays so brilliantly that listeners predict "his name will be in lights."

Chuck Berry based the character partly on himself and partly on pianist Johnnie Johnson. Originally described as a "colored boy," Johnny became a "country boy" in the final lyrics, making the song more likely to receive airplay during the segregation era. Nearly two decades later, Johnny's anthem would even travel into space aboard NASA's Voyager Golden Record.

Few fictional characters have captured loneliness as powerfully as Eleanor Rigby. She quietly moves through life unnoticed, while Father McKenzie delivers sermons that no one hears, creating one of popular music's saddest portraits of isolation.

Paul McCartney later explained that Eleanor's name came from actress Eleanor Bron and the Liverpool shop Rigby & Evens. The discovery of an actual Eleanor Rigby gravestone in Liverpool only deepened the song's mystique, though McCartney maintained the coincidence was unintentional.

Billie Jean may be one of pop music's most famous women, yet Michael Jackson insisted she wasn't a real person. Instead, she represented several women who falsely claimed that he had fathered their children during the height of the Jackson 5's fame.

Released in 1983 as part of Thriller, the song became a global phenomenon. It also provided the stage for Jackson's legendary moonwalk during Motown 25.

Unlike many legendary song characters, Stagger Lee actually existed. His real name was Lee Shelton, a St. Louis criminal who murdered Billy Lyons during an argument over a hat on Christmas Eve in 1895.

The shocking crime quickly entered American folklore through countless folk songs before Lloyd Price transformed it into a chart-topping hit in 1958. More than a century later, Stagger Lee remains one of the most enduring antiheroes in American music.

Tom Dooley was inspired by Thomas Dula, a Confederate veteran executed in North Carolina in 1868 after being convicted of murdering Laura Foster. His surname was locally pronounced "Dooley," giving the ballad its familiar title.

The Kingston Trio revived the old Appalachian folk song in 1958, turning it into an international hit and helping launch America's folk music revival.

When the narrator of "Lola" meets an intriguing stranger in a Soho nightclub, expectations quickly give way to surprise. Ray Davies crafted one of rock's earliest mainstream stories exploring gender ambiguity, decades before the topic entered popular conversation.

The recording rarely reached British radio. Because BBC rules prohibited commercial product names, Davies had to interrupt a U.S. tour and fly back to London simply to replace the lyric "Coca-Cola" with the now-famous "cherry cola."

Unlike most famous song characters, the Piano Man is really Billy Joel himself. Before becoming a superstar, Joel spent six months in 1972 and 1973 performing under the pseudonym Bill Martin at the Executive Room, a piano bar in Los Angeles, after becoming trapped in a bad recording contract. The song transforms those experiences into a bittersweet portrait of ordinary people searching for escape at the end of another week.

Joel has said that virtually every character in the song was based on a real person, from bartender John to "Paul, the real estate novelist" and Davy, who really was in the Navy. Yet the Piano Man himself became the story's most enduring character: a quiet observer who offers music as a brief refuge for dreamers, lonely souls, and regulars alike. More than fifty years after its 1973 release, "Piano Man" remains Billy Joel's signature song, and its title has effectively become his lifelong nickname.

Standing nearly seven feet tall and missing an arm, Amos Moses roams the Louisiana swamps hunting alligators. Jerry Reed filled the song with colorful Southern expressions and exaggerated storytelling that make Amos feel like an authentic folk legend.

Although fictional, Amos embodies the larger-than-life heroes found throughout American tall tales. His adventures turned the song into one of Reed's biggest crossover hits and secured Amos a permanent place among country music's greatest characters.

Big Bad John hardly says a word, but he doesn't have to. The towering coal miner earns everyone's respect through quiet strength before sacrificing his own life to save fellow workers when a mine collapses.

Jimmy Dean's 1961 ballad became a smash hit, winning a Grammy and inspiring several sequel songs. More than sixty years later, Big Bad John still stands as one of country music's defining working-class heroes.