Natural features in cities' names

[xzmattzx]

What does the natural feature in your city's name look like? Is there an instance where the natural feature doesn't exist anymore?

Natural features could be water features or land features.

I am familiar with the cities of Niagara Falls, on the American and Canadian sides, and how both are named for the famous falls. But it took until just a few years ago, when my brother was driving across the country and sent a picture in our family text, that I realized that the city of Sioux Falls had a waterfall named Sioux Falls. I guess Sioux Falls was just a name on paper until then (kind of like Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, or Las Vegas Raiders are just nicknames with no attachment to the place where they play).

[xzmattzx]

Niagara Falls in Niagara Falls, New York, and Niagara Falls, Ontario



Sioux Falls in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

[Nouvellecosse]

In Canada, the largest ones (after Niagara Falls) would probably have to be Trois-Rivières in Quebec along with North Bay and Thunder Bay in Ontario. There are quite a few places with river or harbour in their names but they tend to be pretty small. Lots of places with "port" as well, but a port isn't a natural feature even though port facilities tend to be built in natural or semi-natural harbours. So I personally wouldn't count that.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Is there an instance where the natural feature doesn't exist anymore?

Maybe it's a stretch, but Vancouver is named after the explorer Captain George Vancouver who had Dutch ancestry (Van Couver) originating in the small city of Coevorden, which is a slight corruption of koevoorde which is Dutch for the cow river crossing (cow ford).

Now obviously the cow river crossing is nowhere near Vancouver and it's not exactly clear where the cow river crossing was in the Netherlands but that's the etymology!

Some other cities here in the Vancouver Metro area:

Delta
Bowen Island
Maple Ridge
Pitt Meadows
and the best one of all:
White Rock

[Notonfoodstamps]

Neighborhoods named after natural features would probably be a lot easier, than entire cities honestly lol.

[Steely Dan]

Cypress Creek?

It's upstate somewhere.

[Steely Dan]

On a more serious note, some notable examples around the midwest:

Detroit literally means "strait" in french.

Grand Rapids is named for the rapids that define the fall line of Michigan's Grand River.

Bay City, MI is named after Saginaw Bay, which the city sits at the bottom of.

South Bend, IN is named for tge large southward turn of the St. Joseph river where the town was founded

Rock Island, IL is named for an island of rocks in the Mississipppi River.

Rockford, IL is named after the ford across the Rock River where the town grew around.

Green Bay, WI is named for Green Bay, the body of water it sits at one end of.

Cedar Rapids, IA is named for rapids on the Cedar River where the town was founded.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by Notonfoodstamps

Neighborhoods named after natural features would probably be a lot easier, than entire cities honestly lol.

Yeah, you might be right regarding the US.

But in Brazil is extremely common. We have 5,570 municipalities and I'd guess between 1,000-2,000 have a geographical name. It's probably even more common than saints and very often they're together (e.g. São José do Rio Preto, São José dos Campos, São Bernardo do Campo and countless others)

Even states: Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Bahia, Alagoas, Rio Grande do Norte.

Now I'm puzzled: why is that?

[pj3000]

Off the top of my head

Miami Beach, FL -- and a million other places with 'Beach' in their name
Erie, Pennsylvania
Green Bay, WI
Atlantic City, NJ
Gulfport, MS
Wichita Falls, TX

[MolsonExport]

Although there are a small number of holdouts that dispute it, Montréal is named after the namesake "mountain" that rises behind the skyline.

Founded in 1642 as Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", it now takes its name from Mount Royal, the triple-peaked mountain around which the early settlement was built.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

On a more serious note, some notable examples around the midwest:

Detroit literally means "strait" in french.

Grand Rapids is named for the rapids that define the fall line of Michigan's Grand River.

Bay City, MI is named after Saginaw Bay, which the city sits at the bottom of.

South Bend, IN is named for tge large southward turn of the St. Joseph river where the town was founded

Rock Island, IL is named for a literal island of rocks in the Mississipppi River.

Rockford, IL is named after the ford across the Rock River where the town grew around.

Green Bay, WI is named for Green Bay, the body of water it sits at one end of.

Cedar Rapids, IA is named for rapids on the Cedar River where the town was founded.

Detroit was for a long time the largest U.S. city named after a natural feature, but it has been overtaken by El Paso.

[MolsonExport]

Québec City


The Algonquian people had originally named the area Kébec, an Algonquin language word meaning "where the river narrows", because the Saint Lawrence River narrows by the promontory of Quebec and its Cape Diamant.

[montréaliste]

Montreal = Mont-Royal = Mount Royal.

[Six Corners]

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Six Corners

But there were plantations...

[Xelebes]

Cities in alberta named after geographical features:

Cold Lake - named after Cold Lake
Fort Saskatchewan - named for the North Saskatchewan River
Grande Prairie - named after the northerly extent of prairie located there.
Red Deer - named after the Red Deer River, west of the esker named Antler Hill which causes the river to meander north before heading south to the South Saskatchewan River

Excluding explanation for towns like Bittern Lake, Bow Island, Buffalo Head Prairie, Collingwood Cove, Dead Mans Flats, Fox Creek, High River, Mildred Lake, Milk River, Okotoks, Peace River, Pine Lake, Rainbow Lake, Redcliff, Redwater, Riviere Qui Barre, Rocky Mountain House, Slave Lake, Smoky Lake, South Cooking Lake, Stony Plain, Swan Hill, Sylvan Lake, Vermilion, Three Hills, Two Hills, Wabamun Lake, Wabasca-Desmarais, Waskatenau

Edmonton only has a glacial lake named after it (Glacial Lake Edmonton) that disappeared more than 10,000 years ago. It is the generator of the big valley that bisects the city and some large valleys located around the city (Coal Lake Valley, Saunders Lake Valley, Cooking Lake Moraine, Battle River Valley) and caused some far flung features like Dry Snake Valley and Hand Hill.

[MolsonExport]

Trois Rivières in Quebec. Literally 3 rivers.

[dimondpark]

Oakland has a giant Oak tree in the plaza in front of city hall, but other then that, I don't see many around

[Age of Whamsies]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Trois Rivières in Quebec. Literally 3 rivers.

The Nicolet river should make it Quatre Rivières, but I suppose they hadn't gotten that far upstream yet

[James Bond Agent 007]

Kansas City is named after the Kansas river.