In the United States, I’d probably name Oregon City, the famous end of the Oregon Trail and the first city founded west of the Rocky Mountains during the pioneer era. Its population is only 37,000.

  • superkret@feddit.org
    7·
    19 hours ago

    Germany:

    Bielefeld. Everyone recognizes the name, it’s marked on all maps, officially it has a football club.
    But in reality, it doesn’t even exist.

  • Wolf314159@startrek.website
    141·
    16 hours ago

    In the US it must be Springfield because there’s so fucking many of them that they named made a TV show after it.

    Stupid sexy autocorrect.

  • ben_dover@lemmy.ml
    9·
    1 day ago

    we have a town called “Fucking” with only a few hundred people living there. the town sign gets stolen once a month

    • 404@aussie.zone
      1·
      14 hours ago

      I’d go with Port Arthur, Tasmania. 251 people from the 2016 census and the massacre is still burned into many people’s memories.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
    1·
    19 hours ago

    Probably Dildo, Newfoundland.

    You know why.

    Edit: Actually, I think Dawson City is smaller. It’s famous for being a big city back during the gold rush, despite being up near the arctic circle.

  • Storspoven@feddit.nu
    5·
    1 day ago

    World recognition or in-country?

    If world I’d guess Huskvarna (pop 24 000) for Sweden.

    Known for having a company making chainsaws (among other things) named after it (Husqvarna). It is one of the two main brands of professional chainsaws (the other being Stihl).

    • LemoineFairclough@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      18 hours ago

      I definitely recognized “Huskvarna” for some reason, but didn’t know its location or why I would have recognized it before reading your comment. I haven’t lived in Sweden or a place that would have been very easy for me to get to Sweden from.

  • rmuk@feddit.ukEnglish
    151·
    2 days ago

    In the UK it’s got to be the City of London. Famous for being an ancient city established by the Romans and awash with history, now one of the world’s biggest financial centers with a modern skyline of famously distinctive skyscrapers. It’s home to some world-famous landmarks like Saint Paul’s Cathedral and Tower Bridge, and has a population of about 10,000.

    The City of London is not to be confused with London, London, London or London.

  • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
    1·
    24 hours ago

    The smallest Indian city that (almost) all Indians would know would be the hill resort of Shimla (pop 170,000). However, this is because a place is expected to have a population of about 100,000 to be declared a ‘city’, so for example New Delhi is only a town.

  • guillem@aussie.zone
    2·
    1 day ago

    Puerto Hurraco. Population 100. Everybody in Spain recognises its name because of a shooting that got burned into the collective mind.

    • Notyou@sopuli.xyz
      14·
      2 days ago

      Oregon City would be my answer to ‘what’s the capital of Oregon?’

      Just a standard, since I never heard of the capital I’ll try the state name plus city guess.

    • boyi@lemmy.sdf.org
      101·
      3 days ago

      I am not in the US. Never heard of Oregon City. But Atlantic City sounds really familiar.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
      3·
      2 days ago

      For real. I’d think many more people could name Panama city in Florida. Famous spring break and vacation city every kid who’s gone through college or listened to Van Halen knows of. Also has a population of less than 36,000 people.

      • pixelscript@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        It is. But that’s not saying much.

        I may have had to keep a few of the waypoints of the trail in my head for, oh, a week or so, just long enough to scribble it on a history test. Then that information was immediately cleared out to make way for whatever other junk we had to temporarily memorize next chapter.

        Only a vague, blurry notion that the Oregon Trail A) existed and B) was a trail to (presumably) somewhere in Oregon remains with me today. Oregon City is certainly not a part of that notion.

        Not to shit on the Oregon Trail or Oregon City in particular, of course. I would be truly baffled to meet anyone that retained, in significant detail, even a tenth of what any grade school history class purportedly taught them.

      • evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world
        5·
        2 days ago

        Oregon trail, yes, Oregon city, no. I remember learning that it went from independence Missouri to the Willamette Valley. If I had to guess where I thought it ended, I would have said Portland.

      • 69420@lemmy.worldEnglish
        16·
        3 days ago

        I too have never heard of Oregon City. I can only assume it’s in Oregon. The only thing I remember about the Oregon Trail is that I died from dysentery every time I followed the trail.

      • fjordbasa@lemmy.worldEnglish
        13·
        3 days ago

        It was popular, but I think most folks who played it remember dying of dysentery, not the cities 😆

      • BlitzoTheOisSilent@lemmy.world
        6·
        3 days ago

        We were taught about it, but most Americans don’t view westward expansion with the same… Reverence? Notoriety?

        Like, I remember learning about it across multiple grades, but… Oregon City being the final destination, that’s not something I would probably remember a year or two later, nevermind a decade or more.

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
        5·
        3 days ago

        Not really, not in our school district anyways. They did allow us to play the game based on that on their ancient computers, but never really gave us historical context, nor were we required to play the game.

        I didn’t learn shit about it back then, and barely get it today. I’m 42 years old for reference.

      • sping@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        But most of the world did not have the US education system. I’d say only some Americans have heard of Oregon City, and very few non Americans.

  • Fondots@lemmy.world
    42·
    2 days ago

    For the US, I’d say a pretty strong contender is Woodstock, NY, with a population of around 6,000, and of course famous for the music festival of the same name (even though the actual festival was something like 60 miles away in Bethel)