Italian Place Names in the United States
How many towns named Rome are there in the United States?
What is unique about the naming of Florence, South Carolina?
Why was Rome, Georgia, named for its Italian counterpart?
What inspired the naming of Venice Beach, California?
What is the significance of the town name Valdese in North Carolina?
Although Rome, Venice, and Florence are Italian cities, their names extend far beyond Italy. Towns named for these famous cities and many others can also be found in countries where emigration created an Italian diaspora. The United States is particularly rich in such names, although not all of them reflect Italian origins.
By the numbers
It is difficult to get an exact count of how many Italian-origin place names exist in the United States; different sources give different numbers and may use differing criteria. Estimates for the number of Romes in the U.S. run from about 13 to 15 and, by some counts, even 18. An official U.S. government count is even higher, at 25. There may be as many as 34 towns called Florence, although, as we will see below, their connection to Italy, in many cases, is tenuous or nonexistent. There are 11 Venices and an impressive 23 Veronas. One can also find multiple towns named for Naples, Genoa, Milan, and other Italian cities. The origins of such a proliferation of names can be traced to multiple causes, including immigration patterns, cultural prestige, and things that have no immediate Italian connection.
What it means
Not all of these place names have Italian links. Let’s consider the two largest Florences in America. Florence, Alabama, which was laid out by an Italian surveyor, is indeed named for the city in Italy. On the other hand, Florence, South Carolina, takes its name from the daughter of a local railroad president. Many other Florences are named for people, just like the one in South Carolina. Thus Florence, Wisconsin, was named for the wife of a mining engineer who played a key role in establishing the town’s economy. Sometimes, conflicting origin stories exist. Florence, Oregon, may be named for a nearby shipwreck, or for the daughter of some early pioneers. Other place names were bestowed as a result of territorial expansion. Thus Verona, Wisconsin, was not named directly for the Italian city, but rather for the hometown of some of its early settlers: Verona, New York.
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Geographical and cultural factors have played an important role in the nomenclature of some of these places. For example, Rome, Georgia, was so named because it is built on seven hills, just like its Italian namesake. Venice Beach, California, was named by a real estate developer as part of an attempt to create an American version of its picturesque water-bound Italian namesake—the developer originally called it “Venice in America.” In a similar case of real-estate promotion, the founders of Naples, Florida, highlighted their town’s mild climate and sunny weather by likening it to the Bay of Naples in Italy. Particularly in the 19th century, the prestige of the Greco-Roman classical tradition served as another impetus for the use of Italian place names. An academic article published in 1929 estimated that there were about 2,200 classically inspired place names in the United States at the time.
Naturally, many town names can be traced to Italian immigration. Palermo, North Dakota, a tiny railway town, was named in honor of the Italians who worked on the local railroads. Valdese, North Carolina, stands out by its unusual nature: Its name refers to the Waldensians, members of an early (pre-Reformation) Protestant sect that originated in the Middle Ages; some of their descendants settled the town in 1893. More conventionally, the town of Roseto, Pennsylvania, was named by its first settler for his home village in the Italian region of Puglia. Such richly varied origins can be found all over the country where Italian immigrants settled.
Finally, the informal term “Little Italy” is used for a number of historic ethnic neighborhoods in American cities. Prominent, well-defined Little Italy neighborhoods, which are widely known for their cuisine and cultural life, can be found in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, and other cities.