Short Distance Namesakes

Something has been bothering me since I mentioned the town of Washington, Virginia recently in Flip-Flopping. It claims title to the oldest town named for George Washington, platted by none other than George Washington himself in 1749. I noted that many call it Little Washington to differentiate it from nearby Washington, DC which dates to 1791.


The Discovery

“Little” Washington is only 68.7 miles (111 kilometres) from “Big” Washington according to Google Maps. Was this the closest distance between two towns that share the same name?

It was not, by the way, but I’ll get to that later.


The Rules

I began by establishing some ground rules.

  1. The names had to arise independently although they could originate from a common source. Both Washingtons derived from George Washington. Clearly the city of Washington was not named for the little village in rural Virginia.
  2. They could not be part of the same basic metropolitan area. I specifically excluded Kansas City (Missouri/Kansas), St. Louis – East St. Louis (Missouri/Illinois), Niagara Falls (New York/Ontario) and similar occurrences. See how I crossed an international boundary on that last one? Right. The two Congos fell into this same category and I tossed that possibility from consideration too (plus, they’re countries not towns).
  3. They both had to be “meaningful” places. That was subjective. I defined it to mean that they both had to appear as labeled places on Google Maps. In the event of an approximate tie I would consider it better if each town was large enough to have a government and a web presence. Washington, Virginia is the seat of government for Rappahannock County in addition to being a town in its own right, for example.
  4. Google Maps would also serve as the final arbiter of distance using simple queries such as “Washington, VA to Washington, DC.” I couldn’t use lat/long coordinates or street addresses to shorten distances.

The Search

I began by consulting Wikipedia’s list of the most common U.S. place names and I figured I’d start with those found in Rhode Island. None of those towns would be very far from a state border by definition. The same would hold true, relatively speaking, for neighboring Connecticut and Massachusetts. That winnowed the list down to Greenville, Riverside, Kingston and Newport for Rhode Island. I didn’t get any cross-border cooperation, though. Nonetheless and to my surprise, Greenville, Rhode Island to Greenville, New Hampshire — crossing through the entire width of Massachusetts — scored very well at 79.6 miles (128 km).

Wok. Photo by Michael Li; (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Not the Panda Wok in question but you get the idea

I also uncovered an odd Google Maps glitch, and I’m not sure if it was specific to me or whether Google will repair it before someone else attempts it. I tried to route from “Greenville, NH to Greenville, VT” and it calculated a 0.4 mile path to Panda Wok. So I wonder how much Panda Wok paid Google for that nifty little trick?

Then I started getting a weird sense of déjà vu, like maybe I’d already published this article before. That possibility dawned on me as I examined other common town names on the list, particularly Franklin. I worry about the day that it will happen, and believe me it will happen someday [UPDATE: it did]. I now have several hundred articles under my belt and it’s hard to keep them all straight. Today is not that day. I searched my archives and found that two Franklins appeared in The Jeffersons and Beyond in a different context with a distance of 102 miles (164 km) between them.

While I was at it I also observed Washington, Maryland on the list and compared it to Washington, DC. It did almost as well as Washington, VA, at 69.7 miles (112 km); only a mile farther! (map). Mostly though, the list was a bust.


The Winner

Then I transitioned to the desperation method. That involved looking near state and provincial borders for similar towns, and failing that, moving on to national boundaries. Languages tend to slop across European borders so maybe I could find something there. I spotted Lens in northern France and focused on it only because it was a short name. Could there be a Lens in Belgium. Yes, and the distance between them was 66.5 miles (107 km).

I found the best answer of the day completely by luck.

Now I turn the challenge over to the wise and all-knowing 12MC audience. I think there has to be better occurrences, probably numerous ones, that meet the four basic criteria.

Comments

34 responses to “Short Distance Namesakes”

  1. David Overton Avatar
    David Overton

    Focused on Lens. Pun intended? 🙂

    1. Twelve Mile Circle Avatar

      Um, no, not consciously (can’t account for my subconscious though). The best puns are accidental puns.

  2. Craig Avatar
    Craig

    Clayton, DE to Clayton, NJ is 64.1 miles per Google Maps.

  3. Robert Dalton Avatar
    Robert Dalton

    In NJ we have 2 Washington Townships and one Washington. One of the Washington Townships is about 11 miles from Washington, NJ. There is also a Washington’s Crossing (I believe both in NJ and PA).

  4. Peter Avatar

    Coventry, Rhode Island –> Coventry, Connecticut = 47 miles.

  5. Scott Avatar
    Scott

    How about Laredo, TX and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico? Though considering the “Nuevo” added to the Mexican city, and the fact that you might be able to consider them part of the same metropolitan area because they touch, it may not count.

  6. Snabelabe Avatar
    Snabelabe

    Instead of Belgium-France, you could try Belgium-Netherlands: Zwijndrecht to Zwijndrecht 🙂
    This is one of the more famous double names in Belgium-Netherlands.

    And yes, it is shorter:
    It is just 93.5km or 58miles: http://goo.gl/maps/0X5TK

  7. wangi Avatar
    wangi

    Many around these parts were disambiguated with the coming of the railways…

    http://goo.gl/maps/nCkLQ Cupar (Fife) to Cupar Angus; 27 mile
    http://goo.gl/maps/VadXp West Linton to East Linton; 36 mile

    1. alantwelve Avatar
      alantwelve

      Your mention of the Lintons reminded me of the Calders. of which there are 3 – West Calder to East Calder, via Mid Calder is a mere 5.8 miles on Google Maps:

      http://goo.gl/maps/SjS3v

      1. wangi Avatar
        wangi

        Yeah, I had the Calders in mind, but left them off since they’re derived from the same place – it’s the original estate name?

  8. Katy Avatar
    Katy

    O’Fallon, Missouri and O’Fallon Illinois are less than 50 miles away from each other but they are both considered part of the St. Louis Metropolitan area. Does that still count?

    1. Joe Avatar
      Joe

      Just to give it an official entry, O’Fallon, Missouri and O’Fallon, Illinois are 48.8 Miles apart per Google Maps. Both cities were named for railroad executive Colonel John O’Fallon (whom is also the nephew of William Clark). While they share a name and are both technically suburbs of St. Louis (which may cause disqualification by your rules), the names are somewhat coincidental. The Missouri one was named by a friend of O’Fallon while the Illinois one was named after his railroad put a depot there. Because of this, I believe they should qualify.

  9. Thias Avatar
    Thias

    Does Scheibenhard (France) and Scheibenhardt (Germany) apply? There’s a ‘t’ at the end of the German name, but that would probably be the best score: http://goo.gl/maps/Ge1K9

  10. Jasper Avatar
    Jasper

    Holland has a lot of towns called Beek. Beek means stream or run, so it’s not surprising that there are a few of those around in the watery lowlands.

    There is technically only one (city of) Beek left because of during the last decade or two, the national government in the Netherlands has merged many villages together. It is hard to compare to US equivalents, but many of those merged cities work as unincorporated counties in the US. They have a new name (often some merger of the important localities), and the former villages remain as “suburbs” of the larger “city”. Much like Springfield is a city in the county of Fairfax in VA with its own county representative. The villages keep their official borders on the map, and entry signs.

    But, let’s start with the international one.

    Beek, BE to Beek, NL: 145 km
    https://maps.google.com/maps?q=beek,+be+to+beek,+nl&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&sa=N&tab=wl

    Then the many Dutch Beeken:

    Beek (Ubbergen), NL to Beek, NL: 128 km
    https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Beek+(Ubbergen),+The+Netherlands+to+Beek,+NL&saddr=Beek+(Ubbergen),+The+Netherlands&daddr=Beek,+NL&hl=en&sll=51.750839,5.636673&sspn=0.289912,0.662613&geocode=FdXaFgMdOHdaACmbxyFvnQnHRzE5stBxVCrieQ%3BFVUuCQMdQIBYACkL7-Hf3MDARzHCt1pRGNxRvw&t=m&z=9

    Example city sign: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Beek-Ubbergen,+The+Netherlands&hl=en&ll=51.832875,5.925246&spn=0.001137,0.002588&sll=51.829572,5.943346&sspn=0.036176,0.082827&hnear=Beek,+Ubbergen,+Gelderland,+The+Netherlands&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=51.832875,5.925246&panoid=BOfTD-Nr-oWtAKuoTpR1Tw&cbp=12,173.84,,0,0.84

    Beek (Montferland), NL to Beek, NL: 102km
    https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Beek+(Montferland),+The+Netherlands+to+Beek,+NL&saddr=Beek+(Montferland),+The+Netherlands&daddr=Beek,+NL&hl=en&sll=51.511734,5.666199&sspn=0.072861,0.165653&geocode=Fd8LGAMd6nJeACmNLq4dNpzHRzFvCO8zm7C9dw%3BFVZVEgMdJvlVAClNiMvx6SHHRzEwXxpJc92KSw&t=m&z=10

    Beek (en Donk), NL to Beek, NL: 79km
    https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=beek,+nl&daddr=Beek,+NL&hl=en&sll=51.511734,5.666199&sspn=0.072861,0.165653&geocode=FVZVEgMdJvlVAClNiMvx6SHHRzEwXxpJc92KSw%3BFVUuCQMdQIBYACkL7-Hf3MDARzHCt1pRGNxRvw&mra=ls&t=m&z=9

    Beek (Ubbergen) to Beek (Venray), NL: 47km
    https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Beek-Ubbergen,+The+Netherlands+to+Beek,+Venray,+The+Netherlands&saddr=Beek-Ubbergen,+The+Netherlands&daddr=Beek,+Venray,+The+Netherlands&hl=en&ll=51.681922,5.914764&spn=0.580709,1.325226&sll=51.832875,5.925246&sspn=0.001137,0.002588&geocode=FdXaFgMdOHdaACmbxyFvnQnHRzE5stBxVCrieQ%3BFY1gEgMdE69aACnr2Ld-YRXHRzG6ChBGuO40Xw&oq=Beek-Ubbergen,+The+Netherlands+to+beek+venray&doflg=ptk&t=m&z=10

    Beek (Ubbergen), NL to Beek (Montferland) NL: 44km
    https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Beek-Ubbergen,+The+Netherlands+to+Beek,+Montferland,+NL&saddr=Beek-Ubbergen,+The+Netherlands&daddr=Beek,+Montferland,+NL&hl=en&sll=51.38173,5.970055&sspn=1.169102,2.650452&geocode=FdXaFgMdOHdaACmbxyFvnQnHRzE5stBxVCrieQ%3BFd8LGAMd6nJeACmNLq4dNpzHRzFvCO8zm7C9dw&oq=Beek+(Ubbergen),+The+Netherlands+to+Beek+(Mon,+NL&t=m&z=11

    Beek (Asten), NL to Beek (Venray), NL: 28km
    https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Beek+asten,+The+Netherlands+to+Beek,+Venray,+The+Netherlands&saddr=Beek+asten,+The+Netherlands&daddr=Beek,+Venray,+The+Netherlands&hl=en&sll=51.68054,5.91457&sspn=0.580731,1.325226&geocode=FbFZEAMdZblXACEfHjQk3RRe3Sl3ofufzzrHRzEfHjQk3RRe3Q%3BFY1gEgMdE69aACnr2Ld-YRXHRzG6ChBGuO40Xw&t=m&z=12

  11. Jasper Avatar
    Jasper

    Sorry, strike that last one. Beek (Asten) is not a legitimate location. Sorry.

  12. Peter Avatar

    While it doesn’t count under your rules because the former is not an actual municipality, honorable mention should go to Inwood, NY (Manhattan) –> Inwood, NY (Nassau County), as it’s possible to cover the 31-mile distance on a single subway line, with about a 5-minute walk at one end.

  13. January First-of-May Avatar
    January First-of-May

    There was a relatively funny case, when Russian Wikipedia tried to get an official naming convention for geographic places, that someone found two different villages of the same name in the Ukraine that have been part of the same lowest-level subdivision (i.e. the level just above village) since as long as could be determined. Led to serious problems as to what to name the articles so that they’re still different 🙂 (ended up as “larger” and “smaller” – 86 and 18 inhabitants respectively).
    Just made a route between them on Google Maps (long/lat of course – what else I would disambiguate them by?) and it came down to 28.4 km even with the incredibly circuitous path: http://goo.gl/maps/TNvuL

    Fun fact: there’s a village of Moskva in Tver Oblast (I’ve visited it in 2005). Unfortunately, it apparently doesn’t appear on Google Maps (nor does it have an article in Russian Wikipedia, other than a link on the disambiguation page). Then again, it’s not really that close to the large city either (easily well over 100 miles).

    1. January First-of-May Avatar
      January First-of-May

      Update: …but it does have an article on English Wikipedia, for some reason. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moskva,_Tver_Oblast

  14. Guy Avatar
    Guy

    I knew of Putte, Belgium and Putte, Netherlands, but didn’t know how far they were apart. Looks like it’s 59.1 km (36.7 mi), or even 51.7 km (32.1 mi) via an alternative route. http://goo.gl/maps/A5wx6

  15. Guy Avatar
    Guy

    Just discovered that the Dutch village of Putte is not only Dutch but also Belgian (it lies within the municipality of Kapellen). So the distance is even slightly shorter: Putte (municipality), Belgium to Putte (Kapellen), Belgium – distance: 58.3 km/36.2 mi or 50.9 km/31.6 mi (shorter route).

  16. Aaron Avatar
    Aaron

    That Greenville VT is kind of odd, so, I looked into it: Google maps actually looks for:
    greenville, near Vermont. So it looks “near Vermont” and then greenville, and picks from a bunch of “places”. Panda Wok is the one with the most reviews, the other ones are the police dept, church, selectmens office, etc.

  17. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    I know it won’t count for this competition, but upon searching for examples that did qualify, I came across the case of Union City, Indiana and Ohio. There’s a very interesting story (see link below) about how a border dispute between the towns due to a colonial era surveying error…http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1964&dat=19800717&id=aP4sAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qswFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2337,3430175. May be worth an article of its own if more info can be gathered on it.

    1. Twelve Mile Circle Avatar

      Hmm… may indeed. I like.

  18. Alan K Avatar
    Alan K

    Salem, MA to Salem NH: Google Maps says 37 miles, but if you fiddle with the route you can get there in under 30 miles.

  19. Ariel Dybner Avatar
    Ariel Dybner

    I found 38.9 miles for Union Township, NJ (in Hunterdon County) to Union Township, NJ (in Union County). New Jersey is also home to five Washington Townships (one each in Bergen, Burlington, Gloucester, Morris and Warren Counties). The Washingtons in Morris and Warren counties are only 12.5 miles apart. To add to the confusion, Warren County is also home to a Washington Borough (completely surrounded by Washington Township). Google has Washington Borough in Warren County is only 11.5 miles from Washington Township in Morris County.

  20. James D Avatar
    James D

    The one that immediately springs to mind is two places called Cymer (which means “the confluence” in Welsh) in the South Wales Valleys. Cymer (Afan) to Cymer (Rhondda) is only 16.1 miles:
    http://goo.gl/maps/rrAsO

    But Wales seems to be particularly good at duplicate placenames: too many saints, too many descriptions of geographical features. I’m sure Cymer and Cymer can be easily bested. In fact, here’s a better one already — Broughton, Flintshire, and Broughton, Wrexham, just 10 miles apart (and presumably the subject of substantial confusion, as the former is a relatively significant place with an aircraft factory):
    http://goo.gl/maps/jCA8H

  21. jin Avatar
    jin

    https://bit.ly/35JsO7O, probably shortest for double country

  22. jin Avatar
    jin

    https://tinyurl.com/y5o8aop8
    its only 3 miles if you walk, due to a pedestrian bridge

  23. Stan Avatar
    Stan

    Mgarr, Malta to Mgarr, Gozo is 13km (and a ferry ride) apart.

  24. george Avatar
    george

    oh wait i just saw the 2nd rule, no Niagara, same area, also weird they would have the same name in a microstate, but its not the same metro area, theyre 100% different

  25. harry Avatar
    harry

    ive been trying to find the largest city with a bigger city with the same name, the best one i could find is san jose, costa rica at around 350k people

  26. Gary Avatar

    Nice seeing something from Rhode Island on here. Born and bred in Rhode Island, and we really aren’t known for much of anything.

    I now live in Florida, and near me is something that sort of fits this category – a city called Seminole and Seminole County (where I live) separated by a little more than 100 miles.

    Both the city and the county have a Seminole High School. One is called Pinellas Seminole (as the city is in Pinellas County) and the other is called Sanford Seminole (as the city it is in is called Sanford) to distinguish them. Sanford is well known for the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case – most have I am sure heard of that.

    I had jury duty the week the jury was picked for the trial – but the county never got to my name, thankfully.

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