Locations in the United States with an English name Locations in the United States with an English name A large number of places in the U.S were named after places in England largely as a result of English settlers and explorers of the Thirteen Colonies. Some names were carried over directly and are found throughout the country (such as Manchester, Birmingham and Rochester). Others carry the prefix "New"; for example, the largest city in the US, New York, was named after York because King Charles II gave the land to his brother, James, the Duke of York (later James II). Some places, such as Hartford, Connecticut, bear an archaic
New York City English vowels sounds)—New York City's split not identical though to Philadelphia's. Linguist William Labov has pointed out that a similarly-structured (though differently pronounced) split is found today in both the standard and London-area accents of England, indicating the likely origin of the New York split. New York City became an urban economic power in the eighteenth century, with the city's financial elites maintaining close ties with the British Empire even after the Revolutionary War. According to Labov, New York speakers' loss of the "r" sound after vowels (incidentally, not found in the nearby Delaware Valley) is thus an imitation of the