In France it might be Y (population : 89), famous for having a one-letter name. Far from "anyone can still instantly recognise the name" but still probably much more well-known than any other town this size.
Otherwise idk, feels like the only french city everyone would instantly recognise the name of is Paris tbh.
Tilt Cove in Newfoundland. 5 whole people.
I’m in the US and I can’t say I’d heard of Oregon City before this post…
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.
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.
As someone in the US - I have absolutely zero recognition of the town of Oregon City. All I know about the Oregon trail is a bunch of people died from starvation and dysentery
Don't forget being lost in River crossings.
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.
named a TV show after it
The Springfields?
Okay, I spilled my coffee. I'll be giggling all day.
Unfortunately, I would guess that school shooter locations are probably the most easily recognised in the US. Uvalde has a population of ~15,000, for instance.
Sandy Hook is ~9,000. You may not remember, but Alex Jones does.
Yeah Alex Jones can rot in hell
Not my country, but what immediately came to mind was one that has global name recognition, and minimal population: Chernobyl.
It used to have around 12,000 population, but now it's technically illegal to live nearby, and up to 150 people are estimated to live there today. It's famous for being toxically irradiated as a result of the worst nuclear disaster in human history
Roswell, NM comes to mind. Tiny and yet most people will think of UFOs when they hear the name.
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)
I think people really overestimate how much everybody knows about the US.
I'd say there's a large population that only know NYC, LA, and Chicago.
Used to be Dallas was pretty famous- Kennedy shooting, cheerleaders, and a titular TV show.
I'd say Salem, Massachusetts (pop just under 45k) is pretty famous thanks to the witch trials.
Nokia, Finland, population 36,000. Cellphones, tyres, rubber boots, ...
Schengen - the village in Luxembourg where the Schengen Agreement was signed. The population was 5196 in 2023 (appears to be the last census quoted on Wikipedia) and the "Schengen Area", covered by the agreement represents 450m people.
I didn't even know there were multiple villages in Luxembourg. I kinda thought it was a city-state.
I thought so too before moving here, but there's two cities, and a lot of empty space (in the north in particular) with lots of towns and villages, it's not like Monaco or the Vatican City in that regard.
That being said, it's still all very close together, you can drive from the northern most point to the south in about 1.5-2 hours.
The funniest thing I've learned about the geography is that there is a North/South divide where people from either don't trust people from the other.
Gibraltar has a population of 32,000, which by some definitions is too small to be considered a city.
Ramstein, population ~5600
Famous for the Ramstein Air base, the bombing of the air base, the Ramstein air show disaster and the band named after all of that.
Fucking, Austria. Population of around 100 People. They renamed it to Fugging a few years ago
we have a town called "Fucking" with only a few hundred people living there. the town sign gets stolen once a month
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.
Wacken, Germany.
Population: 2110
Home to one of the biggest metal festivals in the world with something between 70k and 120k people. I think Tickets are limited to 70k currently but the whole area is bascially transformed for a week
For France it's probably Vichy, infamously well known internationally for being the capital of the French pro-Nazi government during the Occupation. Only 25'000 inhabitants.
Nice one, didn't think of that ! I suggested the one-letter town Y (population : 89), which is obviously much less well-known, but is also much smaller.
Dildo, Newfoundland.
Not really though.
Off the top of my head I’d say places like Gander, Churchill, Iqaluit - places known maybe for their location as much as their people and unique situations?
Edit: another comment (Aspen) made me want to mention Banff but Alberta isn’t acting Canadian anymore so it no longer counts.
Chornobyl, Ukraine. "50 thousand people used to live here, now it's a ghost town"
There are many more ghost towns now, due to the war. Adviivka, Bakhmut and many others, some small, some relatively big. Everyone has heard of those small cities.
Hell, Michigan in the US definitely has a shot.
In the Netherlands is probably Giethoorn, the 'Venice of the North' which has many canals instead of roads and is very touristy. It has 2.900 inhabitants
By population, and not land area, certain more remote geographic places are well known but have quite a low population. 'Everyone' is a high bar, but most adults in Australia would know the following places (ordered from smaller population but slightly less known to higher population):
It might not count as a city but Nome Alaska has the Iditarod with only, 3700 people. Or maybe some famous battlefield, Gettysburg has 7100 people. A ski resort like Aspen could count with 7000. We all had to memorize state capitals so maybe somewhere like Montpelier, Vermont has more recognition but has 7800 people.
iThe City of London might be one, it has a very small resident population, but I dont know how many people know that it is a separate city from London. It's famos for being chock full of c*nts most of the day.
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