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…

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.

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.

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

Gibraltar has a population of 32,000, which by some definitions is too small to be considered a city.

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)

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.

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area

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.

Roswell, NM comes to mind. Tiny and yet most people will think of UFOs when they hear the name.

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.

Paris. It's also a city in Texas.

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.

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

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.

Not my location, but Scranton, PA?

I'm not from there, but who doesn't know the name of Scunthorpe?

Hell, Michigan

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.

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.

If you mean people from my country.... All of them.

New Zealand only has like 10 actual cities. It is not some great feat of memory to know them all.

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):

• Wittenoom, WA - population 0 - well known in Australia for being heavily contaminated with dangerous blue asbestos (which used to be mined there until the 60s), and having been de-gazetted and removed from maps to discourage tourism to it.
• Coober Pedy, SA - population 1437 - well known in Australia for its underground homes and opal production.
• Alice Springs, NT - population 25,912 - well known for being near the centre of Australia in the rangelands (outback) - most larger population centres in Australia are coastal.

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.

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

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.

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.

I guess the one that pretty much everyone knows in Germany is Buxtehude. It is being used as the poster child for a backwards town, far away from cities. Which is funny because neither is it backwards, remote or even very small. With a population of 40k it’s relatively large, compared to many other places in Germany, even just right next to Buxtehude. It is not far from Hamburg and its historic core is worth a visit. I think the name itself is the reason why it is being made fun of so much. Though there are so many other, much quirkier named towns in Germany but it somehow became Buxtehude.

Not my country, but maybe Tipperary? It only has a population of 5k.

In the UK and a city? Probably Liverpool and because of The Beatles.

A Town? Well it certainly used to be Lockerbie where Pan-Am flight 103 crashed after a terrorist bombing just before Christmas 1988. It was on it's way from London to New York.

Probably not known by the younger generations though.

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