Ref :
I decided to answer this question because it brings happy memories of Sister Thomas, my best ever History teacher, Beverly Hills, California.
St. Paul The Apostle School.

I will explain all the above shortly.

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Note added at 2004-02-25 18:22:37 (GMT)
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Founding fathers of American towns came up with some unusual names, for unusual reasons.

What´s in a place name? in USA, often more than meets the eye.


Lexington

one of USA truly national names was paradoxically, foreign, English and violently anti-English.
The Massachusetts settlers who chose the name Lexington in 1713 certainly meant to honor the home country. But when some people in Kentucky heard about the Battle of Lexington, fought in 1775, they named their camp Lexington to honor those who had fought the British. Today there are seven Londons in America and 19 Lexingtons.

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Note added at 2004-02-25 18:29:48 (GMT)
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We assume that if Englishmen named New London, Conn., then Portuguese immigrants must have named, say, Lisbon, N.Y..
Not so. In fact, many non-English place names were chosen after the Revolution by Anglo-Americans determined not to honor England.
With vast new tracts of land opening up, hundreds of new names were required, and the Old World was still the best source.
A popular choice was France, which had aided the colonists. Revolutionary sentiment explains many of USA´s 14 Parises and 22 La fayettes and Fayettes, ten Montpeliers, 15 Lyonses, and five Napoleons.


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Note added at 2004-02-25 18:36:43 (GMT)
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Canton

Names of great European and Asian cities were often picked to make a newly surveyed swath of impenetrable forest or malarial swamp more attractive to settlers and investors. These were commercial, not political, choices.
When new townships were laid out in 1787 in the far north of New York State, to secure the area against Canadian claims, names like Potsdam, Madrid, Lisbon, Canton and Hague were used.
These seem natural choices for a nation still composed largely of sea merchants. Lisbon, Portugal and Canton , China were ports where Boston ships did business.
Either would seem more appealing to a Bostonian considering homesteading than would a place named Mosquito Point, for instance.

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Note added at 2004-02-25 18:41:23 (GMT)
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Sparta...Troy...Rome...Sparta...Athens...
At the end of the 18th century, America´s classical revival spawned a series of Troys, Romes, Spartas and Athenses.
Each city had its own connotation.

Troy called up courage in the face of adversity.
Rome signified a glorious republic.
Sparta suggested moral austerity and military virtues.
Athens supplanted Oxford as the favored name for a university town.
Today there are 14 U.S. Athenses

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Note added at 2004-02-25 18:44:45 (GMT)
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Belgrade..Denmark...

Other names document what was going on in the struggle of freedom against oppression all over the world.

A town in Maine was named Belgrade in 1796, seven years after the Austrians captured that European city from the Turks.
Denmark, Maine, was founded in 1807, when Copenhagen was defending itself against the still-hated British.



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Note added at 2004-02-25 18:48:54 (GMT)
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Moscow...Waterloo...Elba

During the early 19th century, when Napoleon was meeting his downfall, several American towns were named Moscow -perhaps to commemorate his disastrous retreat from that city.

There are also nine Waterloos and five Elbas to remind ys of his defeat and exile.
Local folklore has it that Martin Van Buren, a vociferous admirer of the Corsican, retailiated by suggesting the Napoleonic victory of Austerlitz for the name of a New York town.


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Note added at 2004-02-25 18:56:50 (GMT)
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Stockholm...Glasgows, Edinburghs or Edinboros...Oslo....Buda...

After the mid-19th century, the custom of borrowing foreign place names subsided. Following the Civil War, the names of military heroes and state legislators came into fashion. (i.e. dozens of Lincolns.)

Where foreign namings continued, immigrants now chose the names out of sentiment or homesickness.

Swedes founded Stockholms in Wisconsin and South Dakota.

Scots scattered Glasgows and Edinburghs, Edingburgs or Edinboros.

Norwegians named their Minnesota settlement Oslo.

Hungarians can be forgiven for leaving no Budapests, since Buda and Pest did not become a single city until 1873.

Two Budas do exist but, not surprisingly, not one Pest.


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Note added at 2004-02-25 19:03:49 (GMT)
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The York, Rugby, Leeds.

Amsterdam and Nederland.

Another Belgrade!

The railroad barons, who named hundreds of new settlements as they cut their lines through uninhabited lands, sometimes honored foreign cities, but for unsentimental reasons.
The York, Rugby and Leeds of the Great Northern line resulted from English investment in the railroad.

Dutch capitalists´funding of the Kansas City Southern led to an Amsterdam and a Nederland.

In Montana another Belgrade popped up because the president of the Northern Pacific entertained a Serbian capitalist as his train passed through the area!

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Note added at 2004-02-25 19:12:53 (GMT)
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Some place designations eventually got into trouble.
During World War I a bill was introduced in Congress to change all towns with the names Berlin or Germany to something more patriotic.

Although the bill did not pass, Kiel, Oklahoma, became Loyal
and Brandenburg, Texas, was renamed Old Glory.



But most Berlins stayed Berlins...the foreign names that identified U.S. towns, like the immigrants who populated them, had become American.

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Note added at 2004-02-25 19:20:08 (GMT)
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Boston

The Puritans chose the English name Boston because the English Boston was a hotbed of Puritanism. By adopting the name, colonists honored their antecedents, made a political statement and advertised for other Puritans who might want to leave an intolerant England. In just ten years, more than 20,000 people answered the ad.
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....all this to explain Moscow?? In Arkansas!!!

Good Luck!

Peace,
Patricia.