What is the smallest city in your country that everyone can still instantly recognise the name of? What is it famous for?

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.

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

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.

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

Not my location, but Scranton, PA?

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

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Not a city as much as part of a city, but Coney Island is pretty well known. I was recently speaking to someone in Colombia and even they knew of it!

(I'm part of the sideshow cast there ☺️)

Regina, the city that rhymes with fun!

Hallstatt - Austria

The city so beautiful that the Chinese copied it.

The village "Wacken" is well known in Germany because they hold one of the worlds largest anual Heavy-Metal festivals. They have a population of around 2000, the festival regularly attracts around 80,000 people.

In Denmark it's probably Snave (No English Wikipedia page for it). Population is a whopping 211 people. It was popularized in a series of commercials for a Danish cellular carrier. The concept was so popular that there even was a movie. I haven't seen it, but the reviews seems to suggest it could be fun to watch... If you are drunk enough.

The word "snave" in Danish can somewhat be translated to snogging in English. Heavy kissing. Which has led to the city having massive problems with theft of their signs.

Back when I was in Russia I'd say it'd be Suzdal, famous for the density of churches and other traditional architecture; or Tarusa, known for that one song that everyone seems to know a couple of lines from, Gorodok (here is a random rendition I found just now), both with just under 10k pop according to the wiki. And, as a bit of a stretch since it's not a town and most people would call it Solovki, Solovetsky settlement, famous for being a prison, with about 800 people. Also Oymyakon with under 600 people, the coldest settlement on earth if you're into that sort of thing.

Now in Georgia, I'd say Borjomi with just over 10k pop famous for its water, and Bakuriani (just over 1800 people) for its water and the ski resort. Again a bit of a stretch, but I guess everyone in Georgia at least also knows the ski resort of Gudauri at just under 100 people, as well as mountain resorts of Gomismta and Bakhmaro, both with no permanent residents due to the rough winters. Geography nerds will also be familiar with Ushguli, (arguably) the highest inhabited settlement in Europe, population 220.

How about: name a country and name the smallest city you recognize from there. Like New Zealand you could say Rotarua

What do you consider small? A lot of people know Cupertino California because Apple are based there, but it's only got a population of 57k. It's arguably more recognizable than the closest major city (San Jose), which has a population of nearly 1 million.

Wąchock in Poland, (in)famous for being the place where tons of jokes happen, population around 2800.

Also Jeruzal, though known under its fictional name of Wilkowyje, the place where famous TV show "Ranczo" was made, population around 340.

Gergovie. The place where we defeated romans 2000 years ago. Doesn't even exist anymore

Edit: I just realised the question was recognising the name of the city, not recognising city based on a picture...

Probably Svolvær/Lofoten with a population of ~4700. It doesn't have the official status of "City" in Norway though.

Lajitas, Texas, which once elected as their mayor a goat that drank beer, has a population of 75.

Terlingua, Texas, as made famous by Jerry Jeff Walker and home of the Terlingua International Chili Cook-off, has a population of 78.

Luckenbach, Texas, as made famous by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, has a population of 3.

Corleone, Sicily, for obvious reasons. Population around 10k.

Chicken, Alaska. Population: 12
I'd argue that everyone recognises "Chicken".

Fun fact: The settlers wanted to name their town "Ptarmigan" after the birds that were abundant in the area.
But none of them knew the correct spelling, and they didn't want to embarass themselves.

Gruyères, Switzerland. 2000 inhabitants. Famous for the famous Swiss cheese of the same name.

World recognition or in-country?

If world I'd guess Huskvarna (pop 24 000) for Sweden.

Known for having a company making chainsaws (among other things) named after it (Husqvarna). It is one of the two main brands of professional chainsaws (the other being Stihl).

I don't know about the smallest, but I've always thought that Santa Fe, New Mexico has an outsized influence on everything from food to art to architecture and culture. I visited last year and it was much smaller than I envisioned, partly because there are local regulations on building height to keep from ruining the charm of the city.

The New Orleans French Quarter is easy to spot.

Wales has St. Davids - population c.1,750

Forks, Washington population of ~7000 made very notable due to the twilight series. Or Astoria, Oregon population of ~10,000 made famous by the Goonies.

Byron bay. Bundaberg. Coon.

Pueblo, CO from tv commercials or maybe Walla Walla, WA from Bugs Bunny.

Dildo, Newfoundland, Canada: 803 people as of 2021.

Someone here mentioned Vulcan, Alberta - however given the qualifiers of country and size, its 1769 people disqualifies it.

Also, though I am a Trekkie myself and know that Vulcan is well known in those circles, it's virtually unheard of outside them.

Meanwhile, Dildo:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/odd-stories-of-2019-1.5389442

Fucking, Austria. Population of around 100 People. They renamed it to Fugging a few years ago

Selma

Winnipeg, Canada (pop. 850k) has a famous namesake in Winnie the Pooh (who was named after Winnipeg) and has been in the Simpsons.

The Simpsons - That's it, back to Winnipeg!

Here in Illinois is Woodstock, at ~25,600 (2020 per Wikipedia). It was the town where Groundhog Day was filmed. There's even some small road signs here and there mentioning it for the rare tourist who comes to see it. Smallest place in the state I can think of, though there's smaller towns that have been used for movies.

Some upcoming off-brand Hallmark x-mas movie will feature local tourist trap town Long Grove IL, pop ~ 8,300 (2020 per Wikipedia). The director grew up near there so knew about it and thought it'd be perfect for his movie.

Vulcan, Alberta.

Famous because of a spaceship that landed there once, I think.

Some people with pointed ears may have also been involved, but I would replicate that with a grain of salt. I haven't really looked into it.

Well, Brazil is such a huge country and there are lots of smallest cities with still huge population.

Unfornately i would have to say that the smallest one and most famous would probably be because of some recent disaster and one I can remember is Brumadinho. Less than 40k people, a city destroyed after a dam collapsed and a lot of mud flooded everywhere, 5 years ago

Hell, Michigan in the US definitely has a shot.

In Slovenia I believe Sevnica (4.5k population) - home town of Melania Trump - would be the smallest most recognizable place by the world.

But Slovenia is small enough even Kostanjevica na Krki with 802 or Vače with 421 population is easily recognizable by Slovenians.

Bobcaygeon, population 3,500.

Aramoana here in New Zealand. It has a population in the low hundreds and it is famous for a horrible massacre in 1990. The cops here don't usually have guns and in a little place like that there are often only a handful of police that are anywhere in the general region.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramoana_massacre

For foreigners, probably Abbottabad (population: 275,890) due to being the site of Osama Bin Laden's compound.

For Pakistanis themselves, it's a bit harder to determine, as I'm not able to find reliable population statistics for smaller settlements. However, some contenders are probably Nathia Gali, Chitral, Skardu and Ziarat. All of these towns are in the northern mountainous regions of Pakistan, which don't have as much population density as e.g. the plains of Punjab. They're also fairly popular tourist destinations for Pakistanis who want to take a break from the heat. Ziarat could be especially famous, as Muhammad Ali Jinnah (founder of Pakistan) spent some of his last days in a cottage there. It even appears on the 100-rupee note.

Puerto Hurraco. Population 100. Everybody in Spain recognises its name because of a shooting that got burned into the collective mind.

Darwin, Australia.

Famous for being bombed by the Japanese repeatedly during World War 2

Probably Regina. And it’s famous for rhyming white schmamima.

In Hungary, Szarvas or Mohács

I legitimately though Oregon was a State, I didn't know it was also a city.

From my country I'm going to be generous and say Barcelona. Second biggest city here. I doubt next bigger cities are universally known.

Reno.

For uhhh... Reno.

Tilt Cove in Newfoundland. 5 whole people.

PANAMA!

Van Halen, spring break, population 35,600.

The smallest Indian city that (almost) all Indians would know would be the hill resort of Shimla (pop 170,000). However, this is because a place is expected to have a population of about 100,000 to be declared a 'city', so for example New Delhi is only a town.

Probably Dildo, Newfoundland.

You know why.

Edit: Actually, I think Dawson City is smaller. It's famous for being a big city back during the gold rush, despite being up near the arctic circle.

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.

For Mexico, maybe Tecate, which is a city in the state of Baja California, and its know for a beer of the same name. Cant really think of anything that is smaller and more famous.

Davos switzerland. (WEF) (10k) Mariana brazil. (Known for a ecological disaster). (60k)

Well there are only really two where I'm at. Smallest one probably most well known for being the setting for a comedy TV show or it's wall.

The smallest settlement listed on Wikipedia is known for a bridge.

Definitely Altschauerberg, home of the country's most prolific performance artist

Chamonix in France, population under 9000 but well known around the world.

ottawa