Similar names of ethnic neighborhoods across cities

[Capsicum]

There are some ethnic neighborhoods with a long history of having a similar name across cities -- many Chinese neighborhoods are Chinatowns, Italian neighborhoods are called Little Italy, Greek neighborhoods are Greektowns across different cities. Others are names of the old country's cities like "Little Manila" or "Little Saigon", repeated across different cities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...merican_cities

What accounts for why some are named in the style of (name of country)-town, others are Little (name of country), and others are Little (famous name of city within the country), and the often repeated (though not always), consistency of names across the immigrants' neighborhoods in different cities?

Did the first city to have an ethnic enclave of the name basically inspire later immigrants in other cities to call it a similar thing? Some names are much more consistent than others (eg. Chinatown or Little Italy is usually pretty common, while say, little Russia or Little Moscow may not be that common). It sometimes doesn't necessarily have to do with how abundant the enclaves are either -- for example, Mexican neighborhoods are very common, but few are called "Mexicantown", and many simply go by their neighborhood's own name.

Is there a logic to ethnic neighborhood naming, whether the city gives it official or unofficial status as a name or even if it's just a local, informal name?

[Acajack]

I'll do Montreal as it's one of the more interesting ones I know.

They use a lot of the same names as elsewhere, sometimes translated into French (La Petite Italie), sometimes not (Chinatown is heard a lot in French, but you also hear "Quartier chinois").

All in all, it's quite common to hear "quartier portugais", "quartier grec", etc. in Montreal.

A few unique ones:

Le Petit Maghreb: officially designated as such. Maghreb is an Arab word for the grouping of North African countries Algeria-Morocco-Tunisia. It's a more obscure term in English but in French it's very common.

Ville-Saint-Liban: a whimsical twist (that rhymes) on Ville-St-Laurent which has a large Lebanese population. Liban = Lebanon in French.

Montréal-Noir: a similar pun as above but not always so nice. The real name of the area is Montréal-Nord, and it has a large Haitian population. Noir = black in French.

[Acajack]

For Toronto:

Brambladesh: nickname for the western suburb of Brampton with a large population from the "subcontinent".

[Capsicum]

Jamaica in Queens, New York City does have a decent Jamaican and West Indian/Caribbean population, although the name apparently was coincidental, as it was originally a Native American name that sounded alike to Europeans in colonial times.

Lachine, Montreal is apparently named after China (la Chine) itself, but it's not where Montreal's Chinese population is, near Chinatown or Brossard.

Russian Hill, San Francisco, also no longer has much of a Russian presence either.

Also, interestingly I can think of a couple of examples of ethnic neighborhoods with similar names and demographics (though the ethnic group is not in the name):

- Forest Hills, a neighborhood of Queens, New York City, and Forest Hill, a neighborhood of Toronto, both of them have large Jewish demographics.

-Richmond Hill, Ontario, and Richmond, BC, are among the towns in Canada with percentage-wise some of the most Chinese demographics.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by Capsicum

What accounts for why some are named in the style of (name of country)-town, others are Little (name of country), and others are Little (famous name of city within the country), and the often repeated (though not always), consistency of names across the immigrants' neighborhoods in different cities?

Did the first city to have an ethnic enclave of the name basically inspire later immigrants in other cities to call it a similar thing?

My guess is that a few of the cities must have copied the idea of naming their ethnic enclaves after a few famous examples, like NYC.

Similar to how, after Manhattan and New York city used "Uptown, Midtown, Downtown" other cities copied the idea, even in cases where they did not have the same geography in terms of what was considered "up" and "down".

[jd3189]

In Miami, Little Havana is named after the Cuban community located there. Little Haiti is a large community of Haitians.


I feel that the naming convention is random and depends on previous neighborhood names. Basically, people will name their community after a preceding neighborhood of a similar ethnic makeup. If no preceding ethnic neighborhood exists, they can choose from "town" or "little".


Chinatown is a common name probably because of the first one in San Francisco. Since then, it has been the main way to name other similar communities in the US. The NYC examples you mentioned are also relevant.


But it seems that East Asian and country-named neighborhoods have the "town" suffix (Chinatown, Greektown, Japantown, Koreatown, Germantown) while many neighborhoods named after cities have the "Little" prefix (Little Saigon, Little Havana, Little Tel Aviv, Little Tokyo) with some exceptions (Little Italy, Little Haiti). Probably whatever rolls out the tongue better.

[xzmattzx]

In Wilmington, we have a Little Italy.

However, the Polish neighborhoods have always been known as Hedgeville and Browntown. The Irish neighborhood has always been known as Forty Acres. The Puerto Rican/Hispanic neighborhood has always been known as Hilltop.

Our metro's Chinese and Indian population assimilated from the start, coming here for the high-paying pharmaceutical and financial jobs at places like DuPont, so these people all live out in the suburbs, and never formed any ethnic neighborhood in the city.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

However, the Polish neighborhoods have always been known as Hedgeville and Browntown. The Irish neighborhood has always been known as Forty Acres. The Puerto Rican/Hispanic neighborhood has always been known as Hilltop.

Now that I think of it, there's many examples of ethnic neighborhoods that don't really have common allusions to their old country -- Polish, Irish, Mexican etc.

Polish neighborhoods usually go by their own names, and it seems like the same goes for Russian neighborhoods. Maybe eastern European neighborhoods in general, but some still have names like Ukrainian village in Chicago, or Little Moscow in Miami-Dade county.

[Docere]

Toronto and Detroit both have historic "Corktown" areas (though those areas ceased to be Irish long ago).

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

My favorite is how Westwood (Vestvood)/ Beverly Hills is affectionately called Tehrangeles due to the massive Persian population of the area

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Docere

Toronto and Detroit both have historic "Corktown" areas (though those areas ceased to be Irish long ago).

Ottawa opened a pedestrian bridge across the Rideau Canal a few years ago. It's called the Corktown Bridge so I guess it's related to that notion as well. (Though any Irish neighbourhood in Ottawa is long gone.)

[toddguy]

Columbus: German Village, Italian Village, Hungarian Village-lots of "villages".

[tech12]

Originally Posted by Capsicum

Russian Hill, San Francisco, also no longer has much of a Russian presence either.

It's never had much of a Russian presence. The name comes from a Russian cemetery (for russian sailors from the early 1800s, there was never a settlement there) that was discovered there in the 1840s. SF's Russian neighborhood is in the Richmond district.