Our most common town name isn't Springfield
The most common town name on this site is Franklin. We carry 26 of them across 25 states. Pennsylvania has two.
That surprised us, because Springfield has the reputation. When Matt Groening named the town in The Simpsons, he told Smithsonian magazine in 2012 that he picked Springfield because it was one of the most common city names in the country. His thinking was that "everyone will think it's their Springfield."
Good instinct. In our catalog of incorporated towns, though, Springfield is in 16 states. Franklin beats it by nine.
The top of the list
Counting how many states have a town by each name:
| Name | States |
|---|---|
| Franklin | 25 |
| Madison | 20 |
| Clinton | 20 |
| Clayton | 19 |
| Marion | 18 |
| Fairview | 17 |
| Salem | 17 |
| Springfield | 16 |
Springfield is tied with Cleveland, Jackson, Lexington, Manchester, Oxford and Washington.
A lot of the list reads like a history class roll call: Franklin, Madison, Washington, Jackson. Some of it is just a nice thing to say about the scenery, like Fairview and Springfield.
The Franklin that got books instead of a bell
Franklin, Massachusetts was going to be called Exeter. When it incorporated in 1778, it took Benjamin Franklin's name instead, and the town asked him to donate a bell for the church steeple.
He sent books. By the town's own account, Franklin figured sense was worth more than sound, and 116 volumes showed up in place of a bell. In 1790 the town voted to lend them to every resident for free, which is why Franklin, Massachusetts, is known as the home of the first public library in the United States. The original books are still there.
Not bad for a town that asked for a bell.
Half our towns have a name to themselves
Here's the flip side. Of the 19,496 towns we carry, 9,921 have a name no other town on this site shares. That's about half.
So if you're from one of those, the name on your sign is yours alone. Nobody's going to ask which one you mean.
If you're from the other half, you already know the conversation. Somebody from Franklin, Tennessee and somebody from Franklin, Wisconsin can wear the same word on their shirt and mean two places almost 500 miles apart.
Same name, same green sign, completely different hometown.