Name every city

August 6, 2023 6:02 PM

City Quiz is a fun little webgame where you literally just name every city. It breaks down by the whole planet, or just one continent, or just one country, and scores you based on number of cities or percentage of the population.

I zoomed into Massachusetts and tried to name all 351 cities and towns. When I tried entering "Springfield" it only applied the result once, and not to the whole country, so I had to append its state. (Maybe a Simpsons bias, who knows.)

posted by andreaazure (72 comments total)

If you pick “Every State” from the dropdown, you can get credit for all 26 Springfields at once.
posted by lovetragedy at 6:42 PM on August 6, 2023 [9 favorites]

TIL! Thanks. <3
posted by andreaazure at 6:48 PM on August 6, 2023

I gave up before I finished writing cities I could easily think of. But now I know for sure that I can think of "some" cities!
posted by aubilenon at 6:57 PM on August 6, 2023

At first, I assumed that they literally meant cities, which is pretty tough, since there are a lot places that are designated as cities that are far smaller than those designated as towns or villages. But I tried some towns, and they showed up, too. Except my town, Amherst, which is the 14th largest municipality in NY state, with a population of 130,000. So I wonder how accurate their information is. Amherst, MA shows up, though (with a population of only 39,000).
posted by jonathanhughes at 7:22 PM on August 6, 2023 [4 favorites]

I definitely wasn't going to type all the cities I could think of, but I did aim for rarest cities, I got one that was found by 0.05 percent of people so I concider that a win.
posted by AlexiaSky at 7:32 PM on August 6, 2023

You named 666 cities

Feels like a good stopping point.
posted by pwnguin at 7:47 PM on August 6, 2023 [3 favorites]

I tried some towns, and they showed up, too

I think it's even beyond that - I think it might be census-designated places, or something like that. I've been getting credit both for official towns and some of the pseudo-towns that are parts of them.
posted by Flunkie at 8:18 PM on August 6, 2023

But then again, it might be less than that, too. It says "national urban population", and if you do the math with your raw total and your percentage, you get a national urban population of about 260 million - i.e. there are about 70 million people it's not counting.

(I'm talking about the USA, BTW).
posted by Flunkie at 8:31 PM on August 6, 2023

What happens when you name all the cities?
posted by MrGuilt at 9:02 PM on August 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

What happens when you name all the cities?
The stars on the flag start winking out.
posted by stevis23 at 9:23 PM on August 6, 2023 [27 favorites]

Yet not one Sprungfeld.
posted by MonsieurPEB at 9:47 PM on August 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

No option for New Zealand, which stops me from winning by naming our five cities.
posted by happyinmotion at 11:08 PM on August 6, 2023 [5 favorites]

You can go to the "World" one, and New Zealand is in it. You can select New Zealand in its dropdown box too, if you want to just focus on it.

I'm not sure if the "five cities" thing is a joke or if you really do have literally five places that are officially "cities", but either way I'm sure there are going to be a lot more than five answers. The "cities" thing is not literal. I got an accepted place that has (if I remember correctly) a population of seven.
posted by Flunkie at 11:47 PM on August 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

This is fun/challenging! I can account for about 73% of Australia’s population, or in other words all the capital cities, the major regional centres in a few states, a bunch of small-medium towns in the couple of states I’ve spent quality time in, and … Perth. I’m sorry Western Australia, you guys sort of want to be your own country anyway, right?
posted by threecheesetrees at 11:58 PM on August 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

I remembered the existence of Kalgoorlie, I am slightly redeemed in the eyes of WA!
The twin towns of Albury Wodonga on the NSW / VIC border are only recognised as Albury. Poor Wodonga, no respect.
This is going to keep me occupied for the rest of the day.
posted by threecheesetrees at 12:12 AM on August 7, 2023

Correction: Wodonga is there. Closing in on 76% …
posted by threecheesetrees at 12:20 AM on August 7, 2023

using the "every state" option for the US map, and picking some common city/town names, I quickly got "Ohio" as the state I was best at. I am interpreting this to mean that Ohio has the highest concentration of boring place names in the country.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 12:48 AM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Impressed that I can capture 56% of the population of Australia in just 4 cities.
posted by plep at 1:21 AM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

It has the tiniest Icelandic towns I could think of, even spelled right, so I’m reasonably happy with it, though I wish I could turn it into a country-specific game. As someone who’s an immigrant in Finland (most of the time) I’d like to test my knowledge of Finnish municipalities, and be scored just on that.
posted by Kattullus at 1:24 AM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

I was upset that Grand Isle, LA wasn't valid, then I remembered it has a population of about 1000.
posted by brundlefly at 1:27 AM on August 7, 2023

Impressed that I can capture 56% of the population of Australia in just 4 cities.

It goes further than that, I think about 40% of Australians live in Sydney or Melbourne alone?

(I got every Australian city with more than 100,000 people except for Townsville, Toowoomba, and the Sunshine Coast, showing my lack of knowledge of Queensland!)
posted by other barry at 1:39 AM on August 7, 2023

This game is rigged. No Flavortown.
posted by brundlefly at 1:44 AM on August 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

Slight cheat code: Presidents' names.
posted by brundlefly at 1:51 AM on August 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

The UK map is broken, because it accepts "London" with a population resembling that of all of Greater London, but then various suburbs of Greater London are also accepted and increase the population percentage.

(I'll ignore that the City of London has a population of 8,500 people and Greater London is not a city, because the UK definition of "city" is weird and useless)
posted by grahamparks at 1:54 AM on August 7, 2023 [7 favorites]

Huh. I didn't know that.
posted by brundlefly at 2:08 AM on August 7, 2023

I was barrelling along on the world map until I discovered that it wouldn't accept San Francisco or Sacramento (whether for "all countries" or just "California").
posted by zompist at 2:22 AM on August 7, 2023

Good to see that my home city of Wickhamford is included in the map.
posted by Wordshore at 3:22 AM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Previously (US only) and other previously (Europe)

(Just in case anyone else was wondering why it seemed familiar!)
posted by scorbet at 3:23 AM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Trying it in the UK: I can pick out lots of places in Scotland because I live here: but flagging, say, Macduff, is not doing a lot to alter the overall UK population. I manage to pick off the most of the best known places in England. But Wales... Rhosllanerchrugog, Merthyr Tydfil, Aberystwyth - if you can even spell the names of the places where half the people live, you are doing very well.
posted by rongorongo at 3:35 AM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

If you pick “Every State” from the dropdown...

That seems like cheatin'.
posted by booth at 6:22 AM on August 7, 2023

Slight cheat code: Presidents' names.

I did that too, brundlefly. I got 19 Presidents in before getting to one with no hits (sorry, Franklin Pierce). 17 Hamiltons though.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 6:39 AM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

I zoomed into Massachusetts and tried to name all 351 cities and towns

I didn't see Lameham, Methol, or Unstable on your map, so there's quite a few more to get.
posted by grog at 7:06 AM on August 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

Three Forks, Three Hills, and Three Oaks all exist.
posted by Night_owl at 7:20 AM on August 7, 2023

Seems to not know more cities than it knows. I punched in sixteen cities within an hour of Toronto and it took none of them.
posted by dobbs at 7:27 AM on August 7, 2023

This game is rigged. No Flavortown.

No Funkytown, either.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:01 AM on August 7, 2023

flagging, say, Macduff

Flag on, Macduff,
And damn’d be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!”
posted by kirkaracha at 8:02 AM on August 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

Shelbyville is on the map, but not North Haverbrook.
Can't get "Ann Arbour" or but can get "Kansas City" for 2.
posted by now i'm piste at 8:41 AM on August 7, 2023

(Not to be that guy, but it's spelled 'Ann Arbor,' and it's in there :)

Texarkana also counts as two.
posted by box at 8:54 AM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

sorry, Franklin Pierce

If we are going with first names, there are several Franklin s.
posted by Night_owl at 9:12 AM on August 7, 2023

I got a place thanks to the "all states" option which showed as having a population of 15 people, so I don't think there's a lower bound.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 9:18 AM on August 7, 2023

Thanks @box. My horrible spelling has thwarted me again. 'albuquerque', 'tallahassee', 'kissemme,' and 'quaohog' might be saved yet.
posted by now i'm piste at 9:18 AM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

My mother is from small-ass-town in the north of England and I did really well on the "rarest cities" list by virtue of naming every other small-ass-town that I could think of in the vicinity.

My goal was to name all the big cities and I did pretty well on that in the UK. Not even remotely as well in France and I'm still mad that I could only come up with 9 out of the 10 cities in the US that are over 1,000,000 people (curse you, San Antonio!!!).
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 9:19 AM on August 7, 2023

there are several Franklins.

Surely those are all about the Benjamins.
posted by dr. boludo at 9:31 AM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

At least...we got...Terre Haute...India-na.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:00 AM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

I got Pierces in Nebraska, Idaho, and Colorado. The only presidential no-hits I got were Eisenhower, Obama, Trump, and Biden. Though I'm not sure Bush, Illinois, population 241, founded 1902, counts.
posted by darksasami at 10:01 AM on August 7, 2023

California has close to 600 incorporated cities, but this also seems to take census designated places. Including the CDPs, I have only seen a handful on CA small downs with under 1% rarity. I could literally spend all day on this.

I didn’t do the US wide one yet, but I bet Quincy, CA (in the mountains between Tahoe and Lassen) is one of the prettiest)
posted by CostcoCultist at 11:55 AM on August 7, 2023

Could only recall 180, with a 0.02 percent rare one, and one with 55 population (which surprised me). They could fit in this room!
posted by filtergik at 1:12 PM on August 7, 2023

Oh yes. Sorry to the 275 million people I couldn't recall where you lived.
posted by filtergik at 1:15 PM on August 7, 2023

Missing one U.S. city over 500k. Hmm…
posted by atoxyl at 1:19 PM on August 7, 2023

I was driving through Massachusetts in 1999 and I asked a woman in a store what city we were in. She said, "This isn't a city, it is a town," and then told me the name of it. I was 21 years old and had never been corrected in that way before. I wasn't sure why it mattered, really, for that question. We have 4 states that are actually Commonwealths and Mass is one of them, but I am guessing if some asks for your state, most people don't correct them.
posted by soelo at 1:29 PM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Including the CDPs, I have only seen a handful on CA small downs with under 1% rarity.

I am a little surprised that the rarest item on my list thus far remains El Sobrante, CA at 0.05%. Kirk Hammett and the guys from Primus are from there! It has an exit off I-80 (I think)!
posted by atoxyl at 1:29 PM on August 7, 2023

That was on the U.S. map, though, maybe it’s different for CA only.
posted by atoxyl at 1:31 PM on August 7, 2023

My childhood camping trips in northern Michigan are not helping. Partially because I can't spell, but also apparently my family up there apparently gravitates toward unincorporated communities.
posted by ghost phoneme at 1:40 PM on August 7, 2023

Shelbyville was taken off the map for some reason.
posted by Chuffy at 3:27 PM on August 7, 2023

If you have difficulty spelling, this is not the quiz for you. There's no room for error.
posted by hydra77 at 3:42 PM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

It doesn't seem to take every CDP, since it won't accept Emblem, WY, a town I remember from a drive across the country. It struck me as the smallest 'town' I'd ever been through.
posted by hydra77 at 3:46 PM on August 7, 2023

I got one that was found by 0.05 percent of people so I concider that a win.

Dang, so far I haven’t been able to get below 0.07%
posted by nickmark at 3:53 PM on August 7, 2023

Shelbyville was taken off the map for some reason.

They shoulda put in that monorail. Worked for North Haverbrook!
posted by nickmark at 3:55 PM on August 7, 2023

My rarest is .02%, but interestingly it’s not the smallest town! I was surprised with the disconnect. My spelling is definitely punishing me, and I have given myself permission to look up spelling if I fail five times in a row. Boise is just not a word I can spell, apparently.
posted by Bottlecap at 4:08 PM on August 7, 2023

I have 2 towns in Minnesota that are at 0.4 percent. One is less than one mile outside of the 494/694 loop, too. Neither one is under 100 people, but I also have two of those. Ogilvie, MN (0.5) was just in the news because their new sign had the town's name misspelled.
posted by soelo at 4:14 PM on August 7, 2023

My rarest is my husband's hometown at .04%, and my second is a town I spent my summers in as a child at .06%.
posted by hydra77 at 4:30 PM on August 7, 2023

ah, yeah my decimals were off. I have two at .04 and Ogilvie is .05
posted by soelo at 4:34 PM on August 7, 2023

I’m not sure a lot of people playing this game are in Arkansas—the hamlet of Natural Steps (not a hamlet, an unincorporated CDP in the mountains (technically speaking, they’re not all that tall) outside Little Rock) is sitting at 0.02%, tied with some others as the rarest city on my list.

Shit, I shouldn’t’ve told y’all about it.
posted by box at 5:30 PM on August 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

0.002% rarity (UK). No, you can't have its name because personally identifiable information.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 12:00 AM on August 8, 2023

Found another one (Europe) at 0.002%! Here's a hint (and a lot of good music):

Paris Combo

posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 1:05 AM on August 8, 2023

How other parts of the country do towns is one of my irrational pet peeves. Towns are locally-governed municipalities that have defined borders and provide residents with services.

It seems weird that Gosnold, the smallest town in Massachusetts with all of 75 residents, is incorporated (because all towns in Massachusetts are incorporated with local governments and self determination) while Paradise, Nevada a "town" of almost 200,000 people is not.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:43 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Anyway I am g0ing to very carefully close this game's page because like Squaredle it's too easy to just lose hours trying semi-random things with no significant progress or endpoint in sight.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 9:09 AM on August 8, 2023

Well I named 263 cities in California. There are towns I've been in whose names I can't remember, but I think I'm stopping there. I named several census-designated places that didn't count. My one request is that the sign for "not a city" be different than "you already did this one".
posted by oneirodynia at 7:19 PM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've been doing the US in 'Every state' mode on and off for a few days, and I finally got over 100,000,000 (only 38.43%) with 3979 cities. Where is everyone else living??

My stats:
Still missing one over 500,000 and almost half of the over 100,000.
Two of my .01 rare cities are ones I've been in.
Smallest city has a population of 0.
posted by MtDewd at 5:25 AM on August 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

I have a 0.000% rarity one in the UK.
posted by MattWPBS at 2:18 PM on August 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

It pisses me off how many cities there are with the names of OTHER states. What the heck whose idea was that?
posted by aubilenon at 3:48 PM on August 10, 2023

If you're in the western US, I think it might be the case that the city was named before the official borders of the state were set, or maybe before the then-or-soon-to-be-territory had settled on a name? So the name was one in circulation and they had the bad luck to end up on the other side of a border.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 12:59 PM on August 11, 2023