List of double placenames should not be confused with List of reduplicated place names.
Double placenames prominently feature the placenames of two or more constituents in double-barrelled form rather than invent a new name. This is often out of consideration for local sensitivities, since the smaller entity may resent its takeover, and may demand its symbolic perpetuation within an amalgamated name so as to propagate the impression of a merger between equals.
In their English forms, the conjoined names may have the following patterns:
The punctuation and capitalization practices in written English vary:
Three-word names for two-part entities are often ambiguous. For example, it may not be clear whether North Rhine-Westphalia is an amalgamation between the north part of the Rhine Province on the one hand and Westphalia on the other (true) or the northern division of some pre-existing place called Rhine-Westphalia (false). While this problem does not arise in German, no entirely satisfactory punctuation of such names has been established in English. In the above case, the hyphen is often omitted because it is misleading. It has been proposed that this state's name be punctuated "North-Rhine/Westphalia" in English, but the solidus or forward slash is also ambiguous.
Some names have been merged and modified as an alternative to using hyphenation or grammatical conjunction:
the megalopolis extending from Boston to Washington, D.C., CamelCase example (extended in fiction into a Boston–Atlanta Metropolitan Axis or BAMA covering most of the US East Coast)
another example of CamelCase (Seattle and Tacoma, Washington)
the Czech lands and Slovakia
Senegal and Gambia
Tanganyika and Zanzibar
Binomial placenames are not true double placenames, but elements in a hierarchical naming system. They are a means of distinguishing two entities which share a parent geographic feature. Examples:
They are often used for railway stations and airports:
Trenton–Mercer is an example of a marketing decision in which a small airport tries to associate itself with a larger city. Ryanair has been criticized for promoting names for airports unusually far from the city from which they are named, such as Paris Beauvais Tillé Airport (a triple name) and Frankfurt-Hahn Airport.
Binomial names may be seen in German-language texts to denominate parts of towns:
The word "and" in its name does not always signify the union of two distinct territories:
one island named for two people
named for Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
In dual naming, words in two different languages have been joined by a hyphen or a slash to become the community's (or geographic feature's) official name, often because of language politics:
the combination of this city's Spanish name of Vitoria and Basque name of Gasteiz
proposed official name (combining English and Irish-language names) of a town in the County Kerry Gaeltacht.
mountain in New Zealand with Māori and English names combined. Many geographic features of New Zealand are officially designated in a similar way (and the country as a whole is sometimes unofficially referred to as "Aotearoa New Zealand").
Similarly, places may simply have an official name which consists of two names, such as the Australian territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, which consists of the North Keeling Island and the South Keeling Islands.
Sometimes names will be concatenated during a name change. Zimbabwe Rhodesia was the name of the former Rhodesia and future Zimbabwe from June 1 to December 12, 1979.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Territories of Papua and New Guinea; Papua and New Guinea are actually alternate names of the same island, New Guinea, but have been used officially for different parts of this island
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands (India)
Ashmore Island and Cartier Island (Australia)
Heard Island and McDonald Island (Australia)
Saint Pierre Island and Miquelon (France)
South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands (United Kingdom)
Akrotiri and Dhekelia Cantonment (United Kingdom)
Trindade Island and Martim Vaz Island (Brazil)
Turks and Caicos (United Kingdom)
Wallis Island and Futuna Islands (France)
Arica and Parinacota (Chile)
Friuli and Venezia Giulia (Italy)
Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (Portugal)
Trentino and South Tyrol, formerly Alto Adige (Italy)
Baden and Württemberg (Germany)
Mecklenburg and Vorpommern (Germany)
Newfoundland and Labrador (Canada)
part of the Rhineland with Westphalia (Germany)
part of the Rhineland with the Palatinate (Germany)
Rhode Island proper and Providence Plantations (United States)
part of Saxony with Anhalt (Germany)
Schleswig and Holstein (Germany)
Four regions of France, several federal subjects of Russia, most local government districts of Northern Ireland and some autonomous communities of Spain (Castile and León, Castile-La Mancha) also feature two or more placenames conjoined by a hyphen or with the word "and" (or its translation).
Aetolia and Acarnania (Greece)
Kuyavia and Pomerania (Poland)
Includes defunct personal unions and dissolved political unions.
Austria and Hungary
Corsica and Sardinia
Denmark and Norway
Gilbert Islands and Ellice Islands
Herefordshire and Worcestershire
created when the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd annexed the al-Hasa region
created when the Sultanate of Nejd annexed the Kingdom of Hejaz
Muscat and Oman
region between the Ubangi and Shari rivers
Piedmont and Sardinia
Rwanda and Burundi
Serbia and Montenegro
Río de Oro and Saguía el-Hamra
Sweden and Norway
Great Britain and Ireland
Zimbabwe and Southern Rhodesia, two names for the same territory
Barletta, Andria and Trani, a province in the Italian region of Apulia
the metropolitan statistical area of Dallas (and two neighboring cities), Texas, United States
Elobey, Annobón, and Corisco; a former Spanish territory
a village in the United States territory of Guam consisting of three traditional villages united after the Second World War.
Provence, Alpes and Côte d'Azur, a region of France
River Rhondda, River Cynon and River Taff in Wales
the metropolitan statistical area of Seattle (and two neighboring cities), Washington state, United States
a county in Ontario, Canada, consisting of the former counties of Stormont County, Dundas County, and Glengarry County.
Verbano, Cusio and Ossola, a province in the Italian region of Piedmont
Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok, a district in Hong Kong
Metropolitan areas composed of multiple cities and shared facilities are often collectively named or referred to with the names of their principal component cities. These are conjoined with an unspaced en dash in formal writing, though not journalism, which hyphenates. Some examples include:
Some may even be international conurbations (transborder agglomerations), and do not exist as geopolitical entities:
In cases where one of the cities in the metropolitan area is itself conjoined, some other form of punctuation may be used to separate them, e.g. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, consisting of the cities of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Separate entities historically treated as one single unit by tradition or convention:
Baker Island and Howland Island
England and Wales
Matthew Island and Hunter Island
Brighton and Hove
Epsom and Ewell
Hammersmith and Fulham
Kensington and Chelsea
Newark-on-Trent and Sherwood Forest
Telford and The Wrekin
River Tyne and River Wear
Windsor and Maidenhead
area around Newry and the Mourne Mountains
one island consisting of Lewis and Harris
Neath and Port Talbot
River Rhondda, River Cynon, and River Taff
created in 1922 by the merger of towns Dover and Foxcroft
created in 2006 from a merger of bordering cities Elko and New Market.
created in 2006 by the merger of the former cities of Helena and West Helena
created from unincorporated areas called La Cañada and Flintridge
created by the merger of Leo and Cedarville
the official name of the merged city of Lexington and county of Fayette
created from the merger of Little River and Academy in 1980
created from the merger of Fuquay Springs and Varina
created from the merger of New Smyrna and Coronado Beach in 1947
created from unincorporated areas called Pico and Rivera
created by the merger of the cities of Melcher and Dallas in 1986
The governments of Dade County and its largest city, Miami, have been merged since 1957, but the county did not take its current name until 1997, when county voters passed a referendum to that effect.
created in 1951 from the merger of Milton and Freewater.
Named for Matanuska River and the town of Susitna.
borough of Dún Laoghaire and barony of Rathdown in Ireland
official name of a municipality in central Ontario, Canada formed by the merger of nine smaller communities; more commonly known as "Dysart et al"
official name of a local service district in Newfoundland and Labrador created in 2010 to improve fire protection in the eight named communities. More commonly called "Lethbridge to Sweet Bay", and branded as "Lethbridge and Area".
Region of New Zealand, combining the regions of Manawatu and Whanganui river catchments
San Andrés Island and Providencia Island in Colombia
a city formed from the conurbation of the two previous cities Skanör and Falsterbo in southwesternmost Sweden.