How did Peru get over here?

Does your city or town have the same name as a city/town or country overseas? How do you feel about that?

I don't know why this intrigues me--but it definitely does. I'm also intrigued the famous songwriter Cole Porter was born in Peru, Indiana. And did you know the inventor Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio? 

I have decided to collect these names and place names, but it's not easy. You basically have isn't lik to research each city, which takes some time. I thought it was also interesting that Mark Twain was born in Florida, Missouri. (Who knew there was such a place--and such a pretty one?)

If you were born in Peru, Indiana or Milan, Ohio, would you want to go to Peru in South America or Milan, Italy? I would (because I want to go everywhere it's possible to go). Did Edison become an inventor because he was restless in his town and knew it shared a name with a whole different world? What did Cole Porter think about Peru, South America versus Peru, Indiana?

Maybe it's just that being a writer I look for symbols and signs everywhere. Maybe it's because I love small towns. Mainly and mostly, I'm looking for stories. I can't be alone in this (didn't Proust devote pages and pages to place names)? But I guess what interests me most is the idea of naming a small city or town after an exotic destination like Vienna, Paris and Berlin.

What are the namers/founders thinking when they called their town Paris, Texas?  Or Naples, Florida, Dublin, Texas, Geneva, Idaho or Lisbon, Maine?

If you were from one of these cities, would it make you want to visit the bigger cities overseas? Yes, but right now, I want to visit all the cities here (or at least the ones I named). I've fallen in love with them and now I have to see why.

In college I lived for a while in Cambridge Massachusetts, but though I'd love to see the original, from my point of view the Bostonian Cambridge was interesting enough and probably more interesting than the British one. Not that I'd turn down a trip--as you already know.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite film directors Wim Wenders, who made a beautiful movie called Paris, Texas. Does it prove my point that cities with famous names capture our imaginations? Did I even make that point? Whether I did or not, it's true, and I'm not sure what I want to do with it. Keep thinking about it, I guess, and get myself to Peru, Indiana--sometime soon.

Peru, Indiana photo:  Daniel X. O'Neil