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Chicken, Alaska. Population: 12
I'd argue that everyone recognises the word "Chicken".
Fun fact: The settlers wanted to name their town "Ptarmigan" after the birds that were abundant in the area.
But none of them knew the correct spelling, and they didn't want to embarass themselves.
Congratulations, you played yourself.
Gergovie. The place where we defeated romans 2000 years ago. Doesn't even exist anymore
Here in Illinois is Woodstock, at ~25,600 (2020 per Wikipedia). It was the town where Groundhog Day was filmed. There's even some small road signs here and there mentioning it for the rare tourist who comes to see it. Smallest place in the state I can think of, though there's smaller towns that have been used for movies.
Some upcoming off-brand Hallmark x-mas movie will feature local tourist trap town Long Grove IL, pop ~ 8,300 (2020 per Wikipedia). The director grew up near there so knew about it and thought it'd be perfect for his movie.
In the UK and a city? Probably Liverpool and because of The Beatles.
A Town? Well it certainly used to be Lockerbie where Pan-Am flight 103 crashed after a terrorist bombing just before Christmas 1988. It was on it's way from London to New York.
Probably not known by the younger generations though.
Ramstein, population ~5600
Famous for the Ramstein Air base, the bombing of the air base, the Ramstein air show disaster and the band named after all of that.
I don't know about the smallest, but I've always thought that Santa Fe, New Mexico has an outsized influence on everything from food to art to architecture and culture. I visited last year and it was much smaller than I envisioned, partly because there are local regulations on building height to keep from ruining the charm of the city.
For the US, I'd say a pretty strong contender is Woodstock, NY, with a population of around 6,000, and of course famous for the music festival of the same name (even though the actual festival was something like 60 miles away in Bethel)
PANAMA!
Van Halen, spring break, population 35,600.
In the Netherlands is probably Giethoorn, the 'Venice of the North' which has many canals instead of roads and is very touristy. It has 2.900 inhabitants
I legitimately though Oregon was a State, I didn't know it was also a city.
From my country I'm going to be generous and say Barcelona. Second biggest city here. I doubt next bigger cities are universally known.
WΔ chock in Poland, (in)famous for being the place where tons of jokes happen, population around 2800.
Also Jeruzal, though known under its fictional of Wilkowyje, the place where famous TV show "Ranczo" was made, population around 340.
For Mexico, maybe Tecate, which is a city in the state of Baja California, and its know for a beer of the same name. Cant really think of anything that is smaller and more famous.
Not my country, but what immediately came to mind was one that has global name recognition, and minimal population: Chernobyl.
It used to have around 12,000 population, but now it's technically illegal to live nearby, and up to 150 people are estimated to live there today. It's famous for being toxically irradiated as a result of the worst nuclear disaster in human history
Wacken, Germany.
Population: 2110
Home to one of the biggest metal festivals in the world with something between 70k and 120k people. I think Tickets are limited to 70k currently but the whole area is bascially transformed for a week
Schengen - the village in Luxembourg where the Schengen Agreement was signed. The population was 5196 in 2023 (appears to be the last census quoted on Wikipedia) and the "Schengen Area", covered by the agreement represents 450m people.
That's a great one!
By population, and not land area, certain more remote geographic places are well known but have quite a low population. 'Everyone' is a high bar, but most adults in Australia would know the following places (ordered from smaller population but slightly less known to higher population):
I reckon Port Arthur is a solid contender with its low population of 251 (known for being the site of a mass shooting that led to significant changes in Australian gun laws). It is fading in name recognition as time goes on though, after all that was approaching 30 years ago and lots of people have been born since then.
My top pick however would be Bega with its population of 5013 and the name recognition the cheese factory has brought. It's hard to go past a name that's printed on cheese (and assorted other products now) in the vast majority of supermarkets across Australia, and they even export overseas to get a bit of international cachet.
Bega is sister city to Littleton, CO. A town famous for the Columbine school shooting in 1998.
iThe City of London might be one, it has a very small resident population, but I dont know how many people know that it is a separate city from London. It's famos for being chock full of c*nts most of the day.
Nokia, Finland, population 36,000. Cellphones, tyres, rubber boots, ...
I actually used to own a cellphone and tyres from Nokia at the same time.
Iβm in the US and I canβt say Iβd heard of Oregon City before this postβ¦
For real. I'd think many more people could name Panama city in Florida. Famous spring break and vacation city every kid who's gone through college or listened to Van Halen knows of. Also has a population of less than 36,000 people.
Not my country, but maybe Tipperary? It only has a population of 5k.
All I know about it is that it's a long way there.
Worth it for the sweetest girl I know.
Blarney beats Tipperary in this scenario.
What's Blarney?
A small town/suburb in Cork. Also the home of the Blarney Stone and the origin of the word 'blarney'.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blarney_Stone https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blarney https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blarney
Not a bad reach for a town of around 2k population.