Can you name the largest modern day cities (and towns) of the original Thirteen Colonies?

created by aroundandabout

Enter a city in the box below
Correctly named cities will show up below
Answers do not have to be guessed in order
Source: US Cities Population 2009
Includes all cities and towns with a population of over 100,000 people in all of the original Thirteen Colonies.

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Population	City	State
8,391,881		New York
1,547,297		Pennsylvania
704,422		North Carolina
645,169		Massachusetts
637,418		Maryland
599,657		District of Columbia
540,922		Georgia
433,575		Virginia
405,612		North Carolina
311,647		Pennsylvania
278,154		New Jersey
270,240		New York
255,124		North Carolina
242,503		New Jersey
233,333		Virginia
229,828		North Carolina
229,171		North Carolina
222,455		Virginia
217,483		Virginia
207,294		New York
204,451		Virginia
201,066		New York
198,071		North Carolina
194,343		Georgia
193,172		Virginia
190,414		Georgia

Population	City	State
182,882		Massachusetts
171,909		Rhode Island
155,580		Massachusetts
150,006		Virginia
145,835		New Jersey
144,236		Virginia
138,560		New York
137,298		Connecticut
136,637		North Carolina
134,699		Georgia
129,333		South Carolina
125,285		New Jersey
124,060		Connecticut
123,330		Connecticut
121,026		Connecticut
115,638		South Carolina
114,983		Georgia
109,279		New Hampshire
108,771		Massachusetts
107,815		Pennsylvania
107,143		Connecticut
104,390		Massachusetts
103,571		Pennsylvania
103,368		North Carolina
101,350		North Carolina

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There are 45 comments for this game.
(Warning: comments may contain spoilers)

Cities of the Thirteen Colonies Quiz

by aroundandabout

Created Feb 6, 2011 in Geography
Featured Feb 22, 2011
Game Plays 65,786

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	canadasmoustache:	Feb 6th, 2011 at 17:11 GMT		5 points
	Durham should be 229,171 not 299,171.

	aroundandabout:	Feb 6th, 2011 at 17:29 GMT		10 points
	agreed and changed, thanks

	midlifecrisis:	Feb 10th, 2011 at 20:22 GMT		6 points
	Great quiz, even if I only got 33/51. I missed 6 answers from NC - one being High Point where my niece goes to college! I was in Manchester recently - can't believe that is over 100K people...

	ClintT13:	Feb 10th, 2011 at 20:31 GMT		17 points
	In the history of Sporcle, I have never once remembered Charlotte in a quiz.

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	Gullek:	Feb 22nd, 2011 at 17:07 GMT		21 points
	Does this include West Virginia? It was part of Virginia as a colony, but I can see why it wouldn't be (if there is even a city big enough to make it).

	XYlophonetreeZ:	Feb 22nd, 2011 at 17:12 GMT		16 points
	@ Gullek, I had the same thought- as well as Maine, since it was part of Massachusetts, but neither state has a big enough city. I feel like being a North Carolina resident helped me immensely on this quiz. Looks like there are a lot of lesser-known cities here. I bet half of the people who guessed Wilmington were thinking Delaware, too.

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	monstro:	Feb 22nd, 2011 at 17:30 GMT		7 points
	Gullek, the biggest city in West Virginia is Charleston (the capital), which I believe has a population of only about 55,000. It's a beautiful city, though.

	Jimh:	Feb 22nd, 2011 at 17:36 GMT		20 points
	Were this my quiz, I would leave DC on. The land it now sits on was part of Maryland at the time (not Virginia, by the way), and therefore it was part of the thirteen colonies - the same as Maine and West Virginia would be, if they had any large enough cities.

	NoVan:	Feb 22nd, 2011 at 17:39 GMT		17 points
	@shanghaista: Land taken from Maryland, you mean; the Virginia land was retroceded. But that's beside the point. There are two ways to look at this quiz: cities in the current 13 states, or cities located in what was once the 13 colonies. Under the former, you're right and Washington shouldn't be here; under the latter it should be since it's on what was once Maryland land. We would know which interpretation was correct if Portland, Maine was big enough - it's on former Massachusetts land - but without that, we're left to quibble over it.

	Hejman:	Feb 22nd, 2011 at 18:55 GMT		17 points
	I probably shouldn't admit this, but in reference to the front page comment on this quiz, I actually own a tricorn hat.

	yggrynd:	Feb 22nd, 2011 at 21:12 GMT		3 points
	Odd that Athens-Clarke County would be considered a city for this quiz, but for a quiz about common city names a few weeks back, Lexington, KY was 'disqualified' because it had merged with its county. Love both cities, in any event.

	drn211:	Feb 22nd, 2011 at 21:25 GMT		7 points
	@Gullek and Xylophone, you would include Vermont too as it was part of New York, but like Maine and West Virginia wouldn't have a city large enough.

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	HoundDog:	Feb 22nd, 2011 at 22:07 GMT		12 points
	To take NoVan's comments one step further: Should the quiz include cities that were not a part of the original colony? If not, then Atlanta, Athens and Columbus would not be included as the colony of Georgia was much smaller than the current state. Just something to chew on!

	transitfan:	Feb 22nd, 2011 at 22:46 GMT		7 points
	Nice quiz, because unlike some of the geography quizzes one still has to think before spitting out cities. Really New York, Philadelphia, and Boston (and arguably Baltimore) are the only one that were large, important cities then and are still large, important cities now.

	RyanUR:	Feb 23rd, 2011 at 00:14 GMT		23 points
	Why does typing in "Newport" give you Newport News? No one calls it that.

	pirate6711:	Feb 23rd, 2011 at 00:22 GMT		7 points
	Good quiz. I agree with what HoundDog and NoVan have said.

	tnty4life:	Feb 23rd, 2011 at 00:38 GMT		-3 points
	To think I'd enjoy a city quiz without NY as number one...

	singin185:	Feb 23rd, 2011 at 00:49 GMT		5 points
	I think the source of the quiz makes it clear that it refers to current cities which once sat on colonial land. Since they use 2009 data, they obviously want current cities. Since Washington is a qualifying city (with a population of over 100,000 in 2009), and sits on land that was once part of Maryland, it should be included. To try not to include it is really splitting hairs.

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	phildm:	Feb 23rd, 2011 at 02:22 GMT		10 points
	I started this quiz thinking it was like 1790 census or something. Then I saw the 8 million. lol

	EatMorePossum:	Feb 23rd, 2011 at 03:12 GMT		13 points
	AUGH!! MODERN DAY cities! I was thinking in colonial terms! Guess I ought to read the rules. I was wondering why Washington, DC was there ...

	jefe_:	Feb 23rd, 2011 at 03:48 GMT		5 points
	@Hejman: I went to Mt. Vernon yesterday to celebrate Presidents Day, and I proudly wore my tricorne, which, incidentally, I got from Washington University, my alma mater.

	Discriminate:	Feb 23rd, 2011 at 07:43 GMT		3 points
	I spent about a minute trying to spell Worcester, I thought there was an 'h' somewhere in there. Good quiz.

	Uhlan:	Feb 23rd, 2011 at 09:30 GMT		15 points
	Loads of these (Norfolk, Durham, Worcester, [New] York) are based on British towns. The settlers clearly didn't have a great deal of imagination. 'We Puritans have finally escaped from English oppression... any ideas for a name for our settlement?' 'How about the place we just left?' 'Yeah alright, Boston it is'.

	Statto2:	Feb 23rd, 2011 at 19:10 GMT		6 points
	singin185 - I think your opening sentence should read "I think the source of the quiz makes it clear that it refers to current cities which sit on what once was colonial land." As you have put it cities that didn't exist before independence would be excluded e.g. Washington.

	singin185:	Feb 23rd, 2011 at 22:27 GMT		2 points
	@Statto2: Right. What you said.

	feste26:	Feb 23rd, 2011 at 22:37 GMT		4 points
	Does this account for the fact that many western borders of what we think of as these states didn't look the same?

	Spaceman5:	Feb 24th, 2011 at 00:30 GMT		4 points
	Good job!

	csjoholm:	Feb 24th, 2011 at 02:42 GMT		3 points
	If you wanted to be really clever, you could add Cleveland, OH - it was part of Connecticut's Western Reserve. This would apply to other cities as well, as some of the colonies claimed land stretching west to the Mississippi River. I'm not suggesting you do that, mind you... :-)

	mellybmel:	Feb 24th, 2011 at 05:38 GMT		3 points
	Great quiz! Thanks for the brain stretch.

	Rusty_Synapses:	Feb 24th, 2011 at 23:58 GMT		-1 points
	Echoing csjoholm - I don't think it was just Connecticut - I think most colonies extended westward from their current borders -(so that, for example, North Carolina didn't stop at what is now Tennessee?) - so it can't be "Cities presently located on the land of those original colonies"

	dragon52:	Feb 27th, 2011 at 23:34 GMT		-1 points
	love the red whit blue format cause its like the usa flag

	koolgi125:	Mar 8th, 2011 at 20:06 GMT		3 points
	Like the quiz a lot.

	Esme:	May 15th, 2011 at 15:42 GMT		1 point
	Interesting to see that half of the cities the majority of quiz-takers get right have populations of <315,000, yet only a quarter of people get Virginia Beach, which has a population of 433,575. Looking at the results, we're apparently thinking in terms of historical importance, not size. Huge Northern bias at the moment as well.

	cantthinkofaname:	May 18th, 2011 at 21:58 GMT		8 points
	Don't accept Newport for Newport News. It's like accepting Charlotte for Charlottesville. Don't take Winston for Winston-Salem either.

	Blowfish_Hootie:	May 20th, 2011 at 14:39 GMT		2 points
	@Esme: The only reason people seem to be getting the cities of less than 315,000 at a high rate is because more than 80 percent of the cities on the quiz have fewer than 315,000 people.