Vasco da Gama was the first European to reach India by sea, arriving on the shores of the subcontinent in 1499. About 45 years later, the city of Vasco da Gama was founded in Goa, a small state on the country's southwestern coast, and was named in honor of the Portuguese explorer. Today, the city of Vasco da Gama is a major naval center and a busy port.

.Regina — the capital of Canada’s Saskatchewan province — was originally a hunters’ camp named Pile O’Bones, in reference to the buffalo remains left there. When the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived in 1882, the settlement was renamed Regina, Latin for “queen” and a reference to Queen Victoria. In 1905, the city became the capital of the new province of Saskatchewan.

North Dakota’s capital was originally named Edwinton in 1872, but a year later was renamed after Otto von Bismarck, the founder and first chancellor of the German Empire. Bismarck is the only state capital named after a foreign statesman. The name change was strategic: Local officials were hoping to attract both German investment in the nascent railway and German settlers to the area.

After the U.S. banned trade with Great Britain and France in 1807, Jean Lafitte gained notoriety as a smuggler in the swamps of Louisiana. But during the War of 1812, he became something of a war hero due to his crucial support during the Battle of New Orleans. That battlefield and the swamps of Barataria are both part of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve today.

The U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) is a U.S. territory in the Caribbean; the city of Charlotte Amalie is its capital. Located on the island of St. Thomas, Charlotte Amalie was founded in 1672 as a Danish colony, named for the then-queen of Denmark. Today, it's not only the capital of the USVI but also the largest city in all of the Virgin Islands, including the neighboring British Virgin Islands.

The Marshall Islands were named in 1788 by British Naval Captain John William Marshall, who sailed through the area on his way to New South Wales, Australia. Located around halfway between Australia and Hawaii in the western Pacific, the islands have around 68,000 residents. The territory is home to the famous Bikini Atoll, which was once an American atomic test site.

Early settlers chose a site along the Ohio River to establish Marietta, the first permanent settlement in Ohio. It was named in honor of Marie Antoinette, the notorious Queen of France, as the French allies were instrumental in the American Revolution. It quickly became a major trading center of the Northwest Territory and later Ohio. Today, Marietta is home to about 14,000 people, its historic charm intact.

When Europeans arrived in the area near Puget Sound and Elliott Bay in 1850, they were greeted by Chief Seattle of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. The settlers would ultimately name the city “Seattle” in his honor. Chief Seattle integrated aspects of European culture into his own, adopting Catholicism from Jesuit missionaries. Chief Seattle died near his namesake city on June 7, 1866.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was a legendary Roman leader and military hero in the 5th century BCE. In 1783, a group of Revolutionary War military officers founded the Society of the Cincinnati, named for the Roman hero. In 1790, Northwestern Territory Governor Arthur St. Clair (a member of the society) decided to bestow the name of Cincinnati upon a burgeoning settlement on the Ohio River, which had previously been called Losantiville.

In 1521, the Philippines were claimed by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who was sailing for the Kingdom of Spain and decided to name the archipelago Las Felipinas, after King Philip II. Over the course of many years and many conflicts, the Philippines became a fully independent nation by 1946, retaining its royal moniker.

Known for its fairytale-like castles and iconic festivals such as Oktoberfest, Bavaria is Germany’s oldest and largest state. The Bavarian city of Augsburg claims the title of the oldest city in the region (and the second-oldest city in Germany overall). Augsburg was founded in 15 BCE and named after Emperor Augustus, the first emperor of Rome.

Located in the North Dakota badlands, Theodore Roosevelt National Park spreads across more than 70,000 acres, with the Little Missouri River flowing through it. Buffalo roam the park’s Great Plains, the Scenic Loop Drive crosses breathtaking overlooks and opens up to numerous hiking trails, and tourists can visit the house in which Roosevelt himself once lived.

The arm of the British Empire reaches far, and there is no better example than Queen Victoria’s influence on places names around the world. Queen Victoria sat on the throne from 1837 to 1901, during which time the British Empire doubled in size — and places named Victoria popped up on all seven continents, from Victoria, British Columbia, to Victoria Falls, a waterfall on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Missouri’s only national forest is named for one of the most famous Missourians. Mark Twain National Forest covers approximately 1.5 million acres of land in and around the Ozark Mountains, in the central and southern parts of the state. While the park is home to a number of notable springs, caverns, and volcanic mountains, it was never home to Mark Twain.

Named after the apostle, Saint Petersburg was founded in 1703. But during World War I, officials thought the name sounded too German, so they renamed it Petrograd. Just 10 years later, in 1924, officials again renamed the city Leningrad to honor the Bolshevik leader after his death. Finally, in 1991, residents voted in a citywide referendum to restore the city’s original name to Saint Petersburg.

Only four state capitals are named after former Presidents. Lincoln, Nebraska, is named for Abraham Lincoln; Madison, Wisconsin, for James Madison; Jackson, Mississippi, for Andrew Jackson; and Jefferson City, Missouri, for Thomas Jefferson. In addition, two national capitals are named for American presidents – Washington, D.C., is of course named for George Washington, while Monrovia, Liberia, is named for James Monroe.

Though we typically just call it Bolivia, the official name of the South American country is the Plurinational State of Bolivia. The well-known part of the name comes from Simón Bolívar, a Venezuelan soldier and politician who played a significant role in South America’s fight for independence from Spain in the early 1800s. When the republic of Bolivia was created in 1825, it was thus named in his honor.

Darwin famously solidified his theory of evolution during his 1835 visit to the Galapagos Islands. That makes it perfectly natural that one of the islands would be named for him. Darwin Island, also known as Isla Darwinia, gets a bit of a geological bonus too, with a rock feature known as Darwin’s Arch. The stone arch has become one of the iconic features of the Galapagos, along with the finches and tortoises.

Henrietta Maria, the wife of King Charles I of England, never actually set foot in Maryland during her life in the 17th century. But her husband provided the name for the future U.S. state when he granted a land charter to George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, in 1632.

America’s greatest inventor fine-tuned many of his most famous inventions — from the motion picture camera to the phonograph and the electric storage battery — in New Jersey. He worked at a 12-building laboratory complex in the Menlo Park section of Edison Township from 1886 until his death in 1931. Formerly known as Raritan Township, Edison Township was renamed in his honor in 1954.