I'd argue the majority of English-based naming though are in the original 13 colonies and were named prior to 1776. Having lived on both coasts, it sure seems that is the case.
A lot of the other places are likely due to later immigrants building their own communities west of those colonies, and then there are a lot of coincidences as well.
And then there's a ton of cities named after Bible references.
US did it with a whole country named after a continent. What's your country? those states who decided to unite. Which ones? The ones of America. Ah those ones.
Europeans love to point that stuff out. They always say it with this sort of relish like 'you call yourselves Americans, but isn't that the continent name?'
What the alternative, Statesians? US American? Who do they think named it anyway? It's not like we just made the call - it was their anscestors as much as mine who did it!
The Dutch "lost" New York to the English. They surrendered when a large force of Englishmen demanded the surrender of the city. It had been awarded to the Duke of York. Hence the name.
Joke can be equally made with Native American names, especially Michigan which is named from Algonquin word "Mishigamaw," meaning “big lake” or “great water,” deriving its name from the lake of the same name.
What's always seemed so strange to me is how common the amount of vehicles that steal indigenous names from various places.
Cherokee (car and a plane)
Comanche
Tacoma
Cheyenne
Dakota
Taos
Pontiac (entire company)
Winnebago
Touareg
Indian (motorcycles)
Aztek
Chieftain
Star Chief
Super Chief
Thunderbird
Chief
Scout
Dark Horse
Qashqai
Oroch
Black Hawk
Chinook
Apache
These are all brand names, names of cars, motorhomes, motorcycles, military vehicles, etc. Apparently decades ago, the manufacturers didn't even shy from how these were named, and there were a lot of questionable ads.
A lot of the Seattle area has retained its original indigenous names... Seattle itself was the name of the local chief, Tukwila, Sammamish, Issaquah, Tacoma, Puyallup, Snoqualmie.
I live in New England, USA. I was talking with a Brit about the British show The Archers. The Brit asked me whether I could tell which places were made up for the show and which were real. I told him that if I new a place in New England named something, it was probably a real place in the UK.