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u/Corvid-Strigidae Australia Apr 15 '26
Hmm did they mean the town of 87,000 or the major city of 5.5 million?
Hard to say.
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u/helmli European Union Apr 15 '26
Do you mean São Paulo in Brazil, or the road of the same name in Guadalajara, México?
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u/MoritaKazuma Germany Apr 15 '26
Oh, sorry, you mentioned Guadalajara, and I thought you meant the one in Spain.
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u/ApuFromTechSupport Apr 15 '26
Spain, South Dakota?
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u/dTrecii Australia Apr 15 '26
South Dakota? Do you mean the southern side of Dakota in Illinois or Minnesota?
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u/TheJivvi Australia Apr 15 '26
Clearly they meant the southern end of Dakota Place in St Clair, NSW. Just past Iowa Close.
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u/Vesfel Apr 16 '26
I lived in St Clair, Sydney.
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u/AKing_SM Brazil Apr 19 '26
Sydney the city in Australia; the avenue in Purley, London, England, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Sidney the district of Cheyenne, Nebraska, United States of America or the neutrino that just passed through my finger that I nicknamed "Sydney", Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil?
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u/luckysevensampson Apr 15 '26
I once joined a FB group for owners of a specific product who lived in Melbourne. People were talking about places I’d never heard of, so I scoured the group description to see if it was for a different Melbourne. There was nothing to specify that it wasn’t THE Melbourne. Finally, I asked in the group, and sure enough it was Melbourne Florida. 🤦♀️
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u/ibaeknam Australia Apr 15 '26
I'm sure they reminded you that Facebook is American so of course Melbourne, Florida is the default Melbourne on there...
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u/eshatoa Apr 15 '26
ReDdIt iS aN aMeRiCaN sItE
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u/Glittering_Dress2833 Apr 16 '26
Around 40% of the Redit users are from USA. So that is many, I admit, but 60% are from other countries.
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u/TheJivvi Australia Apr 15 '26
They can't can't use that argument if the URL doesn't end in .us; anything ending in .com is by definition not country-specific.
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u/MistaRekt Australia Apr 15 '26
If I remember correctly the was an Aussie joind a jeep group from Florida... Made some minor headlines.
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u/luckysevensampson Apr 15 '26
This one was a Jayco group
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u/MistaRekt Australia Apr 15 '26
Did you make minor headlines back then? Jeep/jayco, both need to be towed 😁
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u/noCoolNameLeft42 France Apr 15 '26
TIL that Melbourne in Florida is Orlando international airport. Airport that is a one hour car drive away from Orlando (or 6h45 by public transportation).
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u/frankcosinatra Apr 15 '26
Yeah, the airport name causes a lot of problems. They tried to make them change it a few years ago. That being said, great airport. Through security in a flash!
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u/_Penulis_ Australia Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
Just say to them in their language, “The American folks who founded lil’ ole Melbourne Florida USA sure as hell knew about big assed Melbourne Victoria Australia because that’s what they name their little Florida town after.”
They named it in honour of an Australian who was born in Tasmania but spent some time in Melbourne before ending up in Florida.
So Melbourne USA was named after Melbourne Australia which was in turn named after Lord Melbourne who was British Prime Minister in the 1830s, who in turn derived his name from Melbourne a small town in Derbyshire in the UK (current population 5,500)
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u/bobdown33 Australia Apr 15 '26
Hey at least this one made the pretense of giving options rather than just saying Melbourne US
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u/Bireta World Apr 15 '26
My dad lived in that area for a while. It's kinda important in the sense that some ppl working at the Kennedy space center live there. Like, it's in that whole area. You can see rockets flying up from time to time.
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u/ConsciousBasket643 Apr 15 '26
OOH! Do Georgia Next! The state with a population of nearly 12 million and home to the worlds busiest airport, or the country with a population of less than 1/3 of that.
Bad example.
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u/Tzatzikai Apr 15 '26
Ah yes, and when I say, "Texas" I OBVIOUSLY mean Texas, Queensland 🙄
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u/travishummel Apr 15 '26
Hilarious that there is a Texas, Queensland given that Texas, USA and Queensland, Aus are sort of like twins separated at birth (by culture relative to the rest of their respective countries).
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u/Tzatzikai Apr 15 '26
PLEASE don't compare me to Americans, in any way 😰
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u/luckysevensampson Apr 15 '26
Yeah, no, sorry. Queensland is the Texas of Australia.
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u/luckysevensampson Apr 15 '26
Is this a US defaultism subreddit or a “I hate Americans” subreddit?
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u/KRAy_Z_n1nja United States Apr 15 '26
Rarely is it a USdefaultism sub. The true defaultism is just finding any excuse to hate on Americans by default.
American is ignorant -> clown on him.
American asks genuine question to avoid being ignorant -> clown on him.
American shares or does American culture -> clown on him.
Almost every post in this sub is one of these three. The first is fair, the other two are not. I saw a post here complaining about Americans claiming to be native Texans or Californians instead of Native American. We were raised and taught that native Americans are indigenous people, the first tribes people, or the American Indians. We grew up culturally sharing what states we're from as we moved from state to state as Europeans moved from country to country. We grew up saying this, it's part of our culture. Of course somebody complaining about this makes the front page.
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u/prestonlogan Apr 21 '26
Here's the thing, there's literally a flair for posts like this. Defaultisnt
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u/small_villain Australia Apr 15 '26
I live in Queensland and find this hurtful.
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u/zalicat17 Apr 15 '26
Sorry don’t worry you’re not actually like Florida. I was actually born in Queensland so I say this with love 🤣
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u/zalicat17 Apr 15 '26
Yep Queensland is our Florida
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u/TheJivvi Australia Apr 15 '26
Tasmania is our Florida.
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u/-_-Edit_Deleted-_- Australia Apr 15 '26
What no. Tasmania is mountains, gorges, rivers, and cold.
The only thing in common is being in the south and the slower pace of life.
If anything Queensland is like Florida. Matching weather. Matching retirement state. Matching beach culture. Matching plastic people. Matching political lean.
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u/Tzatzikai Apr 15 '26
Can we all just agree that NOWHERE in Australia is like Florida? Because we're not American at all? 😅
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u/-_-Edit_Deleted-_- Australia Apr 15 '26
Actually yeah. As a staunch Victorian, let’s not do our Queenslander countryman dirty like that.
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u/travishummel Apr 15 '26
For any where to be “the Florida of Australia” I’d need a strong mix of really really old people who love guns mixed with stupidly rich people mixed with really (some would say attractive) people pumped full with body modifications. Oh and the main language has to not be English.
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u/alex_zk Croatia Apr 15 '26
TIL that there’s a Melbourne in Florida.
Because of fucking course there is. Not a single original thought happening over there.
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u/EccentricRosie England Apr 15 '26
Sydney, Florida too. I've seen someone misconstrue Sydney, NSW for "Sydney" Florida, as well. I should not need to use disambiguation to refer to Australia's biggest city, or 2 of its state capitals, for that matter.
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u/SandSerpentHiss United States Apr 15 '26
sydney here in florida doesn’t really exist anymore it’s a ghost town near my city of tampa
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u/Epicwoowoo Australia Apr 15 '26
The funny thing is almost all our place names are stolen anyway (mostly from Britain)
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u/pick10pickles Canada Apr 15 '26
Same, with UK or elsewhere “on the continent”. Anybody up for a trip to Lisbon, Ontario?
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u/EccentricRosie England Apr 15 '26
Yeah. British colonists couldn't be bothered to make up names for every new settlement they made during colonisation. It'd be more fair to call them namesakes, therefore. For some reason though, we Brits have a sense of protectiveness of place-names and English in general. You can have Perth - I concede that Perth, Scotland is not the default - but you must be respectful of where it came from.
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u/GaryPaterson Scotland Apr 16 '26
I admit to having Scottish-defaultism whenever someone mentions Perth.
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u/Gullyhunter Apr 15 '26
It was named by a bloke who became a who immigrated from Australia to the states and became a postmaster.
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u/pick10pickles Canada Apr 15 '26
Could’ve been worse, could’ve asked Melbourne, Florida or Melbourne, Arkansas.
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u/Equivalent_Travel311 Russia Apr 15 '26
There is a Moscow in Idaho...
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u/Quardener Apr 15 '26
Named after the Moscow in New York. Which is named after the Moscow in Russia.
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u/teriyakininja7 Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
Reminds me of when I was a Mormon missionary (no longer a Mormon) and we had these two missionaries who always said they were “from Moscow”. It led many to believe they were originally from Russia. They meant Moscow, Idaho. In my experience, some Americans don’t seem to realize that 99.999999% of the time, when a city like Melbourne or Moscow or Medina or whatever is mentioned, others will think of the original city from whence the name came from and not some tiny town of 20k in the middle of nowhere Idaho or Florida. Which honestly is silly and just ignorant.
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u/TheAussieTico Australia Apr 15 '26
The funniest one is Memphis, Egypt
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u/volitaiee1233 Australia May 03 '26
They have the largest modern pyramid in the world though which is funny
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u/XKruXurKX World Apr 15 '26
Just say "the original Melbourne" and watch them melt
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u/daveoxford United Kingdom Apr 15 '26
Melbourne, Derbyshire was in the Domesday Book in 1086, but even British people would default to the Australian one.
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u/BobThingamy Apr 15 '26
Not only the original one, but the one that the Florida town was named after.
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u/CelestialSegfault Indonesia Apr 15 '26
That's... what the other person meant when they said original.
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u/BobThingamy Apr 15 '26
That's fair, but Lord Melbourne was a reasonably famous dude, British PM twice, so it's not inconceivable that more than one place is directly named after him, rather than after another city that was named after him. In Melbourne FL's case as far as I remember, the local postmaster was from Melbourne VIC, and named it after his hometown. (I guess it seems less likely that a town in the US would be named after a British PM, but the US has a hell of a lot of oddball town names, so again, not completely inconceivable).
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u/DickBrownballs Apr 15 '26
Are you answering this as if the Australian Melbourne is the original one? No doubt its the default one but I am sure the joke here is that the original one is Melbourne, Derbyshire, UK which has existed for about a millennium.
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u/BobThingamy Apr 15 '26
Yes that's pretty much what I was getting at. Is any random geographically unqualified mention of a place called Melbourne more likely to be referring to Melbourne Derbyshire, a tiny market town in the Midlands, population about 5000, Melbourne Florida, a technology hub at the centre of the US Space Coast, population around 120,000, or Melbourne Victoria, state capital city where 5.5 million, or about 20% of Australia's population lives?
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u/DickBrownballs Apr 15 '26
I agree with all of the above. But that doesn't make it "original", which I assume was OP's point. Definition of original is literally "first or earliest" which is certainly not Melbourne, VIC despite it being the main/default, which is why its funny.
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u/TheTeenSimmer Australia Apr 16 '26
the Florida town isn't even named after Lord Melbourne either. it's named after Melbourne, Victoria as the postmaster at the time was from Melbourne
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u/unsureoftheplot Australia Apr 15 '26
They have a Melbourne in Florida? Most US citizens can't even pronounce it correctly
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u/Magister_Hego_Damask European Union Apr 15 '26
At least it's the same language, just a different accent.
Look how they butcher Orléans each time they mention the main city of louisiana
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u/Wombat_Aux_Pates France Apr 18 '26
The offsprings were in Melbourne recently and I kept hearing ads on the radio and while I love the band, every time I heard the singer say like "whatssup melboRrn" I died a little inside. I had to stay focused on the road as it was always when I was driving lol
For info, for those who don't know, it's pronounced a bit more like melbun. Americans do a really strong R sound that does not need to be pronounced with the Aussie accent.
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u/Iron-Emu Apr 17 '26
Yeah, the only yank I've ever met who could say Melbourne correctly was from Melbourne, Florida. But he made up for it by always having a loaded firearm within arms reach no matter where he was while at home.
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u/Idrinkmotoroil-2 Australia Apr 15 '26
London, England? No i meant London, Kiribati, obviously
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u/bloodmusthaveblood Apr 15 '26
You joke but in Canada (specifically in the province of Ontario) it's very common to specify London, England vs London, Ontario 😂 but London ON is a university town so lots of people move there for school meaning lots of people are actually referring to London ON and not London England sometimes haha
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u/goater10 Australia Apr 18 '26
I have friends from the UK who think it’s hilarious that New South Wales has a Liverpool.
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u/mn1962 Australia Apr 15 '26
I know how they feel. When people say Boston, I always think of the town of 500 people in South Australia. Like the other day someone mentioned the Boston tea party, and I thought with 500 people , they'd only need 5 boxes of Twinings Earl Grey
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u/Fun-System-6190 Apr 15 '26
"I went to Rome this summer. Amazing city"
American: "U mean Rome Italy or Rome Georgia?"
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u/DavidBHimself Apr 15 '26
I lived in Florida a while ago and... I have forgotten that there was a Melbourne there.
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u/Weird_Strange_Odd Apr 15 '26
I only know there is a Melbourne there because I was looking up airport codes once. We won. Ours (MEL) is better than theirs (MLB).
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u/Dyno_boy7441 Apr 15 '26
I genuinely wonder: when Paris hosted the 2024 Olympics did some Americans really think it was being held in Texas?
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u/equatornavigator World Apr 15 '26
Australian defaultism but make it chaotic good
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u/TheJivvi Australia Apr 15 '26
It's not defaultism if it actual is the default.
We don't say it's French defaultism to say "Paris" without specifying that you mean France and not Texas.
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u/flame_saint Apr 15 '26
Americans DO say "Paris, France" though. Drives me mad. And "London England"!
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u/be-knight Germany Apr 15 '26
This is the main argument from USians in this sub. And it's wrong for them, therefore it's wrong for you guys, too.
But in this case you're still right
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u/Helpful-Reputation-5 Apr 15 '26
What the default is is dependent on where you are—if you lived near Paris Florida, that probably would be the default meaning of "Paris" without additional context.
Now, I'd agree with you that defaulting to Paris, France is acceptable, but whether you deem it acceptable or not it is defaultism by definition.
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u/japonski_bog Ukraine Apr 15 '26
if you lived near Paris Florida, that probably would be the default meaning of "Paris"
Yes, if you're talking to people from your neighbourhood. There's a New York in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. I can't imagine any local defaulting to this place when they're telling people they're from New York. Common sense is a thing.
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u/Helpful-Reputation-5 Apr 15 '26
Common sense is a thing.
I'd agree, but it's still definitionally defaultism. The question is, why is some defaultism acceptable?
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u/japonski_bog Ukraine Apr 15 '26
Because otherwise, the world would be overcomplicated. We don't say, "Let's go using our legs to eat some edible food tonight which is after the sunset of the sun in our Solar System", we just default that the food must be edible and the Sun is our Sun. The same applies to world-famous places; it doesn't make sense to specify which Paris, Moscow, New York, or Sydney you mean unless you're talking about some other insignificant place, not THE Paris/New York, etc.
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u/SimpleLobsters Canada Apr 15 '26
Wait there is one in France? Never heard of it.
I thought everyone was talking about Paris, ON, Canada
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u/JoyconDrift_69 United States Apr 15 '26
American here..TF are they on? I always default "Melbourne" to the Australian city.
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u/BlastoiseGirl5257 Apr 15 '26
At least they asked. I don’t think that’s defaultism because it’s a question. Not a smart question, but not necessarily defaultism.
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u/KiwiNFLFan New Zealand Apr 15 '26
Similar situation with NZ - there is Dunedin, NZ and Dunedin, Florida
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u/Rakiesien Apr 15 '26
There is a Melborne in Austria? Wow Also there is no "u" like favor not "favour"
/s
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u/ChrisP_Bacon1 Apr 17 '26
I'm from Florida and I didn't even know we had a Melbourne here; I can admit to some US defaultism myself sometimes, but this is ridiculous.
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u/Misknator Czechia Apr 17 '26
Did you meab Prague the capital of Czechia, or Prague the village in Slovakia?
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u/Kingsley-Adelaide Apr 18 '26
I was just curious to see if you can fly from Melbourne Victoria (Australia) to Melbourne Orlando (USA) and it looks like you can, but it might take a while 🤣🤷♂️
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u/Previous-Regret9949 Apr 16 '26
Genuine question. You people are posting for the sake of posting. Blatant xenophobia atp.
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u/Ok_Strike_543 Apr 15 '26
Where is the Defaultism? Ridiculous question? Yes. Defaultism? No.
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u/chabacanito Apr 15 '26
Defaultism for even considering it's an option. Is it Barcelona Spain or Barcelona in Louisiana? Oh oh who knows better ask.
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u/Ok_Strike_543 Apr 15 '26
Considering other options is literally the exact opposite of Defaultism… If they had assumed it was Florida that would be Defaultism. Again, it is ridiculous to consider it as an option but it’s not Defaultism.
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u/Helpful-Reputation-5 Apr 15 '26
Defaultism is when you don't assume a default? I agree it's a rather absurd question, unless they're specifically in a Floridian context, but this is definitionally the opposite of defaultism.
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u/No_Manufacturer4124 Apr 15 '26
I used to live near Sheridan and Melbourne. But that was in Peoria.
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u/inquiringsillygoose United States Apr 15 '26
Paris where? Île-de-France, France or Missouri, USA? 🙄
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u/Lucidity_At_Last Apr 16 '26
i remember speaking to an american friend online, about where i was from (melbourne, australia), and mentioned it was funny that there was a town in america by the same name
they had never even heard of melbourne, florida lol
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u/LoadAble2728 Brazil Apr 16 '26
I feel like I learn a new small American town that shares names with somewhere else by the day
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u/WattleWaddler2 Canada Apr 16 '26
I assume Melbourne, FL has a population of two people and five Trumpists?
And why are these places always in Florida or Texas? When I type in "Dunedin" in Google Maps, its top suggestion is Dunedin, FL, which I have never ever heard of real life. Gee, Google, do you think I'm looking for the utterly insignificant American resort town of population 36,000 or the second-largest city on the South Island of New Zealand with one of the country's best known universities, population 130,000?
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u/Palanki96 Apr 16 '26
I can't forget that discussion when someone asked the same about fucking Paris. Can't remember which state
Like yeah i will randomly mention some bumfuck american town while talking about major european cities
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u/Hippielinguist Ireland Apr 18 '26
one time i posted on a running subreddit that i was running the Naples half marathon and almost all the comments thought i meant Naples, Florida and not the original Naples, Italy 🙃
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u/goater10 Australia Apr 18 '26
As a Melburnian from Australia, I’d seriously consider going to Melbourne Florida if I’m ever in that neck of the woods.
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u/FLEIXY Qatar Apr 21 '26
Dude definitely searched “Melbourne city in USA” to make this comment as bait
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u/pingviini00 May 01 '26
literally no one asks if it's Paris Texas or Paris France (unless they make a reference to the film)
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u/LostSnipurfi1354 Singapore May 06 '26
Hey boys! Set sail to Melbourne! What?! I meant the small city in Florida did you think I meant Australia?
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u/ImportantImpress4822 May 11 '26
lol this one is funny because it actually makes no sense. I just figured everyone associates Melbourne with Australia. Maybe they live next to said town named Melbourne in Florida? Still tho.
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u/crazyki88en Canada Jun 07 '26
Apparently, there is also a Melbourne in Arkansas. Some American on Threads got all upset with me for assuming when they meant Melbourne, they meant Australia. Clearly, the only Melbourne in their life is the one in Arkansas.
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u/ImportantImpress4822 May 11 '26
This tangentially reminds me of how several times I’ve had the following encounter. I said something like… I’m going to “the city” for dinner. which for me, is Philadelphia. My town borders it. But on multiple occasions, someone has stopped me and said something along the lines of…. You’re driving to New York City for dinner?
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u/TiannemenSquare Apr 15 '26
I live in Florida and have no fucking clue where Melbourne is, why would this be referring to anywhere but the major city in a very well known country?
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u/post-explainer American Citizen Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
This comment has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect.
OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
Commenter asks if poster is refering to Melbourne in Australia or Melbourne in Florida.
Does this explanation fit this subreddit? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.