I started noticing the word “Oregon” the way you notice a song lyric once you’ve learned it: suddenly it’s everywhere, and not always where you expect it to be. This page is a travelogue of real-world Oregons: the famous one, the older one that was bigger than the famous one, the smaller ones that borrowed the name, and the far-flung ones where “Oregon” survives as a park sign or a hill on a map.
# How the name travels
The biggest Oregon (the U.S. state) tends to act like the source, even when it isn’t. Once a name becomes an idea, it starts reproducing: settlers reuse it, developers borrow it, councils approve it, and eventually you get an Oregon that has never seen the Pacific but still feels confident about the word.
The origin of the name “Oregon” itself has been debated, which makes the name even more portable, because nobody can fully close the case on what it “really” means - oregonencyclopedia.org 
# Oregon as a state
The Oregon most people mean is the U.S. state on the Pacific Northwest corner of the map, defined in the popular imagination by coastline, forests, mountains, and that particular kind of rain that feels like it has opinions - en.wikipedia.org
When you compare other Oregons to this one, you usually end up comparing them to an image (a vibe, a climate, a cultural export) as much as a jurisdiction, which is why “Oregon” spreads so easily as a name.
# Oregon before Oregon was a state
Before Oregon was neatly a state, there was “Oregon Country,” a much larger, historically disputed region in the Pacific Northwest that different empires tried to describe, claim, and negotiate into lines - en.wikipedia.org
In my head, Oregon Country is the “mythic Oregon”: the one that makes later Oregons feel like fragments of a bigger story, even if they’re just a suburb with a great logo.
# Oregon City
Inside the state, there’s an Oregon that sounds like it’s bragging: Oregon City. It’s been framed as the “end of the Oregon Trail” and carries a kind of foundational seriousness in its name, like a plaque that decided to become a town - en.wikipedia.org
If the state is the brand, Oregon City is the origin story chapter that people keep citing when they want Oregon to feel historical, not just scenic.
# Oregon, Ohio
Then you meet Oregon, Ohio, and the name does a quick costume change. This Oregon sits by Lake Erie, a suburb of Toledo with its own motto and municipal confidence, and it proves the name doesn’t require mountains to function - en.wikipedia.org
This is the first “borrowed Oregon” that made me realize the word can mean “place we chose” as much as “place on the Pacific.”
# Oregon, Wisconsin
Oregon, Wisconsin reads like a quieter echo: a village near Madison that feels midwestern in scale and rhythm, where “Oregon” is less destination and more address, but still perfectly proud of itself - en.wikipedia.org
If Oregon, Ohio feels like a city that happens to be called Oregon, Oregon, Wisconsin feels like a community that decided the name sounded sturdy.
# Oregon, Illinois
Oregon, Illinois is smaller again, and the name lands in a different register: county seat, river valley, downtown, local identity that isn’t trying to compete with the state so much as borrow a little of its poetry - en.wikipedia.org
This is where I start thinking of “Oregon” as a kind of aspirational weather, even when the forecast disagrees.
# Oregon, Nova Scotia
Outside the U.S., the first Oregon I like to point at is Oregon, Nova Scotia, a small community on Cape Breton Island. It’s an Oregon that feels like it should come with a lighthouse and a story you hear twice, once in winter and once in summer - en.wikipedia.org
This Oregon matters because it proves the name crossed borders not as a state export, but as a human habit.
# Oregon Jack Hill
Canada also has Oregon as a map fact, not a town: Oregon Jack Hill in British Columbia, recorded as an official geographical name. It’s the kind of Oregon you don’t “visit” so much as “notice,” like a label that exists for hikers, surveyors, and people who love the precision of coordinates - toponymes.rncan.gc.ca
If Oregon, Nova Scotia is a living community, Oregon Jack Hill is Oregon as cartography: the name doing its job, quietly.
# Oregon Place Reserve
Australia’s Oregon that I can point to cleanly is Oregon Place Reserve in New South Wales, where the name shows up as a public space rather than a municipality. This is “Oregon” as suburban planning: a reserved patch of green with a name that gestures outward - centralcoast.nsw.gov.au
It’s a reminder that the international Oregons are often the smallest, tucked into street names, parks, and local signage, where the word is more souvenir than claim.
# Comparing the Oregons The state of Oregon feels like a landscape-first Oregon, while Oregon Country feels like a history-first Oregon. The midwestern Oregons feel like settlement-first Oregons: places where the name is chosen rather than inherited. Oregon City is Oregon as origin, Oregon, Ohio is Oregon as civic branding, Oregon, Wisconsin is Oregon as neighborhood identity, and Oregon, Illinois is Oregon as county-seat practicality. Canada’s Oregons feel like the “edge cases” that make the set feel real: a small community, a named hill, a reminder that names travel by people and paperwork as much as by geography.
# See If you want to keep collecting them, see Oregon Country for the older, larger framing Oregon, and Oregon US State for the big one that most of the others keep being compared to.