I used to think “Portland” was a single city with a single personality. Then I started noticing how often the name shows up, like a stamp passed from hand to hand: ports, peninsulas, limestone, lumber, and one very stubborn habit of naming places after other places.
This page is a narrative list of real-world Portlands, and the ways they rhyme without actually being the same word in the same mouth - en.wikipedia.org 
# Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon is the Portland that behaves like a global reference point: the one people assume you mean, and the one other Portlands get compared to whether they like it or not - wikipedia
This Portland is river-and-bridges urban, a city whose identity is famously tangled up with culture, planning, and a certain creative self-mythology, which is exactly the kind of thing that turns a place-name into an export.
# Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine is a waterfront Portland in the older, Atlantic sense: a peninsula city in Casco Bay that feels maritime first, city second, and very comfortable with weather as a personality trait - wikipedia
If Portland, Oregon is “Portland as brand,” Portland, Maine is “Portland as working harbor memory,” even when it’s being enjoyed as a beautiful weekend city.
# Portland, Dorset
In England, Portland is not just a town-name but an island-name: the Isle of Portland, a tied island off Dorset linked to the mainland by Chesil Beach, with cliffs, quarries, and a very specific coastal seriousness - wikipedia
This Portland feels like the deep root the others could have sprouted from: older geography, older stone, and a sense that “Portland” can be a whole landform, not just a dot on a road sign.
# Portland, Victoria
In Australia, Portland, Victoria sits on Portland Bay and is often described as the oldest European settlement in the state of Victoria, which gives it a “first chapter” energy in local history - en.wikipedia.org
Compared to the two big U.S. Portlands, this one reads as “Portland as coastal town and port,” where the sea is not scenery but structure.
# Portland, New South Wales
Also in Australia, Portland in New South Wales is a smaller inland Portland in the Central Tablelands, notable for being named after Australia’s first cement works, which is a very different origin story than “harbor town” - wikipedia
This Portland is useful as a reminder that the name can arrive via industry and institutions, not just via water.
# Portland, Jamaica
Then there’s Portland as a whole region: Portland Parish on Jamaica’s northeast coast, with Port Antonio as its capital, and a reputation shaped by coastline, mountains, and rural character rather than a single city core - wikipedia
This is “Portland as jurisdiction,” where the name is less about one skyline and more about a stretch of place with many local identities inside it.
# Comparing the Portlands
The two most famous Portlands (Oregon and Maine) are both water-adjacent and historically port-shaped, but they face different oceans, carry different climates, and project different myths: one is a big-city cultural shorthand, the other a maritime city with an older coastal cadence.
Portland in Dorset feels like Portland as geology. Portland in Victoria feels like Portland as settlement-history. Portland in New South Wales feels like Portland as industry. Portland Parish feels like Portland as region.
If you want a quick “which Portland am I in?” test, ask what the name is pointing to: a city brand, a harbor, a landform, a factory, or an administrative map.
# See
If you keep finding more, start a page for Portland Name Ecology and collect the migration paths: which Portlands were named after which, and which ones simply converged on the same word by accident.