I was looking at a map and noticed that many place-names in New York tend to be named after places from classical history (Troy, Ithaca, Utica, Syracuse) but also just other seemingly random places on earth (Cuba, Mexico, Galway, Peru, Bagdad, Panama).
What’s the reason for this seemingly out of place choice of names for these municipalities?
I can’t speak to the reason for the latter half of names in your question but in regards to the towns and cities named after places in Classical Greek, Roman, etc. it’s a result of those lands being settled as part of the “central military tract” where land was seized from native Americans in the finger lakes/western NY area and gifted to veterans of the revolutionary war. One of the surveyors of this land was Robert Harpur who got to name all of these places at once so he chose names of places you’d find in Classical Greece, Rome, because he was a student of the classics.