Why is New York called 紐約?
紐約 in Cantonese is nau2 joek3 (j- in jyutping is pronounced like y-). That's the closest Cantonese immigrants could come to New York, I suppose...

There aren't many syllabes in Cantonese that could match York:


jaak [ja:k]
jik
joek [jøk]
juk [jok] --> that last one could have been a better match.