What is 'called' in Japanese?


Is it 言う{いう}?

Example sentence:

> My city is called [＿＿].

How should I construct this sentence? Can I simply say:

> 私の町は[＿＿]です。




This is a case where you don't necessarily need to do a direct translation
from English and include every word. You _can_ just say

> 私の町は「name of your city」です。

If your "city" is fairly well-known (ニューヨーク、ロス、マイアミ、etc.), it's fine to leave
it at that. (Although in this case, you'd probably want to use 都市 instead of
町).

If your "city" is not uncommon, but maybe the listener won't know it, you
could use [larger area]の[city name].

> 私の町はアリゾナ州のツーソンです。 → My city is Tucson, Arizona.

If your "city" is a real hole in the wall, and not even people from your own
state/country would know it (let alone a Japanese listener), _then_ you'd want
to emphasize "called"; 「name」というところ・場所.

> 私の町はラスクルーセスというところです。 → My city is a place called "Las Cruces".

