It is no surprise that the settlers of New England named their towns after ones in old England. I have often thought that it must make visitors from England a little dizzy to see their familiar town names all over the place.

Cambridge, MA is special: It was so named when Harvard University was founded, in recognition of its being a university town. The result is that in academia you must often specify which Cambridge you mean. (One may also find a town in Massachusetts called Harvard, and a college in Cambridge called Cambridge College.)