Portland was almost named Boston

Many decisions have been made by flipping a coin but did you ever think an entire city would get its name that way? That is exactly what happened in 1845 when Portland's two founders, Francis Pettygrove from Portland, Maine and Asa Lovejoy from Boston, Massachusetts, both wanted to name The Clearing (the site's name at the time) after their respective homes. They settled on making the decision by coin toss, best 2 out of 3 rule applies (of course). Pettygrove won and got the opportunity to name it Portland, Oregon.