Cross-border town naming occurs where towns or villages with the same or equivalent names are divided between two different countries. This does not necessarily imply that those towns or villages are located in geographic proximity or that they are located near a current border (divided cities). Reasons for this taking place may include the following:
The town or village existed before the border or even before the modern concept of a border. The border was added later (sometimes by war), dividing a community.
A community on one side of a border grows up to service the border and then takes the name of the adjacent community on the other side of the border.
Communities grow up on both sides of the border to service the border, taking the name of the border crossing.
Most places are in Europe, but there are also some examples in North America and Asia. In Europe, until the first half of the 20th century and again since the Schengen Agreement in the late 20th century, such divisions could be mostly ignored by the inhabitants.
Examples
Note that this list includes only places with similar names that are in someway connected (by history, geography or otherwise) across modern-day international borders. Towns that have the same name but bear no relationship to each other are also very common but not particularly notable.
Towns and cities listed have names of a common origin across an international boundary; matching pairs across provincial or state boundaries (such as Kansas City or Lloydminster) are common but are not listed here.
Ethiopia / 
Kenya
Central African Republic / 
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Gabon / 
Equatorial Guinea
Republic of the Congo / 
Malawi / 
Mozambique
Zambia / 
Zimbabwe
Azerbaijan / 
Iran
China / 
Hong Kong SAR
Kazakhstan
Georgia / 
Turkey
Malaysia / 
Thailand
Oman / 
UAE
Yemen
Tajikistan / 
Afghanistan
Turkmenistan / 
Uzbekistan / 
Kyrgyzstan
United States / 
Canada
Mexico
Argentina / 
Chile
Brazil / 
Bolivia
Uruguay / 
French Guiana