Nadya,

I think that unless there is a very good reason, you are just fighting the windmills in vain. There are so many factors to take into account to trying to standarize this kind of data. What are you trying to accomplish? Why do you care so much, are you planning to mass mail us? Vade retro, Satan! <bg>

Just clicking in New York as Jim said, gives you a list of possible true, but highly doubtful city names in that state alone:

Lahore
Troy
Paris
Rome
Rio
Rio de Janeiro
Rotterdam

How do you plan to check if those cities really exist in New York state (and you should be able to come up with a way to do the same check for all states/provinces of the world!)

Again, unless is something really really important, I wouldn't waste one breath in this subject