>>I wasn't sure that it would be used in the USA as you have so many towns similarly named to those in Europe that I thought Americans might not catch the allusion. Like "What do they mean, Newcastle? It's village in Vermont!" (not an actual example).
>>
>>For years I thought Jimmy Osmond's "Long haired lover from Liverpool" was about MY home town. :-)
>
>Nope, that's a different one. Something like a car pool, just with livers.

I would draw your attention to the following link:
http://www.mersey-gateway.org/server.php?show=ConNarrative.61&chapterId=330

re: the etymology of "Liverpool". No one really knows. Personally I like the Welsh theory of the confluence of two rivers. There is a flat, low-lying area between the R. Mersey and R. Dee, called "The Wirral". I think it's mainly a huge sand-bank. A theory I heard years ago was that this wasn't originally there so the whole of Liverpool Bay would have been one big pool, emptied into by the 2 rivers.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLR,GGLR:2005-39,GGLR:en&q=map+%2b+the+wirral

Note the proximity to Wales.

Read the other links on that page too.

and

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/buildings.php?id=369

The Liver Building: One of the worlds first "skyscrapers" - Built 1908-1911. On top is the Liver Bird (pronounced as in hive).