In French, the United States is «États-Unis». However, many states (for example, "Alaska", "Wisconsin," and "Wyoming") are the same in both French and English. Of course, there are exceptions like «Californie» and «Nouveau-Mexique», but I think that makes that even more intriguing—why would some states be translated, but others not?

Additionally, this isn't US-specific. For the UK for example, "London" in French is «Londres» but "Glasgow" is just «Glasgow».

Why would certain states, provinces, and cities have translations, while other major ones do not?