Two neighborhoods of the Dark Astoria zone are named after famous horror directors: "Raimi Arcade" after Sam Raimi, and "Romero Heights" after George A. Romero.
Three neighborhoods of the Perez Park zone, as well as the park itself, are named after comic book writers and artists: "Perez Park" after George Pérez, "Everett Lake" after Bill Everett, and "Gaiman Woods" after Neil Gaiman.
In the tutorial, "Outbreak", one of the contacts for new players is named Coyote a.k.a. Matthew Bragg. This character is named after the first pre-beta City of Heroes message board member, Kiyotee. Kiyotee, who was named Matthew Bragg in real life, was always the one to help out new people on the message boards. He died shortly after the game was released, and the contact was renamed in his honor.
All the neighborhoods of the Galaxy City zone are named for astronomical features and phenomena.