Where did your State or City get its Name?

Mike

Mike

Well-known Member
Location
London
I heard on the Smithsonian Channel the Minnesota got named
by American Indians because the Mississippi gets muddy there
and the name means "Muddy Waters", in their language at the
time of naming.

My country was and still is called Caledonia in some cases this is
the Latin for Scotland.

The capital city, Edinburgh, is the English version of the Gaelic name
Dunedin.

How interesting are the places where you live?

Mike.
 

Chicago

The name "Chicago" is derived from a French rendering of the indigenous Miami-Illinois word shikaakwa for a wild relative of the onion; it is known to botanists as Allium tricoccum and known more commonly as "ramps."
 

Our state is named after the Mississippi River that's our western border. I think Illinois' Mississippi river western border is longer in miles than Mississippi's but they chose another Algonquian based name. Mississippi means "big river" in Algonquian; early French explorers came up with the Latin alphabet spelling.

My hometown is the surname of early settlers.
 
Here's what I found in Wikipedia:

Before its coastline was explored by Europeans in the 16th century, Maryland was inhabited by several groups of Native Americans - mostly by the Algonquin, and to a lesser degree by the Iroquois and Sioux.[16] As one of the original Thirteen Colonies of England, Maryland was founded by George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, a Catholic convert[17][18] who sought to provide a religious haven for Catholics persecuted in England.[19] In 1632, Charles I of England granted Lord Baltimore a colonial charter, naming the colony after his wife, Queen Mary (Henrietta Maria of France).[20] Unlike the Pilgrims and Puritans, who rejected Catholicism in their settlements, Lord Baltimore envisioned a colony where people of different religious sects would coexist under the principle of toleration.[19] Accordingly, in 1649 the Maryland General Assembly passed an Act Concerning Religion, which enshrined this principle by penalizing anyone who "reproached" a fellow Marylander based on religious affiliation.[21] Nevertheless, religious strife was common in the early years, and Catholics remained a minority, albeit in greater numbers than in any other English colony.
maryland_flag-Maryland-StateFlags.jpg


One interesting fact about Maryland is that it's the only state whose flag includes a picture of a cross.
 
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Nashville was named after the Revolutionary War General Francis Nash.
Founded due to the Salt Lick ( used to attract animals for the Fur Trade )
Originally named "Nashborough" but later changed.

Most locals call it 'NashVegas' because it's a Party town now.
 
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I live in the township of Bristol, which I'm sure has English roots. There are two roads here with "Egypt" in the name, and I've lived on one of them for 40 years. I've always been curious how that name got to be here.

There is a town historian, I probably should ask her before I croak.

Ten miles south of me is "Naples," a picturesque village in a deep valley. Supposedly it was named after Naples, Italy, because of the similar terrain. A few miles away is a place called "Italy" and "Italy Valley" so it makes sense. And yes, there are a lot of grapes grown around here.

Coming downhill into Naples, although the village is beyond the end of the road:

006.jpg

Leaving Naples Valley:

Vette, Naples, etc 008.JPG
 
What is now New York City and ultimately New York State was originally a Dutch colony known as New Amsterdam (Dutch: Nieuw Amsterdam). The region came under English control in 1664 and was renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York.

Syracuse was named after Syracuse Sicily.

The city went through several name changes prior to adopting the name Syracuse. It was first called Salt Point (1780), then Webster's Landing (1786), Bogardus Corners (1796), Milan (1809), South Salina (1812), Cossitsā€™ Corners (1814), and Corinth (1817). The USPS rejected the name Corinth upon its application for a post office, stating there was already a post office by this name in New York.

In 1825, the Village of Syracuse was officially incorporated. The Village of Syracuse and the Village of Salina were combined into the City of Syracuse on December 14, 1847.
 
The New Forest, where I have relocated from London, now live, is anything but "new." It was so called by William the Conqueror, who designated it as an area of his favourite past time of hunting. He also had thousands upon thousands of oak trees planted there, the wood of which would be used in the ship building of future generations.

Our nearest City is a small city, so called because it has a cathedral, the reason why a city, in old England, is so called.
Salisbury is the the nearest city and community to where I live: The name Salisbury, which is first recorded around the year 900 as Searoburg, dative Searobyrig, is a partial translation of the Roman Celtic name Sorbiodūnum. The Brittonic suffix -dūnon, meaning "fortress" (in reference to the fort that stood at Old Sarum), was replaced by its Old English equivalent -burg. The first part of the name is of obscure origin. The form "Sarum" is a Latinization of Sar, a medieval abbreviation for Middle English, Sarisberie.
 
Well, like Chet says, Pennsylvania was named after ol' Bill Penn. I guess Long Pond is because there is a long pond., here?

But, some duff named the highest point in Eastern, PA, Pimple Hill. It's just down the road from me. Pimple Hill,, you mean they couldn't come up with a crummier name!!!
 
The name New South Wales came from the journal of Lieutenant James Cook (later Captain Cook), who sailed up the east coast of Australia in 1770. He thought that the land looked like the south coast of Wales. He named it "New Wales" but then changed the name in his journal to "New South Wales".
 
The city of Adelaide ( South Australia ) was named after Queen Adelaide, the consort of King William IV of England. Adelaide was born in 1792, the eldest daughter of the duke of Saxe-Meiningen. She married William, then the Duke of Clarence, in 1818. She had not met him before the wedding.
 
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Murrmurr said:
Sacramento was named after the Sacramento River, the city's western border. The Sacramento River was named by a Spanish cavalry officer for the santisimo sacramento, the Most Holy Sacrament.

No one's quite sure where the name California came from.
Click to expand...

My World Almanac has a list of the 50 name origins.

California:

Bestowed by the Spanish Conquistadors (possibly by Cortez). It was the name of an imaginary island, an earthly paradise, in Las Serges de Esplandian a Spanish romance written by Montalvo in the 1510.Baja California (Lower California in Mexico) was first visited by Spanish in 1533. The present U.S. State was called Alta (Upper) California.
 

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