By Marie Buckley Fish
The Old Bard asked a fascinating question, especially when you consider some of the names of food specialties, towns, pubs, etc. that you run into when visiting England.
Names of American cities, towns and hamlets incite some curiosity as to their origins as well. Has anyone researched and written a book describing or explaining the naming of them? There really should be since so many of them are very descriptive and fascinating.
The place where I grew up is self-explanatory. It was called Carbon County because of the number of coal mines in the area. But now, with so many of the mines closing and the need for coal receding as well, will folks remember its glory days and why it was so named?
I wonder about Snowflake, Arizona. We know it seldom snows in Arizona. Did it snow once, ever so lightly, when they were trying to think of a name to put on the post office? And, what the heck happened in Dirty Sock, California? We can understand Coldfoot, Alaska but why did they call that place way up north—Chicken? I have been there, saw no chickens and really doubt that a chicken would thrive in that area.
I think the town-namers deliberately pronounce Tooele, Utah “Twilla” so they can snicker at tourists who innocently pronounce it “Tooley.” There’s not a whole lot going on in Tooele so they have to have some source of amusement. So what happened in Burnt Corn, Alabama? That must have been a slow news day. Relief, Kentucky. It’s claimed that Kentucky means “dark and bloody ground” so anything less than that was probably a relief.
There is a Burning Well in Pennsylvania. Did they burn witches there or was it a coal mine that caught fire and couldn’t be extinguished? They also have a Normalville in Pennsylvania. Who do they think they are kidding? There’s an Egg Harbor in New Jersey. I’ll bet Easter is a big day there. And what happened to Embarrass Minnesota? You expect names like Cheyenne, Medicine Bow, Laramie, and Buffalo in Wyoming but some stiff-upper-lip guys must have settled in Sussex.
Idaho has some fun names like Coeur d’Alene and nobody really knows exactly what it means although they tell you it means “heart of the awl.” Boise, also of French origin, we know that means feminine woods, (bois is the masculine form.) In French, all nouns are either masculine or feminine.
We know Moscow must have been named by Russian immigrants and Blackfoot is named for a Native American tribe. Incidentally, why are they called Blackfoot? Did they name themselves that?
You kind of have to wonder about places that have names like Five Mile, Six Mile and Nine Mile. Is their only claim to fame the distance they are from someplace else? I was told that Nine Mile, Utah was named that because a guy named Miles lived there and he had nine daughters. Is that true or was somebody just jiving me?
Topeka, Kansas is forever linked to Atchison, Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico as the midpoint in a railroad line. We remember Dodge City as a place that folks had to dodge bullets on the old frontier and Wichita has a telephone line running through it, made famous by a popular song.
Ohio is a delightful mix of Native Americans and the intruders who came later. For example we have Delaware, Erie, Huron, Cuyahoga, Miami, Piqua, Maumee and Wapakoneta mixed in with Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Dover, Dublin, Dunkirk, Geneva, Genoa, Ghent, Macedonia, Poland, Toledo, Versailles, Viking Village and a host of others. What a marvelous mix of people! Chagrin Falls is a puzzle. What’s that all about?
Aloha, Oregon, hello out there! We can understand Beaverton and we know there is a cannon on Cannon Beach. What the heck are they doing in Drain, Oregon? And did you know there is a Bunker Hill in Oregon? Why? And Burns is out in the middle of the desert but it was probably named after a guy named Burns.
I do hope the origin of these names is not lost. There really should be a book explaining these lovely and fascinating names. Speculation is fun but the actual history is probably a lot more interesting.
As the famed Englishman asked, what’s in a name? When I visited England they told me that the British name their pubs after an actual event. In one place we visited they told us a batch (covey?) of ducks somehow got into the sour mash. The pub was named after the survivor—the Drunken Duck. The names and the stories attached encourage you to visit and soak up the local ambiance and folklore. You might even get lucky and visit a new unnamed one and be in on the happening that brings about the choice of a name.
Though that sounds intriguing I am quite relieved that I was not about when the Flying Pisspot earned its name. ISI
