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A geologist and cartographer in 1902 decided to find why as many place in the US were named what they were named, and published this book. There is some weird, funny, and interesting poo poo in here and I have barely started looking at it. If you think a place existed before 1902, I'll look it up, there are a lot east of the Mississippi but there's plenty in the west too. It's interesting to see explanations from over 100 years ago and some of the info that's in this book doesn't seem to exist online. I expect to run into places that don't exist anymore.   Here's a few I found so far that I thought were interesting. Anthony’s Nose; promontory on the Hudson River, New York, said by Irving to have been named so in reference to Anthony Van Corlear’s nose; Lossing says, “Anthony de Hooges, secretary of Rensselaerwick, had an enormous nose, and the promontory was named in honor of that feature.” Aswaguscawadic; branch of the Mattawamkeag River, Maine. An Indian word, meaning “a place where one is compelled to drag his canoe through a stream.” Cattaraugus; county, village, and creek in New York. Indian word, meaning “bad smelling shore or beach.” Kickapoo; town, in Peoria County, Illinois, Anderson County, Texas, and Leavenworth County, Kansas. An Indian word, meaning “easily navigable,” or according to another authority, “ghost of an otter.” Manhattan; an island in New York. An Indian word, said by some authorities to mean “little island;” others think it means “the people of the whirlpool,” referring to Hell Gate, and another authority gives its origin as from the word Manna-ha-ta, “place of drunkenness,” since Verrazani landed upon the lower extremity of Manhattan Island and gave the Indians liquor, on which they became drunk.
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Sep 26, 2020 15:09
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You must turn to page  and discover the origins of the places there (if there is such a page)
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Sep 26, 2020 15:12
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EorayMel posted:You must turn to page Of course 
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Sep 26, 2020 15:22
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BurritoWife here, so I have also been randomly looking through this book and can help with the looking up of things. One amusing entry I found this morning was for Pensacola, which is 'Said to be derived from the Indian word Pan-sha-okla, meaning "hair people."' Living on the east coast of the US means most place names are derived from either Native American words, or England. It's interesting to find out what the actual words mean.
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Sep 26, 2020 15:28
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69 is only the Cs? What's on 420? What's the deal with Badwater, California? I mean, the name sounds pretty self explanatory, but the book sounds like it has history and not just translation on some of them so I'm really hoping there's a particularly lovely water hole that someone drank from and was like "DANG, this water is bad, let's settle here. Call it Badwater, cause gently caress dude." or maybe they all came from Goodsprings and just hated their old town.
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Sep 26, 2020 15:35
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"Chefunct: An indian word meaning 'Chinkapin'". Oh, well thanks. Also it's funny that in Michigan there's the place called 'Cheboygan' and right across the lake in Wisconsin, there's one called 'Sheboygan'
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Sep 26, 2020 15:41
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Vincent Valentine posted:69 is only the Cs? Yeah, it's in alphabetical order. Unfortunately there is no page 420  Badwater, CA is not in the book, but the description for the Bad Lands in South Dakota is interesting: 'It is said that the old French voyageurs described the region as "mauvaise terres pour traverser," meaning that it was a difficult country to travel through; from this the term has been carelessly shortened and translated into the present misnomer.' So maybe Badwater had a longer and more descriptive name in Spanish or something that included the term 'agua mal' and it got butchered into Badwater.
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Sep 26, 2020 15:46
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Big Beef City posted:"Chefunct: An indian word meaning 'Chinkapin'". Oh, well thanks. Lol. For what it's worth, 'Chinquapin' is apparently the Indian name for "nut," or "small chestnut"  edit: Regarding the use of of the term 'Indian,' the US government actually still uses this term to define reservations. For example, Navajo Nation Reservation is officially a 'Federal American Indian Reservation.' I personally use 'Native American,' but I would guess that the terminology used in this book was probably the official government standard when it was published, and does not necessarily indicate the preference of the author himself. TeachesOfPeaches fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Sep 26, 2020 |
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Sep 26, 2020 15:52
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Sep 26, 2020 15:52
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I remember learning about the Kickapoo Indians in middle school since I grew up near that town. Top tier tribe name imo. Can you look up Toad Suck, Arkansas?
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Sep 26, 2020 15:55
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I always thought Badwater meant the place had really lovely springs/available drinking water/don't water your horses here they'll get sick.
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Sep 26, 2020 15:56
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Are Molly's Nipples in there? Should be in Utah.
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Sep 26, 2020 15:56
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Toad Suck and Molly's Nipples don't have entries, which is too bad because those are both hilarious place names. Maybe the author was a prude!
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Sep 26, 2020 16:03
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Could you look up California, Pennsylvania? Always wondered about that one.
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Sep 26, 2020 16:04
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Is the Murderkill river in there?
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Sep 26, 2020 16:05
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Julias posted:Could you look up California, Pennsylvania? Always wondered about that one. The book doesn't acknowledge California, PA specifically, but the entry for California does mention that "eight post-offices bear this name." There is also a California, Maryland. Here is the full description: "California; one of the States of the Union. This name was applied by Cortez to the bay and country, which he supposed to be an island. The name is that of an island in an old Spanish romance, where a great abundance of precious stones were found. Eight post-offices bear this name."
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Sep 26, 2020 16:08
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twoday posted:Is the Murderkill river in there? Nope, but Murder is: "creek in Genessee County, New York, so named because the body of a man who was supposed to have been murdered was found in the stream." cool cool
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Sep 26, 2020 16:10
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why is so much stuff in the US named gaylord
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Sep 26, 2020 16:16
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"Dr. Peter Wilson, an educated Seneca"
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Sep 26, 2020 16:18
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Jose posted:why is so much stuff in the US named gaylord Apparently it's a common last name, as the two entries for it suggest: "Gaylord; city in Smith County, Kansas, named for C.E. Gaylord, of Marshall County." "Gaylord; village in Otsego County, Michigan, named for an attorney of the Michigan Central Railroad." Not nearly as exciting as I would have hoped.
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Sep 26, 2020 16:22
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That begs the question: WHY is "Gaylord" a common last name? Yes, I know that it is a fairly modern take on the word, but nonetheless, I am curious as to it's origins.
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Sep 26, 2020 16:30
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Readers of this thread might enjoy this Wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_names_considered_unusual?wprov=sfla1 TeachesOfPeaches posted:Yeah, it's in alphabetical order. Unfortunately there is no page 420 A lot of town are named after other foreign towns or in foreign languages, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of the "Bad X" towns are named so because of German. https://german.stackexchange.com/qu...%20authorities.
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Sep 26, 2020 16:36
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Shadow0 posted:Readers of this thread might enjoy this Wiki article: I have always enjoyed the "Translated" names of places that end up being stupid. Like, The Sahara Desert. Sahara is a word for Desert. So it's the Desert Desert. Or the baseball team The Los Angeles Angels.
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Sep 26, 2020 16:46
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Jose posted:why is so much stuff in the US named gaylord Probably because there once was a happy lord...
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Sep 26, 2020 17:28
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so many of these are French names that just lost their meaning entirely. Green Bay for instance was la grande baie
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Sep 26, 2020 18:24
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I have always been very curious about Buckatunna, Mississippi and Burnt Corn, Alabama E: TeachesOfPeaches posted:Nope, but Murder is: "creek in Genessee County, New York, so named because the body of a man who was supposed to have been murdered was found in the stream." cool cool Kaiser Schnitzel fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Sep 26, 2020 |
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Sep 26, 2020 18:27
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:I have always been very curious about Buckatunna, Mississippi and Burnt Corn, Alabama Buckatunna- Choctaw word meaning a creek where there is weaving. Burnt Corn doesn't seem to be in the book, but it it seems like native Americans and settlers were burning the poo poo out of eachothers corn and a lot of battles happened there.
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Sep 26, 2020 18:40
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Found an interesting one, Mobjack, Maryland it doesn't exist anymore and but is also the name for a bay in Virginia. The defunct Maryland city or maybe just a small port? is named it because, a pirate named Jack was mobbed and thrown overboard by his crew at the site. The Virginia bay "appears in early documents as "Mockjack Bay"; it was said that echoes on the bay would mock "Jack", a term for a sailor. Captain Thomas Todd of Toddsbury, Gloucester County, a mid seventeenth century emigrant, was recorded as "Thomas Todd of Mockjack Bay".
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Sep 26, 2020 21:42
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Just some general observations from my immediate area, the gulf barrier islands and Tampa Bay, Florida. I already know the name of Treasure Island, Florida is only half true. Those FUCks on the city council refuse to correct this because they’re all like “the treasure is its natural beauty” which is just some crap to feed tourists. If there isn’t any ACTUAL treasure then change the name and you’d save some people a LOT of time. Like if there WAS treasure but it has long since been found, I still feel it’s dishonest. Sorry, I need to save the energy, that’s pretty much my platform when I run for mayor though. Clearwater Beach doesn’t make any sense because the water is more like an green/blue. Caladesi Island isn’t even an island. It’s an island only sometimes. It depends on which direction the last hurricane reamed us from, so when it was named, it could have been an island maybe idk. Ybor City isn’t a city at all, it’s a ghetto with some restaurants. Still relatively upscale buying your heroin there instead of MLK/Nebraska Ave. Like you gotta know someone, you can’t just show up and score, we got kids in the neighborhood and stuff, damnit.
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Sep 26, 2020 22:00
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Can you look up Poughkeepsie for me? I’m figuring it’s some Native tribe’s word for “really boring place, oh my god, so boring”.
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Sep 26, 2020 22:13
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Reform, Alabama
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Sep 26, 2020 22:16
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Ugly In The Morning posted:Can you look up Poughkeepsie for me? I’m figuring it’s some Native tribe’s word for “really boring place, oh my god, so boring”. Derived from a Delaware Indian word, apokeepsingk meaning safe and pleasant harbor or shallow inlet safe harbor for small boats. So yeah pretty much.
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Sep 26, 2020 22:17
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Matawan? The local legend/in-joke was it was Native American for "stinky river" because Matawan Creek was loving gross.
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Sep 26, 2020 22:18
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extra row of teeth posted:Matawan? The local legend/in-joke was it was Native American for "stinky river" because Matawan Creek was loving gross. 'Matawan; town in Monmouth County, New Jersey. An Indian word to which various meanings are ascribed, among them "magician," "charmed skin," "it arrives in a lake."' Maybe by "it" they meant a horrible smell...
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Sep 26, 2020 22:21
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Vincent Van Goatse posted:Reform, Alabama Reform was informally named Pickens, the name of the county until a Methodist missionary held a revival in the town. The town didn’t give a poo poo about his revival. He left town in anger yelling at them to reform, and a likely in-joke among the residents stuck. This was pieced together from a few places but it seems to be the legend so to speak.
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Sep 26, 2020 22:23
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That minister I assume was a distant relative of Doobie considering the town’s reaction to his hot dogs.
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Sep 26, 2020 22:27
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Hey TeachesOfPeaches. I’m told you find the way I say Effort Post is funny.
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Sep 26, 2020 22:37
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"WISCONSIN RAPIDS, WI" if that doesn't work "STEVENS POINT, WI" thank you for owning an old book and doing this (these town names are hard to figure out)
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Sep 26, 2020 22:57
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whoa whoa....HGB has a wife?!?!
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Sep 26, 2020 23:00
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Into The Mild posted:Hey TeachesOfPeaches. I’m told you find the way I say Effort Post is funny. I literally read this post in your accent.
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Sep 26, 2020 23:03
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