What is the significance of the phrase “Blue Ball” as a place name? I know of several Blue Balls on the map, and don’t know any Green Cubes or Turquoise Toroids.
I know of the meaning of “blue balls” as aching, congested testicles. Is there any link between the condition and the place name?
Blue Ball, PA gets its name from the Blue Ball Inn, which no longer exists. When the owner built the small inn, he literally hung a large blue ball outside and started calling it the Blue Ball Inn. So apparently the name just comes from a simple sign designed to be recognized even by those who are illiterate (or speak a different language).
The town was actually named Earl Town, but so many people referred to it as the location of the sign of the blue ball that the town ended up being called that.
The slang term “blue balls” dates to about 1916, according to Wikipedia. The town was named over a hundred years earlier, so there’s no connection.
Perhaps not, but I bet we could find places called Green Box or [insert colour] Ring.
Or Red Square.
There are actually places all around within a mile or two of Blue Ball called Earl. There’s just plain Earl, there’s East Earl and there’s West Earl. They’re all unincorporated rural to semi-rural areas (but then, so’s Blue Ball).
Some of my ancestors came from Bluehole, Kentucky. Presumably the place was not named after a lonely woman.
It’s not too far from Line Lexington. No idea where that got is name from. Maybe a railroad line.
And the Blue Ball Inn got it’s name because people on the way to Intercourse would stop there if they decided that they couldn’t or didn’t want to make it all the way that night?
You piqued my curiosity. I just sent an email to the Bucks County Historical Society to ask that question because I cannot seem to find an answer online. I’ll let this thread know if they ever get back to me with a substantive response.
I guess old Earl really used to get around back then.
The road from Blue Ball to Paradise runs through Intercourse. 
there’s a public park near me, named after the person who organized a long effort to get it built, anna jean cummings. but the countY commissioned public sculpture for it which consisted of giant concrete balls painted blue. no one calls it anna jean cummings park. no one. and it had to be right next to the high school too.
Must be related to e.e. cummings, yes?
Aw, I’ve eaten at the Blue Ball Inn, sorry to hear it’s gone. (That sounds like a euphemism: “I’ve eaten at the Blue Ball Inn!”)
There are some Blue Ball Inns elsewhere. I wonder if a blue ball as a sign gas some traditional meaning ( in the same sort of way as three balls for a pawnbroker)
From the Hatfield Township website:
no, she just is suffering from mY keYboard malfunctioning. i spilled wine on mY laptop and now i have no upper case except the Y which is onlY upper case. waiting for the replacement in the mail.
and Yes i tried cleaning it in alcohol and all that.
Aha. Apparently the Blue Ball in many of the English pub/inn names and signs has its origin in mediaeval heraldry - it’s a bezant azure, or something like that (which may represent a ball or disc)
This is pretty much what the Historical Society person emailed me.
I actuallY like the onlY upper-case Y thing, it could catch on!
How timely! Just last weekend my wife and I were vactioning and on our way to Philadelphia. We got a kick out of the sign to Blue Ball especially because it was just down the road from the Ephrata Cloister, once the home of many celibates.