# First corporate acronym **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 1, 2019, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-corporate-acronym/844228 "2019-12-01T06:06:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2019, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-corporate-acronym/844228/21 "2019-12-07T14:32:46Z")
BTW, Elco is not the first town to get an acronymic name. There’s a fair number of towns where the namers took the initials of several people and composed a name from them. There’s a list of them [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_geographic_acronyms_and_initialisms#Personal_names_2) (way down on the same page as the one in the OP). The earliest of those I could find is Le Mars, Iowa, named in 1870. [Here’s](https://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3963&context=annals-of-iowa) a description of how they came up with the name: > [@](#): > > On arriving at the eastern terminus of the road, Mr. Blair gallantly offered to let the ladies name the new town. The ladies caucused and were unable to agree upon a name. Mrs. Ford, a member of the party, then suggested that one be made from the initial letters of the ladies’ Christian names. This was done, and from the jumble of initials two names were manufactured, namely, “Selmar” and “LeMars.” A vote was taken and a majority favoring LeMars, Mr. Blair adopted that as the name of his town site. However, that’s not the earliest place name acronym I could find. There’s an Omphghent Township in Madison County, Illinois. The name is combination of an acronym: Our Mother of Perpetual Help = OMPH plus Ghent, the city in Belgium. This was named in 1858. [cite](https://books.google.com/books?id=ZvHgwa-XImcC&q=Elco#v=onepage&q=Omphghent&f=false) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-corporate-acronym/844228.md?page=1)