# Help with place name origins **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 17, 2017, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376 "2017-01-17T09:24:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/41 "2017-01-18T14:37:38Z")
What about secondarily-named towns? E.g. New Boston, NH which I believe was named after Boston, Massachusetts, which was named after Boston, England; or Cambridge, Mass., which was named after the University of Cambridge which was named after the town of Cambridge, England. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/42 "2017-01-18T15:09:59Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Have it, and it is in fact the _only_ sub-Saharan city in the list. How about Timbuktu, Mali. There are unincorporated settlements called Timbuctoo in New Jersey and California. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/43 "2017-01-18T15:30:05Z")
Ladysmith, Virginia, possibly after Ladysmith, South Africa. There are several mining communities in the US called Kimberly (without the second _e_), some of which were probably named after Kimberley, South Africa. Wikipedia says the one in Missouri was named after the one in South Africa; I’m not sure about the rest. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/44 "2017-01-18T15:53:00Z")
[Bern](http://www.bearlake.org/recreation/history-activities/historical) Idaho, and [Geneva](http://www.bearlake.org/recreation/history-activities/historical) Idaho, although both unincorporated were named for the cities in Switzerland and Geneva does have its own postal zip code and [post office](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva,_Idaho) You will also see in the link provided for Bern, that while St. Charles Idaho is claimed to be named for a place in England, Paris Idaho is actually named for the surveyor of the town and Montpelier was named for the town in Vermont. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/45 "2017-01-18T19:10:59Z")
Havre de Grace, Maryland, named after the port city of Le Havre, France, which in full was once “Le Havre de Grâce.” ---
**Author:** ![DrumBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@DrumBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrumBum)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/46 "2017-01-18T19:37:55Z")
[Angola](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angola) derives its name from the Bantu kingdom of Ndongo, whose name for its king is ngola. I’m not sure how the US cities named "Angola’ acquired the same name but I’m pretty sure they got it from the country. Angola, Louisiana Angola, Indiana Angola, New York ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/47 "2017-01-18T19:52:36Z")
The suburbs of Chicago have a few. Rather than list them [You can check out this site.](http://www.rampantscotland.com/placenames/placename_chicago.htm) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/48 "2017-01-18T20:04:11Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > What about secondarily-named towns? E.g. New Boston, NH which I believe was named after Boston, Massachusetts, which was named after Boston, England; or Cambridge, Mass., which was named after the University of Cambridge which was named after the town of Cambridge, England. Remember I only need one place per foreign city and I’m not doing places named after other American cities. So Boston MA is all I need, Boston-wise. Since the University of Cambridge is closely associated with the city it’s in, Cambridge MA is OK. In fact, it’s on the list, but none of the other Cambridges are. bibliophage, thanks for the African places. Other people, remember that I already have all the big cities like Zurich and all the capitals like Bern. Or have established there are none (e.g. Helsinki, Minsk, Istambul). I’m looking for smaller places. Note that the spelling does not have be exact. For instance, the place named after Vilnius is Wilno, MN. AIUI, that’s the Polish spelling of that name. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/49 "2017-01-18T21:02:47Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > The suburbs of Chicago have a few. Rather than list them [You can check out this site.](http://www.rampantscotland.com/placenames/placename_chicago.htm) I should add, this is just for Scottish placenames in the Chicagoland area. The reason I remember this is because I spent some time in Scotland about 20 years ago and noticed many geographical placenames coincided with names in the Chicago area. Another smaller one off the top of my head is Kenilworth, named after a town in Warwickshire, England. Frankfort is named after Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany, but I’m sure you have that one covered. I’ll poke around later and see what else I can find. There’s also neighborhoods, like Pilsen, named after the Czech city, but I assume you want actual towns (and you’ve got that covered with the town in Kansas.) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/50 "2017-01-18T22:15:30Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I should add, this is just for Scottish placenames in the Chicagoland area. The reason I remember this is because I spent some time in Scotland about 20 years ago and noticed many geographical placenames coincided with names in the Chicago area. It’s on my list of things to do. Right now, I’m trying to figure out what to do about Radnor. There’s a Radnor PA, which Gannett says is named for the place in Wales. That’s a bit simplified. In Wales, there’s an Old Radnor, a New Radnor and a Radnorshire (now reorganized out of existence). New Radnor is something like 7 centuries old, BTW. I’m not sure which of these to go with. > [@](#): > > Another smaller one off the top of my head is Kenilworth, named after a town in Warwickshire, England. Good one. After research, I decided to go with the Kenilworth in Utah. This is mostly because, of the several Kenilworths, its Wikipage is the only one to actually say what the origin was. But also because the western US is underrepresented on my list. For instance, there’s only one each in NV and AZ. > [@](#): > > Frankfort is named after Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany, but I’m sure you have that one covered. I’ll poke around later and see what else I can find. There’s also neighborhoods, like Pilsen, named after the Czech city, but I assume you want actual towns (and you’ve got that covered with the town in Kansas.) Yep, got those already. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/51 "2017-01-18T22:54:02Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Good one. After research, I decided to go with the Kenilworth in Utah. This is mostly because, of the several Kenilworths, its Wikipage is the only one to actually say what the origin was. But also because the western US is underrepresented on my list. For instance, there’s only one each in NV and AZ. Looks good to me. I did look up to make sure that it was named after the village in England, and [in this Chicago encyclopedia page](http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/687.html) it does say it is. But looks like Utah will better suit the variety you need. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/52 "2017-01-18T23:22:07Z")
Bala, Kansas, an unincorporated town in Riley County, Kansas, is named for Bala in Wales. ([cite](http://www.kshs.org/p/welsh-settlements-in-kansas/13283)) ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/53 "2017-01-19T11:50:13Z")
Newcastle is a suburb in one city or another. I remember its where a tornado went through a city area. Kansas City? Probably named after Newcastle-On-Tyne not the Australian one named after after Newcastle-On-Tyne. There’s cardiff in southern California … probably named after UK cardiff. 3 ot hers around USA. Same with Glasgow… ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2017, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/54 "2017-01-20T05:00:10Z")
You might find it helpful to have [this list of all US post offices.](http://chicagocarto.com/PO2005.html) You can compile a similar list from [GNIS](https://nhd.usgs.gov/gnis.html) of “populated places,” but you end up with a lot of railroad sidings and obsolete names that aren’t really what anyone would call “towns.” As I mentioned a few weeks ago in another thread, there’s quite a substantial body of existing literature on placenames. Nearly every state has at least one book—I personally have about 30 of them—purporting to give the origin of most places, though some scholars have satisfied themselves with supposition when faced with a place named Dublin or Hamburg or Madrid. In addition, there’s the scholarly journal _Names,_ which has been publishing on the topic for many decades. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2017, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/55 "2017-01-20T13:34:39Z")
[Brisbane, California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisbane,_California) is named after the [capital city of the state of Queensland in Australia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisbane). Similarly, [Melbourne, Florida](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne,_Florida) is named after [Melbourne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne), the tram-tastic capital city of the Australian state of Victoria. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/56 "2017-01-22T09:26:37Z")
I want to thank everyone who contributed to this project. You guys have been a big help. When I posted the OP, I had about 500 entires in my list; now it’s almost 600. That’s a huge jump and it’s mostly because of your help. The biggest help was the book by Gannett that someone pointed out above. It’s not the best, since it’s so old and the author suffered from the illusion that in other countries there’s only one place with a given name, despite voluminous evidence in the book itself that that isn’t the case in the US. Despite that, it helped find many namesakes I didn’t already have. The most exotic (if that word applies to anywhere in this age of the internet) place is Dongola, Sudan. Would never expect that city to have a namesake. It also had entries for Khartoum, Sudan and Baku, Azerbaijan, both namesakes being in California. But I couldn’t find any evidence those two places still exist. They aren’t in GNIS, and pretty much every place currently existing in the US is in that. But there’s still some places that I think are named for foreign cities, but don’t have any confirmation: [ul] [li]Albertville MN – named for the city in France? There’s an Albertville in some other state, but it’s named for someone named Albert.[/li][li]Ayr ND – named for the city in Scotland? Again, there’s another named in Nebraska for a person.[/li][li]Dingle ID – Ireland?[/li][li]Falun KS – Sweden?[/li][li]Leicester VT – the other Leicesters in the US are named after people[/li][li]Mallow VA – Ireland?[/li][li]Miletus WV – ancient Asia Minor?[/li][li]Montevideo MN – Gannett says it’s “I see the mountain” (that’s Latin, more or less) refering to the Coteau (a plateau – there are no real mountains in MN). Wikipedia doesn’t say anything. Lots of people seem to think it’s named for the capital of Uruguay.[/li][li]Montreux FL – Switzerland? (any smoke on the water around there?)[/li][li]Narberth PA – Wales? the founder was from Wales, so it’s probably right.[/li][li]Nuremburg PA – Germany? [/li][li]Oakham MA – Rutland, England? Oakham MA was originally called Oakhampton, which makes me question whether it was named for the English town[/li][li]Oban CA – Scotland? Not in Wiki or Gannett, but there’s a entry in GNIS.[/li][li]Pembrey DE – Wales?[/li][li]Pori MI – Finland? probably so, there’s lots of Finns in the UP. There’s a village with that name in Estonia, which is the main reason for uncertainty[/li][li]Putney VT – someone contributed it above, but I can’t find any confirmation [/li][li]Quito MS – Ecuador?[/li][li]Ruther Glen VA - Scotland?[/li][li]Selkirk NY – Scotland?[/li][/ul] Any help with any of these would be appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2017, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/57 "2017-01-25T12:03:23Z")
Another one I need help on: Stromsburg NE. Wikipedia says it’s named for a section of Ockelbo, Sweden. Not sure exactly what that means, perhaps a rural area near the town. Some other pages agree with this but others say the town was named after its founder, a man named Lewis Headstrom. (Gannett says it was named after a suburb of Stockholm, but that’s almost certainly wrong.) Anyone able to clear this up? ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2017, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/58 "2017-01-25T12:52:33Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Another one I need help on: Stromsburg NE. Wikipedia says it’s named for a section of Ockelbo, Sweden. Not sure exactly what that means, perhaps a rural area near the town. Some other pages agree with this but others say the town was named after its founder, a man named Lewis Headstrom. (Gannett says it was named after a suburb of Stockholm, but that’s almost certainly wrong.) > > Anyone able to clear this up? I appears Wikipedia and the various Nebraska and Stromsburg history cites are correct. At least the Ockelbo genealogical society believes the story and writes that Lewis Headstrom was the head of a small group of Swedes who’d emigrated from the village/cluster of farms of Strömsborg in Ockelbo municipality. Not hard evidence, but the link to Ockelbo seems solid: [http://www.ockelbo.se/Documents/Stromsburg.pdf](http://www.ockelbo.se/Documents/Stromsburg.pdf) (In Swedish, of course.) ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2017, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/59 "2017-01-25T13:01:59Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Falun KS – Sweden? Would be incredible if it wasn’t named after the Swedish town of Falun, since it’s apparently an area full of Swedes. Nearby there’s New Gottland, obviously named for the Swedish island of Gotland, and Smolan, which I wouldn’t be surprised is just a mangled form of the Swedish region Småland, which would be pronounced similarly. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2017, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376/60 "2017-01-25T13:57:27Z")
The only town of note on Stewart Island in New Zealand is alternatively known as either [Oban or Halfmoon Bay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oban,_New_Zealand); it’s named after the town in Scotland so I’d suggest the one in the US mentioned probably is too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-place-name-origins/777376.md?page=4)