There were a lot of native names on Long Island, often ending in “-ogue”: Cutchogue, Patchogue, Aquabogue, and Quogue.
In many cases, though, settlers used the name of a nearby native community. Eventually, the natives were forced off but the name remained.
Well, a lot of it is simply that there was a limitless abundance of things that needed naming.
Seems odd that more places weren’t name for Biblical characters.
Well, sort of, in California. We’ve got Saint James, Saint Peter, and Saint Francis (okay, not strictly biblical), to name three. There’s also that city that’s an indirect reference to (Mary, queen of) the Angels. There’s also one or two cities with religion-inspired names, like Sacrament. New Mexico of course has Holy Faith.
There’s probably a lot of religion-based names in Utah, though they’re from scriptures not much accepted outside of Mormonism.
There’s some named after Biblical locations tho. Hundreds, really, though I can’t think of any REALLY important places that are directly Biblical. Bethesda, MD, I guess, is next door to something important.
Bethlehem, PA is a small city but with a long history. It was home to Bethlehem Steel, one of the giants, and houses prestigious Lehigh University. Nazareth is nearby. PA also has a New Bethlehem.
Salem’s Lot was originally Jerusalem’s Lot before all the vampires showed up.
Out West there are a lot of Native place names ending in “pah.” Pah means water, so it was important to know where the water was in an area where it was scarce.
Mormons named the Joshua trees.
I did not know that.
Did they give each one its own name, or are they all named Joshua?
All Joshua. And they called the wind Mariah.
From the Tuba tribe, also known as the “Oom-pahs.”
Well, the “Buffalo nickel” was issued between 1913 and 1938. I think by that point we’d mostly stopped trying to exterminate the Native Americans, and the swing to romanticizing them was well underway.
ETA: I’m not sure how the hell this wound up quoting one person’s post, but showing up as a reply to another person’s post, but I can’t seem to correct it in edit. Sorry!