Not entirely a precise fit to the topic, but I used to live in Wimauma, FL.
The initial assumption of most people is that it is a Native American name. No.
When they wanted a Post Office, they needed a name, so the requester combined the names of his daughters: Wilma, Maude, and Mary. 
Similar to Jobildunc Ravine on Mt Moosilauke in NH, named after the three brothers who explored the area; Joe, Bill, and Duncan. Although this is poorly documented and it may still be a native American name.
Orlando (FL) is named after a 19th century soldier or rancher named Orlando Rees or Reeves. Or possibly (though doubtfully) after Orlando de Boys from As You Like It. Now that I think about it, I’m not really sure what people might have assumed it was named after, other than Orlando, Soweto, South Africa, which both the US city and name predate.
This will be a shock to you all and I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but contrary to popular belief, Ong’s Hat, New Jersey was NOT named after Jacob Ong, the 17th century Pine Barren farmer-dandy who wore a silk hat and liked to woo women at rowdy Pine Barren dances, infuriating one jealous fellow, inciting him to stomp on Ong’s precious hat, which the crestfallen dandy then tossed into the air where it stuck high on a tree branch for many years, serving as a landmark for the village. Yeah, that probably didn’t happen, but who knows? As a kid, we used to stop at Ong’s Hat Diner on the way to the Jersey Shore and despite my thorough inspection of the tree tops I never did see that damned hat. More likely, Ong’s Hat was just a corruption of Ong’s Hut.
And, Cinnaminson, New Jersey was not named after the spice you like to sprinkle on your French toast. The Lenni Lenape tribe called the area, “Senamensing,” which means "sweet water.”
Another plausible literary guess would have been that it was after Orlando Furioso. The work had a lot of influence on 16th century literature, though today it is probably unknown to most people, unless you went through the exercise of chasing references in Silverlock, which is where I ran across it. “Orlando” is the Italian form of “Roland”.
Of course, at some future point where peoples concepts of the dates involved are muddled enough, somebody will probably think it was named for Tony Orlando …
This sort of conglomeration is common. Titusville, PA has a small historic building called the Algrunix building (two story Victorian Gothic with a corner turret). The named derived from the surnames of the three owners - Allen, Grumbine and Nixon.
I wonder if that name is related to “Moyamensing,” the name of a street in Philadelphia.
Coincidentally there’s a town in Bangladesh called Mymensingh.
Do theirwomensingh, too? 
DISH Texas is not named after sexy females but changed its name from Clark to DISH after an offer from the DISH satellite company to change its name in return for 10 years of free satellite TV service. (And yes, it is styled in all caps.)
That’s not a unique occurance. Some time back, Halfway, OR temporarily changed its name to Half.com, OR. And as mentioned in that blog, Hot Springs NM changed its name to Truth or Consequences back in the 50s (I think).
Coincidentally, I just saw that Matajudíos (‘kill Jews’) in Spain came to their senses and changed their name to Mota de Judíos (‘hill of Jews’). Hopefully those idiots in France will see this and get a clue. However, Matamoros (‘kill Moors’) has no plans to change its name, so Spain doesn’t get off the hook just yet. Same for Mexico’s Matamoros. smh
Also coincidentally, I’m making the unfortunately-named “moros y cristianos” for lunch. I just like the dish, similar to gallo pinto, while wishing it had a non-racially-sensitive name.
No such luck. The name Moyamensing comes from Lenape mwih ‘feces’ + amimi ‘pigeon’ + -nk (locative suffix): “Place of Pigeon Droppings.” Mymensingh fared much better in the naming department, from Momenshahi, named after a king (shah) named Momen (<Arabic mu’min ‘believer, person of faith’).
Speaking of Lenape place names: You might reasonably think that western Pennsylvania’s Ohiopyle has something to do with its being on the way to the Ohio River. Nope. Ohiopyle derives from Lenape ahi opihële— compound of ahi ‘very’ +*opi *‘white’ + *hële *(verb of motion). Translation: “It Turns Very White,” referring to the frothing rapids there.
Ohio is the Iroquoian translation of Lenape Allegheny, both meaning ‘the best river’, because of the lack of falls making it easy for canoe travel. The Indians thought of the Allegheny and Ohio together as all one river. White people just divided it into two, keeping the Lenape name for the upper part and the Iroquoian name for the lower part.
Johanna, I saw that also, and got sidetracked before I could post it. (BTW, it’s not “coincidence”–it’s SerenDipity.[sup]TM[/sup] Although some might quibble that that only applies when it directly reflects OP.)
To all those Ong Hatters who, like me before I mentiond this thread to my wife, never thought anything whatsoever about the perfectly pleasant normal name of Lynbrook, Long Island: it was named by homesick Brooklyners, who swapped syllables.
The Forest of Nisene Marks is a California state park. When I first heard of it, I assumed it was named for some sort of archeological or geological markings. Actually, it’s named for the woman whose family bought the land that makes up the park.
It’s said that the Lamoille River in northern Vermont originally had the name La Mouette (french for “Seagull”). But a map-maker forgot to cross the Ts, leading to “La Mouelle”, which later became “Lamoille”.
… the town is named so because Zyzzyx is actually a word,
an insect of the name Zyzzyx in 1930’s, predating the town.
Springer might have seen the “last word in the dictionary” being updated.
Springer may have used the word so as to be able to say “the spelling is in the dictionary”, and “its named after the wasp.”.
The name seems to be onomatopoeia, for the type of wasp is distinctive for its buzzing.
The two words are spelled differently. The town name is “Zzyzx,” while the insect name is “zyzzyx.” The wasp is native to South America, not California. What evidence do you have that the town was named for the insect?
If I ever get to name a town, I’ll call it Zzyzz and trump them all (well, until someone names one beginning with 3 Zs, of course). Plus, my name is a palindrome, which is always good.
Zzyzx was named by a fundamentalist preacher and self-appointed physician named Curtis Howe Springer who took over some government land without permission and set up a retreat for [del]fleecing marks of their life savings[/del] meditation, consuming magic food and so forth. The feds finally got around to shutting down his operation in 1974, which was only 30 years after he took over the land. :rolleyes: I doubt he had any other reason for naming it Zzyzx except for being the last place alphabetically.
Mota de judíos appears to actually have been the original name: it was born as a Jewish settlement, but at some point the name got changed; nobody knows if the change happened by error or on purpose.
Our matamoros (with or without capital M, depending on the case) on the other hand appear to be purposeful. And no, we’re not planning on removing every moor’s head and dropped crescent from our heraldry either.
Truth or Consequences , New Mexico
Originally named Hot Springs
Truth or Consequences was the title of a popular NBC Radio program. In 1950, Ralph Edwards, the host of the radio quiz show Truth or Consequences, announced that he would air the program from the first town that renamed itself after the show; Hot Springs won the honor.
Truth or Consequences hosts several local hot springs