What’s the longest official place name in the U.S.? No fair quoting place names from Wales or New Zealand.
The U.S.G.S. mentions a river called East Fork North Fork North Fork American River [39 characters]. The American Whitewater Affiliation throws in some of thes and makes it **
East Fork of the North Fork of the North Fork American River** [49 characters]. The latter, if official, would trump even Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg [45 characters, variant spellings have fewer characters] given at Word Oddities. This is the name of a lake in Massachusetts, which translates as (I love this, I really do), “You fish on your side, I’ll fish on my side, and nobody fishes in the middle.” I don’t know if this is an official name, since it’s also called (quite prosaically, in my opinion) Lake Webster. Then there is the original name of L.A. (but I’m pretty sure it isn’t official any more): ** El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula** [55 characters]
The answer to my question boils down to which of these are official and which are not.
My aunt told me once about a small town here in Texas that’s name was spelled “KAMAY” on maps and on roadside signs, but pronounced as an acronym: “K-M-A”
Um, unfortunately, when I was a kid, I had some record (yes, a record–not a cd) with a song on it entitled “Oh, What A State I’m In.” The lyrics went something like, “oh, what a state I’m in. Oh, what a state I’m in. See if you can tell me just what state I’m in.” Then it went on to sing about Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. That’s all I can remember, although I’m having a some sort of weird flashback of the Chipmunks.
The official name of the State of Rhode Island is “The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations” which is long. This is how it is written in the state constitution. The longest town name in Rhode Island that I could find is North Providence, but there is probably a longer one and I didn’t look too hard. Chopping of the “The State of…” part (because that seems like cheating) we get North Providence, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. That is fifty characters by my count, but possibly not by yours.
Additonally, I don’t think the name of a river counts as a “place name”. I could be splitting the wrong hair with this point, but it just doesn’t seem right. I could be wrong, and I’m sure someone will tell me why in a minute or two. I’d like to present a preemptive, “I am too right,” to this person.
My dad grew up in Webster, Massachusetts, the home of lake Chargoggagoggmanchaugagoggchaubunagungamaug, which is indeed Nipmuck for “Mutually exclusive fishing grounds, neutral meeting ground” or the more colloquial “you fish on your side of the lake, we fish on our side and no one fishes in the middle.” The lake lies in the center of the town of Webster, Mass., and is among other superlatives, the largest natural lake in Massachusetts (the lagest freshwater body in Massachusetts, the Quabbin Resevoir, man-made). Geographically, the name makes sense, since the lake consists of three nearly identical bays connected by narrow straights. Historically, two different tribes lived at either end of the lake (North Pond and South Pond) and the center bay was considered neutral grounds (Middle Pond).
While map-makers are reluctant to print the full name of the lake, often calling it “Webster Lake” or “Lake Chargagogg” The official town seal has the full name of the lake embossed around the outside, as does Webster High School literature (the name of the lake is prominently displayed on my Father’s year book), and I am quite certain, Rand McNally be damned, that the official name of this body of water is in fact as listed above, and is also the longest single-word placename in the U.S.
How about the longest street name in the United States (not counting anything with “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” in it)? Our first nominee is Johnny Cake Hill Road Extension, in the town of Westerlo, N.Y. (In a classic case of Freudian overcompensation, the road is only about a quarter-mile long.)
If you count only names of towns, the longest solidly-written (no internal spaces or hyphens) name is apparently Kleinfeltersville PA with only 17 letters.
The longest non-solidly written names is more difficult to determine. The long name for Los Angeles is not official anymore (since 1847). As you might imagine, the official name of some towns is much longer than the common name. For instance, The Aleut Community of Saint Paul Island is better known as St. Paul Island (and I’m not 100% sure that the longer name is still official).
Back in the 80s, the Rand McNally Road Atlas showed a place in Georgia named Industrial City of Gordon, Murray and Whitfield Counties, which is the longest name I’ve ever seen in a road atlas. However, in recent Road Atlases, it’s just called Industrial City.
