Just for a lark I took a look at the official website for my hometown(Spirit Lake, Idaho), clicked on the “History” link…and my jaw dropped as I read the supposed “legend” of Spirit Lake:
This sounds like the 3rd place winner in a second grade writing contest.
What about your hometown? Any interesting name origins?
I’m not from there, but Portland, Ore. was named off of a bet on a coin toss. It was going to be either Portland or Boston.
I live in Portland now and was going to lead with that one, until I found the one about the town I grew up in.
Hot Springs NM changed its name to Truth or Consequences because Ralph Edwards, the host of the radio show of that name, announced that the show would broadcast from the first town to change their name to that, back in 1950.
When I was a kid, the show, which had moved to TV, was still being broadcast (although the host was then Bob Barker*) . I saw the town name on maps of the US, but figured it was probably some sort of ironic name the early mining settlers must have come up with. It was years before I learned the real story. According to Wikipedia, Edwards visited he town every spring for the next 50 years.
*Years before he hosted The Price is Right. Barker hosted Truth or Consequences from 1956 to 1974. He hosted The Price is Right from 1972 to 2007, so for two years he was doing both shows. Eighteen years for one and thirty five for the other. Once Bob got a gig, he stuck with it.
There’s a town in a western state called Paradise, named by it’s two founders; Adam and Eve.
What state?
From Wikipedia:
Following the 1953 death of renowned athlete and Olympic medal winner Jim Thorpe, Thorpe’s widow and third wife, Patricia, was angry when the government of Oklahoma would not erect a memorial to honor him.[5] When she heard that the boroughs of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk were desperately seeking to attract business, she made a deal with civic officials. According to Jim Thorpe’s son, Jack, Patricia was motivated by money in seeking the deal.[6] The boroughs merged, renamed the new municipality in Jim Thorpe’s honor, obtained the athlete’s remains from his wife and erected a monument to the Oklahoma native, who began his sports career 100 miles (161 kilometres) southwest, as a student at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
The name Ashtabula comes from ashtepihle, which means ‘always enough fish to be shared around’ in the Lenape language. On Lake Erie and having the Ashtabula River to fish from, it definitely lives up to its name.
The town nearest to where I grew up, Neshkoro, Wisconsin, is not named from some local Indian word, or some foreign-language word. Nope, it’s named for the guy who filed the incorporation papers. A guy named Nash. He wanted the town to be Nashboro.
He just couldn’t write legibly!
My little midwestern suburb is named for an ancient European kingdom. Not too crazy that it’s a name that appears in the Bible, but apparently the idea from the name came from a little joke:
Those fuckers in Hudson still treat us like backwards heathens that need their guidance 
I’m from Rockville, MD, named, presumably, after Rock Creek, which runs through it. It’s, um, rocky.
There’s a town near Annapolis called Parole, because it was a Civil War parole camp.
I guess folks weren’t feeling too creative around that time.
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania’s delightfully double-entendred place names have mostly mundane origins. Blue Ball is named after an inn whose logo was, guess what, a blue sphere. One theory of the origin of the name of Intercourse is that it was named that because the town is at the crossroads of two major highways (i.e. “courses”), namely an east-west highway from Philly to Pittsburgh and a north-south highway from Erie, Pennsylvania to Wilmington, Delaware.
Hotazel, South Africa was named because the weather there is ‘hot as hell’. Reivilo was named y after the local minister, Rev. Olivier, but for some reason they reversed the letters of his name.
I remember it from a book I read a long time ago, but a quick search didn’t turn anything up. I think I know which book it is, I’ll take a look tonight at home.
I’ve mentioned this story before. I used to live near the town of Horseheads, NY.
Back during the Revolutionary War, an American expedition was sent into western New York. They ran low on supplies and had to butcher their horses to feed themselves. The inedible parts, like the heads, were left in a big pile.
Years later, people moved into the area to settle and they saw that big pile of now decayed horse heads. And inexplicably decided this would be the perfect spot to start a community and Horseheads would be a catchy name for that community.
My city is named after a book.
Pope’s Head Creek in Northern Virginia and the nearby Pope’s Head Road always make me think of a decapitated pontiff when passing by or over. In reality, I believe it was named after Nathaniel Pope or one of his other relatives.
Germfask, Michigan, was established when it had eight families living there, and Germfask was the most suitable name that could be made up from the first letters of their eight surnames.
Electra, Texas, is named for the daughter of the cattle baron who first settled there. The Buick Electra was named after Electra Waggoner Biggs, a Texas sculptor who married into an influential family at General Motors – so the car of the same name was named after the granddaughter of the woman after whom the city was named.
Westward Ho!, in Devon, England, was named by someone who wanted to capitalise on a successful book by Charles Kingsley (now better known for The Waterbabies). It’s unusual for having the exclamation mark as part of its name.
My own home town is named for an old English word meaning bilge, or sump, and it is a good description of where I grew up.