# Unusual and/or unlikely town name origins
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 9, 2014, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051 "2014-05-09T14:23:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/1 "2014-05-09T14:23:54Z")
Just for a lark I took a look at the official website for [my hometown(Spirit Lake, Idaho)](http://www.spiritlakeid.gov/), clicked on the “History” link…and my jaw dropped as I read the supposed “legend” of Spirit Lake:
> [@](#):
>
> Hyas-Tyee-Skookum-Tum-Tum (Good Chieftains) of the Kootenai Tribe had a lovely daughter, Hya-Pam (Fearless Running Water) who loved a kootenay Brave, Hasht-Eel-Ame-Hoom (Shining Eagle). Hostile tribes lived east of here, governed by an ancient chief, Pu-Pu-Mox-Mox (Yellow Serpent). He threatened war on the Kootenays if he was not allowed to wed Hya-Pam. To avert war, Hya-Pam’s father consented to the marriage.
>
> The Indian Maid and her Brave were dismayed and vowed their eternal love. Binding themselves together with the ‘marriage chain of rushes’ they leaped into the lake from Suicide Cliff. As the lovers were never found, folklore tells us that on a moonlit night, when the wind is still, you may see their shadowy silhouettes as they drift across the lake in a phantom canoe. As the lake ice floes melt and grind together in springtime, weird, mournful and haunting sounds are heard, are these the cries of the Indian lovers as they seek release from the Lake of the Spirits?
This sounds like the 3rd place winner in a second grade writing contest.
What about _your_ hometown? Any interesting name origins?
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/2 "2014-05-09T14:51:28Z")
I’m not from there, but Portland, Ore. was named off of a bet on a [coin toss](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Penny). It was going to be either Portland or Boston.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/3 "2014-05-09T14:54:41Z")
> [@Munch](#):
>
> I’m not from there, but Portland, Ore. was named off of a bet on a [coin toss](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Penny). 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.
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### Author:  [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/4 "2014-05-09T14:58:21Z")
[Truth or Consequences, New Mexico](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_or_Consequences,_New_Mexico)
> [@](#):
>
> Originally named Hot Springs, the city changed its name to Truth or Consequences, 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.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/5 "2014-05-09T15:05:53Z")
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.
> **[Truth or Consequences, New Mexico](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_or_Consequences,_New_Mexico)**
>
> Truth or Consequences (often abbreviated as T or C), originally known as Hot Springs, New Mexico, is a city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Sierra County. In 2020, the population was 6,052. It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names for having chosen to rename itself in March 1950 after the Truth or Consequences radio show. The name is often hyphenated (Truth-or-Consequences, T-or-C) for clarity, though the formal name contains no punctuation.
> The area...
\*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.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/6 "2014-05-09T15:08:37Z")
There’s a town in a western state called Paradise, named by it’s two founders; Adam and Eve.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/7 "2014-05-09T15:09:47Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> There’s a town in a western state called Paradise, named by it’s two founders; Adam and Eve.
What state?
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### Author:  [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/8 "2014-05-09T15:35:05Z")
[Jim Thorpe, PA](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thorpe,_Pennsylvania)
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._
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### Author:  [@StayseaDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StayseaDee)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/9 "2014-05-09T15:37:21Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/10 "2014-05-09T15:44:04Z")
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!
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/11 "2014-05-09T15:54:45Z")
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:
> [@](#):
>
> The city’s name is said to derive from a small joke among divinity students at Western Reserve College, which in the early 19th century was in Hudson, Ohio. The students, who were called upon to preach in the small hamlet 6 miles (9.7 km) to the north, recalled Acts 16:10: “…we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.”
Those fuckers in Hudson still treat us like backwards heathens that need their guidance 😉
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/12 "2014-05-09T16:18:53Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/13 "2014-05-09T16:39:27Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/14 "2014-05-09T17:25:43Z")
[Hotazel, South Africa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotazel) was named because the weather there is ‘hot as hell’. [Reivilo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reivilo) was named y after the local minister, Rev. Olivier, but for some reason they reversed the letters of his name.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/15 "2014-05-09T17:47:13Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> What state?
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.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/16 "2014-05-09T18:00:37Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/17 "2014-05-09T18:32:37Z")
My city is named after a [book.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altneuland)
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### Author:  [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/18 "2014-05-09T19:12:33Z")
[Pope’s Head Creek](http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/watersheds/popesheadcreek.htm) 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.
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### Author:  [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/19 "2014-05-09T19:49:16Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-and-or-unlikely-town-name-origins/688051/20 "2014-05-09T20:02:28Z")
[Westward Ho!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westward_Ho!#Name), 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.
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