Unusual and/or unlikely town name origins

[CheshireKat]

I’ve been through **Freer, Texas **twice on the way to Nuevo Laredo, and was curious about the origin of the name. I found the history of the town to be fascinating - a colorful story of early Texas and its emerging oil industry:

Freer

[lost4life]

@ElvisL1ves

…
Novi, Michigan, home of a Ford engine plant, grew up around a railroad water tower, the sixth in a line of them, duly marked with Roman numerals as “No. VI”.

I used to live in the area and that’s just an urban legend (I think the problem was the railroad came after the town name). What’s interesting is they really don’t know where the name came from.

[CalMeacham]

The towen no longer exists, but the Mormons named oine of their cities in Missouri Adam-ondi-Ahmanm. According tgo Josepg Smith, this is where Adam and Eve lived after they had been expelled from Eden. The name, again according to Smith, is in the original Adamic language. He didn’t say what it meant. The Wikipedia page gives some speculation:

Meaning of the name[edit]

According to the belief of some Latter Day Saints, the term Adam-ondi-Ahman is part of the Adamic language.[14] The name was first referenced in about 1832, in Doctrine and Covenants, section 78,[15] prior to being attached to a specific place. The name was also the title of a hymn that was popular in the early church.

The term Adam-ondi-Ahman has been speculatively translated as the “Valley of God, where Adam dwelt” (by Orson Pratt),[16] “the valley of God in which Adam blessed his children” (by John Corrill),[17] “Adam’s grave” (by Community of Christ historian Heman C. Smith),[18] or “Adam with God,” because elsewhere in the Doctrine and Covenants “Son Ahman” is said to refer to Jesus.[19]

Adam-ondi-Ahman

The name was often shortened to Diahman, probably because “Adam-ondi-Ahman” is a mouthful. I know I’ve seen references to “Diamond”, as well. Before the Mormons came, the area was “Wright’s Ferry”. After they were expelled in the 18348 Mormon War, the locals renamed it “Cravensville”, aftyer John Cravens, who bought the land after the war. Most of the land has since been repurchased by the LDS church, which keeps it undeveloped.

[robert_columbia]

There’s a theory that Caja de Muertos, Puerto Rico was named after a line from a famous English-language song in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. However, this theory appears to be disfavored today.

[robert_columbia]

One theory of the origin of the name of Key West, Florida is that it comes from the Spanish Cayo Hueso, i.e. “Bone Island”. I think a lot of people think that it’s called Key West because it is the westernmost key. It isn’t.

[ElvisL1ves]

Castrillo Mota de Judíos, Spain translates to Camp Hill of Jews, but until very recently the name was Castrillo Matajudíos, or Kill-Jews Camp.

[ElvisL1ves]

Jupiter, Florida gets its name from the indigenous Hobe Indians. A mapmaker misunderstood the Spanish spelling “Jobe” of the Indian name “Hobe” and recorded it as “Jove”. Subsequent mapmakers further misunderstood this to be the Latin translation of the god Jupiter. The next town over is Juno, and the Celestial Railway connected them with Venus and Mars.