Hey! Viewer from Cleveland here! The generally accepted story here for why they dropped the first A is that only Cleaveland with the extra A didn't fit across the top of the first city-wide newspaper and that A was the only letter that could be dropped without changing the pronunciation and then because of the wide circulation of the newspaper and everyone seeing it spelled that way every day businesses, etc. started spelling in that way. You do see bumperstickers around town sometimes that say "Cleaveland deserves an A" ;)
I live on the Shetland Islands, halfway between Scotland and Norway. When the islands were conquered and colonised by the Vikings, they mapped the islands, and discovered they feared a striking resemblance to a sword hilt - or "Hjalt" in old Norse. So the islands were named Hjaltland. Fast forward a few hundred years, and in a later Viking rune alphabet, the "Hj" sound is drawn with a rune that looks a lot like the letter Z in English. Norway gave the islands to Scotland as part of a marriage dowry (in lieu of money) for the Scottish king marrying a Norwegian princess in the 1400s. Later, the Scottish and English crowns unified, ultimately leading to the formation of the United Kingdom. At some point, as English became the dominant language (and English speaking cartographers renamed local place names to be more English language, and less Scandinavian), and because of that Hj sound that looked like a Z, Hjaltland became Zetland. And then, gradually, Zetland became Shetland.
aw i love that people are sharing their hometown's name origins. mine is belfast, which is an anglicised version of the gaelic béal feirste, which means mouth of the river.
And my favorite: Washington was originally supposed to be named Columbia, but they were worried people would get it confused with the District of Columbia. So they named it Washington. -_-
Norway, Maine was not named after the country. Its incorporation papers originally named it something like Norridge, which in the local Algonquin language meant "waterfall." The office in DC assumed it was a misspelling of "Norge," which is the Norwegian word for Norway, and since there was a policy at the time against foreign names, the DC office "translated" the town name to Norway.
Omer Neu Terminus comes up in the first foundation book "Foundation" I would suggest reading them in the order he wrote them, but it's not that important.
Asimov is my favorite fiction author! Pet theory regarding place names and the Foundation and Empire universe: Hari Seldon, the founder of the foundation on Terminus was from Helicon, and my best guess as to how he made that up was that it makes Hari Seldon a "Heliconian" --- which is a genus of butterfly. This goes along with the idea behind how psychohistory is used to direct the course of events, with the a-butterfly-flapping-its-wings-creates-a-thunderstorm-on-the-other-side-of-the-globe chaos theory - but with a very well-informed butterfly that know what it's doing. Thoughts, anyone?
Mars, PA - only town in the country with that name - isn't quite sure how we got our name and was settled in 1873. Some think it was named in honor of the first mayor's wife's love of astronomy. But the most important thing is we have a flying saucer in the town square and our high school football team is named 'The Fighting Planets'
Sadly no, although I would love to smell chocolate all the time... We're over near Pittsburgh. At one point though, they were thinking of moving some corporate offices out here so they could have a Mars mailing address, but they gave up.
Amanda Ciccione Hershey foods is in Hershey,PA Mars corp. Is in McLean VA. The town Mars,PA is near Pittsburgh,PA and is unrelated to either candy maker. Interestingly enough also near Pittsburgh is Moon Township. Pittsburgh is thus, out of this world!
My home town in Denmark is called Vejle, which is coming form a old form from the Danish word which means something like" the safe passage over the river"
I grew up near a town called Sleepy Hollow named after the Washington Irving story. Washington Irving is buried there, too. I always thought that was pretty cool.
I'm not convinced the village was "named after" the story. From the village website, _"In 1655 Adriaen Van der Donck, a Dutch colonist, first published a work which referred to the Pocantico River as Slapershaven or, literally, Sleepers’ Haven. Sleepy Hollow appears to be a later, Anglicized version of this name and actually applied to the valley of the Pocantico River."_ That was long before Washington Irving was born.
PeanutBetter27 I agree. It feels much nicer if he chose the existing village as the setting. I did a little more research, and it turns out that he had relatives in Tarrytown, near Sleepy Hollow, and became enamored with the village of Sleepy Hollow and its heritage of ghost stories during visits to Tarrytown in his teens.
Cincinnati used to be called Losantiville, basically meaning "city across the river", but was changed by Author St. Claire, the first governor of the Northwest Territory, who was a member of the Society of Cincinnati (a group that counted Washington as a member), named after one of the most celebrated rulers in Roman history.
mescad, if I remember correctly, he was the ruler 3 times and each time resigned once he felt the Republic was safe, George Washington was considered a sort of analogue to him.
Thank you for posting this. I'll add this to Losantiville- The name is a mix of different languages and uses some abbreviation... L- Licking river (river that runs off of the Ohio river) Os- Latin for Mouth Anti- Greek for opposite Ville- Generalized term for city. So "city opposite the side of the Licking River" Why in the world they passed on Cincinnati in the first place confounds me, but especially with this little nugget of information. I'm genuinely bummed that they left it out.
I'm glad that I wasn't the only one bummed to see this video and noting the glaring omission of Cincinnati, when they did Columbus, Cleveland, and even Louisville (though, they also left out the fact that Louisville was part of the historic Bourbon County (the county still exists but is a lot smaller than it used to be), which was also named after the French monarch, and ended up giving its name to a uniquely American type of whiskey).
Winnipeg is Anishinaabemowin / Ojibwe for "muddy waters". Which is why you can take the Muddy Waters river tours (among other businesses that latched onto the name).
My home town is Wellington, New Zealand. Originally named Port Nicholas, it was renamed Wellington after the Duke of Wellington who also coined the name for the wellington boots (or gumboots as they are known in NZ) Another fun fact about wellies, the wellington boot was invented before New Zealand was settled by the British. Meaning gumboots are older than my country.
That's actually a historically consistent naming scheme. Many cities worldwide are named after natural landmarks like lakes and especially rivers. My favorite being Berlin which came from the slavic word for swamp or a dry place in wetlands.
I grew up in a town in Illinois called Galesburg; the founder was a Presbyterian minister from NY who moved out west to found a college and to espouse abolition viewpoints. The town ended up being a spot on the Underground Railroad.
It isn't my hometown (although I did live there for six months) and it is far from being a city, but... Picture it, southeastern Indiana, early 1900s (sorry, Golden Girls reference, I couldn't resist). A small community along what is now U.S. 421 between Versailles (although spelled like the city in France, it is pronounced ver-SALES) and Madison was steadily growing and appealed to the state of Indiana to have a post office. They decided to name the new community "Comet" in honor of Halley's Comet, which was due to make an appearance soon. So they wrote the letter to the Postmaster General in Indianapolis requesting the name of the town be "Comet". Unfortunately, they didn't type the letter, they hand-wrote it, and they didn't use the best handwriting. The Postmaster wrote back to them. "I just want to be sure. Did you say you wanted the name of your town to be 'Comet'?" "That's Correct" was the reply back. So is how Correct, Indiana was born. Today it is a little dot on the road, no longer incorporated, no longer has a post office, and it pretty much has the "Welcome To Correct" and "Now Leaving Correct" signs on the same post. But the story of how it got its name will live on.
My hometown is "Flower Mound".....we have a literal mound with what used to be flowers and are now weeds on it. There's a fence and a sign and everything.
I live in Oregon, a state which I'm beginning to suspect just steals all its city names from other states. I live in Salem (stolen from Massachusetts), and of course there's Portland (Maine), Dallas (Texas), Independence (Missouri), Detroit (Michegan), Albany (New York), and Springfield (Iowa). I could go on.
There's a Pittsburgh kansas too, and a Springfield in Missouri also, I think there are a lot of repeating Names for cities and towns throughout the country.
Gig Harbor was named for being a harbor where a Charles Wilkes landed his gig (a small boat used to ferry people, particularly the captain, from ship to shore) for protection during a storm.
My childhood was spent in Maryborough, Victoria, Australia (there's another one in QLD, Aus). It is very Scottish, having the annual Highland Gathering every January 1st; the only place that is able to display a girl dancing on a drum (if there is one advanced enough but still small enough) outside Scotland! From November through Christmas, the air would harmonise with the practicing of bagpipes - I loved to sit outside and simply listen to the music!
No mention of Corpus Christi, Texas, which is named for Corpus Christi Bay? Which is named for the feast of Corpus Christi? Which is named for that guy, you know?
In June of 1775 pioneers set up camp near a creek in Fincastle County in the colony of Virginia. When they heard of the colonists winning the Battles of Lexington and Concord against the British, they named their campsite Lexington. Later Fincastle County was subdivided, creating Kentucky County, which became a state in 1792. Today Lexington is in Fayette County (named for Marquis de Lafayette) in Kentucky, meaning Lexington has been a part of 3 counties and 2 states. The namesake Lexington in Massachusetts is said to either be named for an English noble named Baron Lexinton, or for the English town of Laxton, once spelled Laxintone. It may mean "the farm/estate of the family of a man named Leaxa."
I grew up in a tiny little 2-stoplight town in NC called Four Oaks. Named after a giant oak tree that had four "trunks" branching out of the base of the tree. The eponymous tree is no longer standing.
rome, georgia was named by the 3 guys that founded the city. one of them was from hamburg, germany. the second from yorkshire, England. and the third was from rome, italy. they couldn't decide on a name, so they drew a name from a hat. the Italian guy won.
I believe Liam is referencing the story of Romulus and Remus, the brothers raised by a she-wolf and who later founded Rome. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_and_Remus
I live in Milwaukie, Oregon, the city is named after Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Apparently Milwaukee was sometimes spelled Milwaukie back in the 1800s. Either that or it was done to prevent confusion in the postal service. Which it does not appear to have done.
My hometown is Santiago de Cali (usually just referred as Cali), Funded in July 25th (1536) which is the celebration of the apostle Santiago, saint patron of Spain, thus Santiago. The most agreed upon explanation of "Cali" is the word used by the local inhabitants for the region, in the Paez language.
Iago comes from Yakob. Jacob, John, or James. I'm sure there's a rule about when to use San (San Diego) and when to use Sant (Sant Iago) or Santo (Santo Domingo), but I have no idea what it is..
Cologne or Köln comes from a Roman Fort/Settlement named Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium. Yes thats a long name! So over time we keept the Colonia and it transformed from Coellen, Cöllen, Cölln and Cöln to Köln.
Atlanta was called Marthasville for two years, in between Terminus and Atlanta. It was named after the Governor's daughter, Martha, but I guess it didn't stick.
My home town in Slovenia is called Krško. When the Austria-Hungary was in power it was called Gurkfeld (Gurk being the Greman Word for the river Krka and "-feld" meaning field). And the river going trough the town is Sava...
So Kalamazoo (which is a real place) means “boiling pot,” “mirage,” “reflecting river,” depending on the exact translation or origin of the Potawatomi word "Kikalemazo". Either way everyone seems to know it from Dr. Seuss so it might as well be made up.
Tempe, Arizona: named after Tempe, Greece, because apparently before the Salt River was stopped by a dam, the view of the river and hills by Hayden's Ferry reminded an early settler of the Pineios River and Tempe Pass in Thessaly.
Manotick, ON, Canada. Its mainly on an island in the middle of the Rideau River (river basically splits and rejoins), thus 'Manotick' after the Algonquin word for 'island'.
"the town was founded after a treaty was met with the tribe", so really, the town was not so much "founded" in the 1800s so much as it was taken over in the 1800s. Murica!
The city where I live is called after the river Lune and the Roman fort (castrum) that used to stand on the hill. Lancaster. The Doomsday book called it Loncastre.
My hometown of Perth, Western Australia was named after the city of Perth in Scotland due to the influence of sir George Murray who had connections to the Perth in Scotland
My town has a very literal name. Taking shelter from a storm, some captain brought his gig into a secluded harbor. The town that developed was then named.... Gig Harbor. very creative
I love watching the list show, I'm from New Zealand and my home town Rotorua is literally "two lakes" in Maori named for the largest two of the areas 30 lakes, the most well known of witch happens to be named lake Rotorua
I absolutely love mental floss! My hometown was mentioned in Portland, Maine and it's name comes from being an important shipping port. Originally though, Portland was named Machigonne (mash-i-gone) which means "great neck" in Algonquian Native American meaning "great neck" in reference to the peninsula in Portland overlooking the Atlantic. Again, I love mental floss! Keep up the great work!
Dublin comes from the Anglicization of an old Gaelic name for black pool because there was a settlement just off the River Liffey around a dark pool. However, the Irish name for the city is Baile Átha Cliath which means town of the hurdled ford because there was a settlement a little bit further up the river where it could be crossed. One city, two names, two origins.
Well, I'm currently living in a town called Limerick - you know, like the one in Ireland...or the kind of poem. I suspect we're named after the Irish town and/or county. Maine liked the name so much there's also a New Limerick on the other side of the state - about 4 hours/a 263 mile drive (according to Google maps) away.
I'm from Columbus, and obviously I knew we were named after Christopher Columbus, but I didn't know the drunk part! I'm so proud! *wipes tear from eye*
my hometown is Fairborn, with was two small towns with when the great Dayton flood happened it pushed all of Osborn into Fairfield which then created the city of Fairborn.
I currently live in Dublin, Ireland and the name comes from the Old Norse "Dubh Linn" or "Black Pool" in English (pronounced "duvv lin") which refers to the dark waters around it Tullamore, another town I've lived in is an anglicisation of the Irish "Tulach Mhor" or "Big Mound and refers to the hill in the centre of the town
My home town, Vejle, comes from the old, Danish word Wæthel, meaning 'Wetland', since the city was partly swamp back then. The vikings used to cross over the city via Ravning Bridge (which was actually the longest bridge in Denmark until 1935) . The city was first mentioned in 1256, but there has been buildings in the city since at least 1100.
For those without internet connection or traveling bug in their veins, LA LA land, The City, City of Angles, etc is El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula.
I was born in Auburn, Washington which was originally called Slaughter. They renamed the city Auburn in 1893 after a line in the poem The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith "Sweet Auburn! Loveliest village of the plain."
Vincennes, Indiana named for the founder of the second trading post built on the site. From a trading post to a fort to a town and the first capital of the Indiana Territory. The oldest city in Indiana and one of the first towns west of the Appalachians.
Shout out to Lincolnshire, England! Home to many, many places that much bigger places in America are named after. Newark is only just outside Lincolnshire, too.
The strait in De Troit is the Detroit River, which flows between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie. The St. Clair River connects Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair.
Fostoria, OH... named after Charles Foster the son of the man who first settled in the area and brought 4 rail road lines into the new city. It boomed and now its bust and we still have massive train traffic that ties up our streets.
Waccabuc (NY) comes from an anglicization of Wepac or Wecquapaug, which in an Algonkian language translates to "long pond," as there are many ponds/lakes in the area.
My hometown is Duisburg in Germany. There are two explanations for the name. First, would be the germanic "dheus" which means "flood plain", so it would be the "fortified place in the floodplain". Second it could be from old german "duis" which would be "hill", so Duisburg would be the "castle on the hill". The fist mention of the City dates back to 883AD when Vikings raided the City and stayed for the winter, but there were already roman settlements in the area in 100 AD
my home town Sault Sainte Marie, MI is one of the oldest cities in the US and oldest in MI, It is old French meaning something like by the river ste. marie. but Novi MI was the no.6 stage couch stop.
My hometown of Afton, NY has a particularly interesting history. It is named after a river in Scotland that was written about in a Poem by Robert Burns. It was originally part of a settlement called Jericho which combined it and a town now called Bainbridge, but when there was a particularly bad winter storm and no supplies were sent to the area now known as Afton, the two decided to split ways. Afton was first known as Clinton, but then East Bainbridge. Still upset about the lack of aid in the snow storm they wanted to change their name and break away from Bainbridge once and for all. They chose the current name of Afton from their favorite poem and because it began with the letter A and would, therefore come before the town of Bainbridge in the state registers.
My hometown of Valdosta, GA derives from "Valle d'Aosta," or "Valley of Augustus," the name of Governor George Troup's plantation and a region in Italy.
My home town is Lincoln, in the U.K. Its name and origin comes from the 1st century BC (beat that). Named by Celtic inhabitants as Lindon, meaning "The Pool by the hill" for the natural lake it was next to. The Romans took over in 48 AD and Latinised the name to "Lindum". Adding "Colonia" when converted to a veteran settlement. Sometime after AD 410 the Latin name Lindum Colonia was shortened in Old English to become first "Lindocolina", then "Lincylene". Which when spoken out loud morphed over time to Lincoln.
What? No Truth or Consequences, NM? The town was originally named Hot Springs but in 1950, popular radio host, Ralph Edwards, host of the equally popular show Truth or Consequences, announced that he would broadcast his 10th anniversary show from the first town to rename itself after the show. The citizens of Hot Springs decided to change the name and that is what it has been called ever since. Edwards had visited the town every year during the first weekend in May for the following 50 years!
Hey! Viewer from Cleveland here! The generally accepted story here for why they dropped the first A is that only Cleaveland with the extra A didn't fit across the top of the first city-wide newspaper and that A was the only letter that could be dropped without changing the pronunciation and then because of the wide circulation of the newspaper and everyone seeing it spelled that way every day businesses, etc. started spelling in that way. You do see bumperstickers around town sometimes that say "Cleaveland deserves an A" ;)
The -Mistake- By-The-Lake !
For San Francisco, Yerba Buena directly translated means "good weed/root"
Quite appropriate
I live on the Shetland Islands, halfway between Scotland and Norway. When the islands were conquered and colonised by the Vikings, they mapped the islands, and discovered they feared a striking resemblance to a sword hilt - or "Hjalt" in old Norse. So the islands were named Hjaltland. Fast forward a few hundred years, and in a later Viking rune alphabet, the "Hj" sound is drawn with a rune that looks a lot like the letter Z in English. Norway gave the islands to Scotland as part of a marriage dowry (in lieu of money) for the Scottish king marrying a Norwegian princess in the 1400s. Later, the Scottish and English crowns unified, ultimately leading to the formation of the United Kingdom. At some point, as English became the dominant language (and English speaking cartographers renamed local place names to be more English language, and less Scandinavian), and because of that Hj sound that looked like a Z, Hjaltland became Zetland. And then, gradually, Zetland became Shetland.
aw i love that people are sharing their hometown's name origins. mine is belfast, which is an anglicised version of the gaelic béal feirste, which means mouth of the river.
My hometown in the Netherlands is called Vught. It comes from the Dutch word for 'moist'. Eww.
PoisonTheOgres well that's...interesting. 🙁
Damp might be a closer translation, not much better though ;)
PoisonTheOgres, for the Netherlands, it's rather an apt name, you must admit. 😊
John Smith Not even close xD
PoisonTheOgres vught vught vught vught vught
you couldn't squeeze Seattle in there? it was named after Chief Sia'hl of the Duamish and Suquamish tribes
Or Tacoma! Named after the Salish word for nearby Mount Rainier, Tahoma or Tacoma.
kristinisimaginary or Yakima, or Spokane, or walla walla. They ignored Washington state completely. But hey we got 3 from Cali and 4 from Texas.
And my favorite: Washington was originally supposed to be named Columbia, but they were worried people would get it confused with the District of Columbia. So they named it Washington. -_-
Glad there's at least some Seattle love in the comments.
*"the tim-berners lee communication strategy"* was already his bands name.
Norway, Maine was not named after the country. Its incorporation papers originally named it something like Norridge, which in the local Algonquin language meant "waterfall." The office in DC assumed it was a misspelling of "Norge," which is the Norwegian word for Norway, and since there was a policy at the time against foreign names, the DC office "translated" the town name to Norway.
"Terminus is a terrible place name."
Looking at you, Isaac Asimov!
Especially after the Walking dead. The Word just gives me the chills.
Matthew Prorok
I'm currently reading Assimov Foundation's edge.
I guess I'll keep an eye for Teminus go boom.
Omer Neu Terminus comes up in the first foundation book "Foundation" I would suggest reading them in the order he wrote them, but it's not that important.
I already read the original trilogy.
I thinks its very important because the stories of the past book are the history of the next books.
Asimov is my favorite fiction author!
Pet theory regarding place names and the Foundation and Empire universe: Hari Seldon, the founder of the foundation on Terminus was from Helicon, and my best guess as to how he made that up was that it makes Hari Seldon a "Heliconian" --- which is a genus of butterfly. This goes along with the idea behind how psychohistory is used to direct the course of events, with the a-butterfly-flapping-its-wings-creates-a-thunderstorm-on-the-other-side-of-the-globe chaos theory - but with a very well-informed butterfly that know what it's doing. Thoughts, anyone?
Your Spanish pronunciation is just impeccable!
Mars, PA - only town in the country with that name - isn't quite sure how we got our name and was settled in 1873.
Some think it was named in honor of the first mayor's wife's love of astronomy. But the most important thing is we have a flying saucer in the town square and our high school football team is named 'The Fighting Planets'
THATS AMAZING! My town mascot is a clock.
Becca Moses
We need a Mental Floss vid on non-living high school mascots :)
NorthernRedwood is it near Hershey, PA? Because if it was I'd think it would have something to do with Mars Corp.
Sadly no, although I would love to smell chocolate all the time... We're over near Pittsburgh. At one point though, they were thinking of moving some corporate offices out here so they could have a Mars mailing address, but they gave up.
Amanda Ciccione Hershey foods is in Hershey,PA Mars corp. Is in McLean VA. The town Mars,PA is near Pittsburgh,PA and is unrelated to either candy maker. Interestingly enough also near Pittsburgh is Moon Township. Pittsburgh is thus, out of this world!
I was actually thinking about just this topic today, good timing and great video John as usual, thank you!
Eugene, OR named after Eugene Skinner, an early American settler to the area. We also have Skinner's Butte.
You... you should probably return that.
savages skinning people's buttes I thought we were better than that
My home town in Denmark is called Vejle, which is coming form a old form from the Danish word which means something like" the safe passage over the river"
I grew up near a town called Sleepy Hollow named after the Washington Irving story. Washington Irving is buried there, too. I always thought that was pretty cool.
I'm not convinced the village was "named after" the story. From the village website, _"In 1655 Adriaen Van der Donck, a Dutch colonist, first published a work which referred to the Pocantico River as Slapershaven or, literally,
Sleepers’ Haven. Sleepy Hollow appears to be a later, Anglicized version
of this name and actually applied to the valley of the Pocantico River."_ That was long before Washington Irving was born.
Silkendrum My mistake. But it's even cooler if the town is what Washington Irving based his story on.
PeanutBetter27
I agree. It feels much nicer if he chose the existing village as the setting. I did a little more research, and it turns out that he had relatives in Tarrytown, near Sleepy Hollow, and became enamored with the village of Sleepy Hollow and its heritage of ghost stories during visits to Tarrytown in his teens.
Silkendrum Neat.
Washington Irving was the original Flat Earther
Cincinnati used to be called Losantiville, basically meaning "city across the river", but was changed by Author St. Claire, the first governor of the Northwest Territory, who was a member of the Society of Cincinnati (a group that counted Washington as a member), named after one of the most celebrated rulers in Roman history.
Just to add: that ruler was Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. Cincinnatus means "having curly hair".
mescad, if I remember correctly, he was the ruler 3 times and each time resigned once he felt the Republic was safe, George Washington was considered a sort of analogue to him.
Thank you for posting this. I'll add this to Losantiville-
The name is a mix of different languages and uses some abbreviation...
L- Licking river (river that runs off of the Ohio river)
Os- Latin for Mouth
Anti- Greek for opposite
Ville- Generalized term for city.
So "city opposite the side of the Licking River"
Why in the world they passed on Cincinnati in the first place confounds me, but especially with this little nugget of information. I'm genuinely bummed that they left it out.
I'm glad that I wasn't the only one bummed to see this video and noting the glaring omission of Cincinnati, when they did Columbus, Cleveland, and even Louisville (though, they also left out the fact that Louisville was part of the historic Bourbon County (the county still exists but is a lot smaller than it used to be), which was also named after the French monarch, and ended up giving its name to a uniquely American type of whiskey).
That's where the walking dead got terminus from! that's so cool!
Winnipeg is Anishinaabemowin / Ojibwe for "muddy waters". Which is why you can take the Muddy Waters river tours (among other businesses that latched onto the name).
My home town is Wellington, New Zealand. Originally named Port Nicholas, it was renamed Wellington after the Duke of Wellington who also coined the name for the wellington boots (or gumboots as they are known in NZ)
Another fun fact about wellies, the wellington boot was invented before New Zealand was settled by the British.
Meaning gumboots are older than my country.
It is amazing how a very well read and productive writer such as yourself, can have such an issue with pronunciation. Carry on!
I live in Salt Lake City. Home of the least imaginative city namers ever. There is a big salty lake here...
That's actually a historically consistent naming scheme. Many cities worldwide are named after natural landmarks like lakes and especially rivers.
My favorite being Berlin which came from the slavic word for swamp or a dry place in wetlands.
Christopher Beckstrom Woo, same here!
bigsaltylakeville
Home of cs:go and LOL players
Dolan Trimp it was actually originally called Great Salt Lake City
I grew up in a town in Illinois called Galesburg; the founder was a Presbyterian minister from NY who moved out west to found a college and to espouse abolition viewpoints. The town ended up being a spot on the Underground Railroad.
It isn't my hometown (although I did live there for six months) and it is far from being a city, but...
Picture it, southeastern Indiana, early 1900s (sorry, Golden Girls reference, I couldn't resist). A small community along what is now U.S. 421 between Versailles (although spelled like the city in France, it is pronounced ver-SALES) and Madison was steadily growing and appealed to the state of Indiana to have a post office. They decided to name the new community "Comet" in honor of Halley's Comet, which was due to make an appearance soon. So they wrote the letter to the Postmaster General in Indianapolis requesting the name of the town be "Comet".
Unfortunately, they didn't type the letter, they hand-wrote it, and they didn't use the best handwriting. The Postmaster wrote back to them. "I just want to be sure. Did you say you wanted the name of your town to be 'Comet'?"
"That's Correct" was the reply back.
So is how Correct, Indiana was born.
Today it is a little dot on the road, no longer incorporated, no longer has a post office, and it pretty much has the "Welcome To Correct" and "Now Leaving Correct" signs on the same post. But the story of how it got its name will live on.
Jason Corfman +
My hometown is "Flower Mound".....we have a literal mound with what used to be flowers and are now weeds on it. There's a fence and a sign and everything.
I live in Oregon, a state which I'm beginning to suspect just steals all its city names from other states. I live in Salem (stolen from Massachusetts), and of course there's Portland (Maine), Dallas (Texas), Independence (Missouri), Detroit (Michegan), Albany (New York), and Springfield (Iowa). I could go on.
Peter Ellis
I'm pretty sure all were named by settlelers from the very places your state's places are named after.
I'm sure you're right.
terrible
There's a Pittsburgh kansas too, and a Springfield in Missouri also, I think there are a lot of repeating Names for cities and towns throughout the country.
but they didn't quite spell Milwaukie the same ...
Gig Harbor was named for being a harbor where a Charles Wilkes landed his gig (a small boat used to ferry people, particularly the captain, from ship to shore) for protection during a storm.
Of course Boston was named after somewhere in England!! Everywhere in Massachusetts is named something either British or Native American.
Well the Brits did primarily settle Massachusetts so that would be why. Remember, they're called the pilgrims.
My Massachusetts town is named after a place in Kentucky. Still not very original though
Freakgrl04 well obviously that's the point.
Which one, if I may ask?
Darleen the Queen of Beans
My childhood was spent in Maryborough, Victoria, Australia (there's another one in QLD, Aus). It is very Scottish, having the annual Highland Gathering every January 1st; the only place that is able to display a girl dancing on a drum (if there is one advanced enough but still small enough) outside Scotland! From November through Christmas, the air would harmonise with the practicing of bagpipes - I loved to sit outside and simply listen to the music!
It's not "guadaloop" - it's "guada-loo-peh"
Not necessarily - just wasn't exposed to the way it's actually supposed to be pronounced. I'm pretty sure Hank is way smarter than me.
mn chaos
Never mock someone for mispronouncing something, for it means they learned it by reading. (paraphrased quote from somewhere)
This is John, who the eff is Hank?
Oh crap. That's his brother Haha sorry
Thank you! I was screaming at my screen.
I love reading about everyone's hometowns! Mine is Waynoka - it is from an old Indian word for sweet water.
Can you do a video on Canadian Cities?
All five of them?
There are smaller cities too
Stanley Tam no. No one really cares enough to, even Canadians.
Sorry, eight.
I thought Canada only had provinces and beer!
Tonawanda,NY means “swift waters” named by original inhabitants,Erie Indians
No mention of Corpus Christi, Texas, which is named for Corpus Christi Bay?
Which is named for the feast of Corpus Christi?
Which is named for that guy, you know?
Gov. Chris Christi?
Corpus Christi.... Body of Christ, another Catholic based nomenclature.
Body of Chris Christi? That's a big body.
Superman?
That guy?
These are my favorite kinds of videos!
In June of 1775 pioneers set up camp near a creek in Fincastle County in the colony of Virginia. When they heard of the colonists winning the Battles of Lexington and Concord against the British, they named their campsite Lexington. Later Fincastle County was subdivided, creating Kentucky County, which became a state in 1792. Today Lexington is in Fayette County (named for Marquis de Lafayette) in Kentucky, meaning Lexington has been a part of 3 counties and 2 states.
The namesake Lexington in Massachusetts is said to either be named for an English noble named Baron Lexinton, or for the English town of Laxton, once spelled Laxintone. It may mean "the farm/estate of the family of a man named Leaxa."
I currently live in Helsinki, and I'm pretty sure that the name's description would be something along the lines of "freezing hell".
The etymology of my hometown is no mystery, Only the largest salt water lake in the Western Hemisphere.
biglakewithsaltville?
Saltwater-lake-in the Western Hemisphereburg, of course.
*burgh
Utah? I think you replied to the wrong comment, I'm a neighbor one state to the east. :P
drunk mistake
Love those pronunciations!
Not very happy about my city being called Pumpkinville once
The 3998 Crew - Actually I prefer it. At least for one day a year! :)
#makephoenixpumpkinvilleagain
it' better than what it is now....shithole.
Better than having it Pumpkinville still.
I grew up in a tiny little 2-stoplight town in NC called Four Oaks. Named after a giant oak tree that had four "trunks" branching out of the base of the tree. The eponymous tree is no longer standing.
rome, georgia was named by the 3 guys that founded the city.
one of them was from hamburg, germany.
the second from yorkshire, England.
and the third was from rome, italy.
they couldn't decide on a name, so they drew a name from a hat.
the Italian guy won.
maxie fuqua one of them wasn't a giant wolf and another named remius were they?
I don't get that reference.
I believe Liam is referencing the story of Romulus and Remus, the brothers raised by a she-wolf and who later founded Rome. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_and_Remus
Oh. Yeagh there's a stutue of them at city hall.
I've been to Romulus. ...It's in Michigan.
I grew up in Mobridge, SD. It was an abbreviation for Missouri River Bridge.
Does not matter which Dallas JR still gets shot
😂
I live in Milwaukie, Oregon, the city is named after Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Apparently Milwaukee was sometimes spelled Milwaukie back in the 1800s. Either that or it was done to prevent confusion in the postal service. Which it does not appear to have done.
Dear, Portland, Oregon,
We came first, bitch.
Love, your dad, Portland, Maine
Dear Portland, Maine,
Watch your language!
Love, your grandfather, Portland, England.
Coxy002605 LOL
My hometown is Santiago de Cali (usually just referred as Cali), Funded in July 25th (1536) which is the celebration of the apostle Santiago, saint patron of Spain, thus Santiago. The most agreed upon explanation of "Cali" is the word used by the local inhabitants for the region, in the Paez language.
For some reason I always thought that the name of the saint was 'San Tiago', because he was Tiago and then became a saint. Well, the more you know.
Iago comes from Yakob. Jacob, John, or James. I'm sure there's a rule about when to use San (San Diego) and when to use Sant (Sant Iago) or Santo (Santo Domingo), but I have no idea what it is..
Salt Lake City was named after the lake filled with salt next to it...
Larry Bobinski Mind=Blown
Cologne or Köln comes from a Roman Fort/Settlement named Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium. Yes thats a long name! So over time we keept the Colonia and it transformed from Coellen, Cöllen, Cölln and Cöln to Köln.
Pumpkinville though :)
ImmaterialDigression I would totally root for the Pumpkinville Cardinals
Atlanta was called Marthasville for two years, in between Terminus and Atlanta. It was named after the Governor's daughter, Martha, but I guess it didn't stick.
They eat people in terminus.
I see eaten dead people WoooooooOOOOoooo!!!!
My home town in Slovenia is called Krško. When the Austria-Hungary was in power it was called Gurkfeld (Gurk being the Greman Word for the river Krka and "-feld" meaning field). And the river going trough the town is Sava...
So Kalamazoo (which is a real place) means “boiling pot,” “mirage,” “reflecting river,” depending on the exact translation or origin of the Potawatomi word "Kikalemazo". Either way everyone seems to know it from Dr. Seuss so it might as well be made up.
Jack Pinto kzoo!
Climax Point ;)
Jack Pinto Western Michigan is in that city right? i know my mom lived in Kalamazoo for a while, i think it was for college
Yelp, WMU is located in Kalamazoo
I used to know a guy who went to WMU :)
Tempe, Arizona: named after Tempe, Greece, because apparently before the Salt River was stopped by a dam, the view of the river and hills by Hayden's Ferry reminded an early settler of the Pineios River and Tempe Pass in Thessaly.
You didn't address why Istanbul was Constantinople.
theBarefoot and who do we blame?
sirkowski That's nobody's business but the Turks.
Manotick, ON, Canada. Its mainly on an island in the middle of the Rideau River (river basically splits and rejoins), thus 'Manotick' after the Algonquin word for 'island'.
"the town was founded after a treaty was met with the tribe", so really, the town was not so much "founded" in the 1800s so much as it was taken over in the 1800s. Murica!
9385dee7 as with most colonized* countries.
*invaded
The city where I live is called after the river Lune and the Roman fort (castrum) that used to stand on the hill. Lancaster. The Doomsday book called it Loncastre.
Does this mean that people should be pronouncing Pittsburgh to rhyme with Edinburgh?
what a great question!
My hometown of Perth, Western Australia was named after the city of Perth in Scotland due to the influence of sir George Murray who had connections to the Perth in Scotland
My cities name means "where there are trees in water".
mangrove, Mississippi?
maxie fuqua Nope, head north.
Tennessee?
maxie fuqua No, Canada.
Trawna. =)
It's funny hearing John say "Guadalupe" because, as a San Jose native, I can tell you we all pronounce it " guad-a-loo-pay"
My town has a very literal name. Taking shelter from a storm, some captain brought his gig into a secluded harbor. The town that developed was then named.... Gig Harbor. very creative
I love watching the list show, I'm from New Zealand and my home town Rotorua is literally "two lakes" in Maori named for the largest two of the areas 30 lakes, the most well known of witch happens to be named lake Rotorua
Terminus sounds so cool!
I absolutely love mental floss! My hometown was mentioned in Portland, Maine and it's name comes from being an important shipping port. Originally though, Portland was named Machigonne (mash-i-gone) which means "great neck" in Algonquian Native American meaning "great neck" in reference to the peninsula in Portland overlooking the Atlantic. Again, I love mental floss! Keep up the great work!
Dublin comes from the Anglicization of an old Gaelic name for black pool because there was a settlement just off the River Liffey around a dark pool. However, the Irish name for the city is Baile Átha Cliath which means town of the hurdled ford because there was a settlement a little bit further up the river where it could be crossed. One city, two names, two origins.
Well, I'm currently living in a town called Limerick - you know, like the one in Ireland...or the kind of poem. I suspect we're named after the Irish town and/or county. Maine liked the name so much there's also a New Limerick on the other side of the state - about 4 hours/a 263 mile drive (according to Google maps) away.
My hometown is "Rock Springs" which is named after a spring coming out of some rocks. The spring has since dried up.
I'm from Columbus, and obviously I knew we were named after Christopher Columbus, but I didn't know the drunk part! I'm so proud! *wipes tear from eye*
my hometown is Fairborn, with was two small towns with when the great Dayton flood happened it pushed all of Osborn into Fairfield which then created the city of Fairborn.
I'm from Binghamton, NY. The city was named after William Bingham, a wealthy Philadelphian who bought the 10,000 acre patent for the land in 1786.
I currently live in Dublin, Ireland and the name comes from the Old Norse "Dubh Linn" or "Black Pool" in English (pronounced "duvv lin") which refers to the dark waters around it
Tullamore, another town I've lived in is an anglicisation of the Irish "Tulach Mhor" or "Big Mound and refers to the hill in the centre of the town
Love that "Tullamore Dew"! Ahh, the water of life!
My home town, Vejle, comes from the old, Danish word Wæthel, meaning 'Wetland', since the city was partly swamp back then. The vikings used to cross over the city via Ravning Bridge (which was actually the longest bridge in Denmark until 1935) . The city was first mentioned in 1256, but there has been buildings in the city since at least 1100.
I learned today from Kevin Smith's podcast the Gastown in Vancouver BC is named after a bar owner named "Gassy Jack".
My hometown is Corvallis, OR, which is Latin for "Heart of The Valley" because it's roughly at the center of the Willamette Valley in Oregon
My hometown of Port Angeles like LA had a much longer name translating to "Port of Our Lady of the Angels". This was in Washington State in 1791.
My hometown's name is Springfield... I assume they found a spring in a field.
For those without internet connection or traveling bug in their veins, LA LA land, The City, City of Angles, etc is El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula.
My hometown is called "Lino Lakes", so named because of the line of lakes it was drawn around. Fascinating isn't is.
I was born in Auburn, Washington which was originally called Slaughter. They renamed the city Auburn in 1893 after a line in the poem The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith "Sweet Auburn! Loveliest village of the plain."
Vincennes, Indiana named for the founder of the second trading post built on the site. From a trading post to a fort to a town and the first capital of the Indiana Territory. The oldest city in Indiana and one of the first towns west of the Appalachians.
My town is Webb City. John Webb was a farmer who found a huge chunk of lead in his field. The area quickly became a mining city, named Webb City.
Shout out to Lincolnshire, England! Home to many, many places that much bigger places in America are named after. Newark is only just outside Lincolnshire, too.
The strait in De Troit is the Detroit River, which flows between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie. The St. Clair River connects Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair.
"I'm from the Terminus" I feel a YA dystopian novel coming.
Novi, Michigan. Stop No. VI on the trail from Detroit to Chicago.
Fostoria, OH... named after Charles Foster the son of the man who first settled in the area and brought 4 rail road lines into the new city. It boomed and now its bust and we still have massive train traffic that ties up our streets.
Waccabuc (NY) comes from an anglicization of Wepac or Wecquapaug, which in an Algonkian language translates to "long pond," as there are many ponds/lakes in the area.
My hometown is Duisburg in Germany. There are two explanations for the name. First, would be the germanic "dheus" which means "flood plain", so it would be the "fortified place in the floodplain". Second it could be from old german "duis" which would be "hill", so Duisburg would be the "castle on the hill". The fist mention of the City dates back to 883AD when Vikings raided the City and stayed for the winter, but there were already roman settlements in the area in 100 AD
my home town Sault Sainte Marie, MI is one of the oldest cities in the US and oldest in MI, It is old French meaning something like by the river ste. marie.
but Novi MI was the no.6 stage couch stop.
I currently live in Mankato, MN. The story is name comes from a misspelling of the Dakota Sioux word for blue earth, but means blue skunk.
My hometown of Afton, NY has a particularly interesting history. It is named after a river in Scotland that was written about in a Poem by Robert Burns. It was originally part of a settlement called Jericho which combined it and a town now called Bainbridge, but when there was a particularly bad winter storm and no supplies were sent to the area now known as Afton, the two decided to split ways. Afton was first known as Clinton, but then East Bainbridge. Still upset about the lack of aid in the snow storm they wanted to change their name and break away from Bainbridge once and for all. They chose the current name of Afton from their favorite poem and because it began with the letter A and would, therefore come before the town of Bainbridge in the state registers.
Flow gently, sweet Afton
My hometown of Valdosta, GA derives from "Valle d'Aosta," or "Valley of Augustus," the name of Governor George Troup's plantation and a region in Italy.
My hometown is Yateley, Old English for a gate (yate) into an open area/field (ley)
My home town is Lincoln, in the U.K. Its name and origin comes from the 1st century BC (beat that). Named by Celtic inhabitants as Lindon, meaning "The Pool by the hill" for the natural lake it was next to. The Romans took over in 48 AD and Latinised the name to "Lindum". Adding "Colonia" when converted to a veteran settlement.
Sometime after AD 410 the Latin name Lindum Colonia was shortened in Old English to become first "Lindocolina", then "Lincylene". Which when spoken out loud morphed over time to Lincoln.
Asunción, Paraguay. short version of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción because it was founded on August 15th corresponding the Catholic saint.
Hey, I'm SO GLAD that you got it RIGHT about the origin of my native city, Baltimore! Yeah, I'm a VERY PROUD Baltimorean----born & bred! THANKS!
What? No Truth or Consequences, NM? The town was originally named Hot Springs but in 1950, popular radio host, Ralph Edwards, host of the equally popular show Truth or Consequences, announced that he would broadcast his 10th anniversary show from the first town to rename itself after the show. The citizens of Hot Springs decided to change the name and that is what it has been called ever since. Edwards had visited the town every year during the first weekend in May for the following 50 years!
I am so glad y'all mentioned Texas.