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wordmunger

macrumors 603
Sep 3, 2003
5,124
3
North Carolina
Davidson, North Carolina.

The town is named after Davidson College. In fact, the town used to be named "Davidson College," but it was shortened to Davidson.

Davidson College was named in honor of William Lee Davidson, a hero of the American Revolution who died in the Battle of Cowans Ford in 1781. It is built on his son's former farm.
 

j26

macrumors 68000
Mar 30, 2005
1,718
604
Paddyland
Tramore - Anglicisation of Trá Mhór (F**in' Brits :D ) which means "big beach"

The town is beside a 3 mile beach.
 
L

Lau

Guest
Great idea for a thread.

I've just spent a good 20 minutes trying to find this out (which in internet research time is ages ;) ). There's a lot of history of Leith, but little mention of where the name comes from. Presumably it's because it isn't that interesting:

LEITH, comprising the parishes of North and South Leith, which are separated In by the Water of Leith, the sea-port of Edinburgh, though it was made a separate Parliamentary Burgh in 1833, is practically a part of the City of Edinburgh; indeed, it was a part of Edinburgh once before. The name is said to have been derived from the first proprietors, the Leiths, who owned Restalrig in the reign of King Alexander III. South Leith was anciently known by the name of Restalrig or Lestalric, and when the first mention is made of it, it belonged to a family called De Lestalric. The name Leith was anciently Leyt, Let, or Inverlet, the latter appearing in King David I.'s charter to Holyrood, which, after giving the water, fishings and meadows; to the Abbey goes on to say "and that Inverlet which is nearest the harbour, and with the half of the fishing, and with a whole tithe of all of the fishing that belongs to the church of St. Cuthbert."

Link

Bloody, underhand and complicated history, but not much behind the name. It's interesting that Restalrig was Lestalric once though – the way that language changes is fascinating. Also, just along from Leith is Inverleith, so it's also interesting that Leith was originally Inverlet.
 

CorvusCamenarum

macrumors 65816
Dec 16, 2004
1,231
2
Birmingham, AL
Tuscaloosa is named for 16th century Choctaw chief Tuskaloosa (Black Warrior). His claim to fame was being beaten by Hernando de Soto in 1540, who turned up looking for gold whilst exploring the southeastern US. Incidentally, we're right on the Black Warrior river, so he's got a double tribute as it were for getting slaughtered by the Spanish.
 

Stampyhead

macrumors 68020
Sep 3, 2004
2,294
30
London, UK
Not much history here about Gilbert, Arizona. In the book, "Arizona Place Names" it says this: " On Arizona-Eastern Railroad 7 miles southeast of Mesa. Named for Robert Gilbert, who gave the land for the railroad station."
Very exciting.
In about a month and a half I'll be moving to Olathe, Kansas, which has a slightly more interesting story. From Wikipedia: "Olathe was founded by Dr. John T. Barton in the Spring of 1857. He rode to the center of Johnson County, Kansas and staked two quarter sections of land as the town site. He later described his ride to friends. "..[T]he prairie was covered with verbena and other wild flowers. I kept thinking the land was beautiful and that I should name the town Beautiful." Purportedly, Dr. Barton asked a Shawnee interpreter how to say "Beautiful" in his native language. The interpreter responded, "Olathe"."
 

WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor
Staff member
Jan 20, 2005
18,375
2,801
Alrighty...Daly City, CA is named after John Daly. Not the professional golfer with a drinking problem, but a dairy farmer and businessman who from the post-Civil War period until the early 1900s owned much of the land that became the central core of the city.
 

Raid

macrumors 68020
Feb 18, 2003
2,155
4,588
Toronto
This is actually from a goverment website, from the Ministry of Natural Resouces of all places! :confused:

Linguistically, it (the name Toronto) originated as the Mohawk phrase tkaronto, later modified by French explorers and mapmakers.

Tkaronto means "where there are trees standing in the water," according to several Mohawk speakers and aboriginal language expert John Steckley. Mohawks used the phrase to describe The Narrows, where Hurons and other natives drove stakes into the water to create fish weirs.

The Mohawk phrase began its southward movement about 1680, when Lac de Taronto (today's Lake Simcoe), appeared on a map attributed to French court official Abbé Claude Bernou. From there the name inspired Passage de Taronto in 1686 for the canoe route between lakes Simcoe and Ontario, which followed what we call today the Humber River.

Others have said the name Toronto is a reference to the Huron word toronton meaning a "place of meetings", after Henry Scadding put definition in a book in 1884. In an intereting side note I know there are two streets with the name Scadding in Toronto.
 

yellow

Moderator emeritus
Oct 21, 2003
16,018
6
Portland, OR
South Kingstown. (Village of Wakefield and West Kingstown) No clue. South of North Kingstown, I know that. :)
But it was purchased from the Narragansett Indians and establishd in 1657.


Bethel. No clue.

Durham. No clue.

Rougemont. I assume, a large hill of red clay/dirt.
 

Stampyhead

macrumors 68020
Sep 3, 2004
2,294
30
London, UK
Boise is the headquarters for several major companies, such as... the J.R. Simplot Company

I was just reading the history of J.R. Simplot in the book "Fast Food Nation." It's amazing how this man went from a poor kid with nothing to being at the head of a multi-billion dollar corporation. He helped to revolutionize the potato growing industry in Idaho. Sorry, a bit off topic but I thought it was interesting.
 

TheBobcat

macrumors 6502
Nov 1, 2006
351
0
East Lansing, Michigan
Wow, I found a really cool one for East Lansing, MI. I mean, obviously East Lansing is the area East of Lansing, but Lansing is interesting nonetheless.

The area that is now Lansing was originally surveyed in 1825 in what was then some of the thickest, wildest woods in the region. There would be no roads to this area for decades to come.[3]

In the winter of 1835 and early 1836, two brothers from New York plotted the area now known as REO Town just south of downtown Lansing and named it "Biddle City." All of this land lay in a floodplain and was underwater during the majority of the year. Regardless, the brothers went back to New York, specifically Lansing, New York, to sell plots for the town that did not exist. They told the residents of Lansing, New York that this new "city" had an area of 65 blocks, contained a church and also a public and academic square. A group of 16 men bought plots in the nonexistent city and upon reaching the area later that year found they had been scammed. Many in the group too disappointed to stay ended up settling around what is now Metropolitan Lansing. Those who stayed quickly renamed the area "Lansing Township" in honor of their home village in New York.

The sleepy settlement of fewer than 20 people would remain dormant until the winter of 1847 when the state constitution required that the capital be moved from Detroit to a more centralized and safer location in the interior of the state since many were concerned about Detroit's close proximity to British-controlled Canada, which had captured Detroit in the War of 1812. The United States had recaptured the city in 1813, but these events led to the dire need to have the center of government relocated away from hostile British territory. In addition, there was also concern with Detroit's strong influence over Michigan politics, being the largest city in the state as well as the capital city.

So basically, they picked Lansing to be the capital because it was near the center of the state and thus people moved there. MSU appeared later in 1855 and a new city was formed from the buildup around the university, therefore we have East Lansing.
 

Kernow

macrumors 65816
Sep 30, 2005
1,438
0
Kingston-Upon-Thames
Kingston-upon-Thames.

Kingston apparently means farmstead of the kings, and is where Saxon kings were crowned. Upon-Thames because, well, it's by the river.
 

comictimes

macrumors 6502a
Jun 20, 2004
874
1
Berkeley, California
Orinda

It's in California, where most of the towns have Spanish names, but I did some research and it appears that the wife of the major landowner of the area loved the works of Katherine Fowler Philips, a 17th century poet. Philips often went by the name "Matchless Orinda" (it seems Orinda is a reference to some piece of classical literature, but I've never seen the name and couldn't find it anywhere.. anyone recognize it?), and so the wife insisted that their land be named "Orinda Park", a name which apparently stuck once the town was formed.
 

yellow

Moderator emeritus
Oct 21, 2003
16,018
6
Portland, OR
I heard from a resident many years ago that it was settled by people from North Carolina who spelled it like they pronounced the city they were from. Then pronunciations slid ever further.

Raleigh (after Sir Walter) --> Rolla

Hmmm... I always hear it as "Rahlee".
 

OllyW

Moderator
Staff member
Oct 11, 2005
17,196
6,799
The Black Country, England
Kingswinford

Mentioned in the Domesday Book as the location of a ford for the King's swine (Kingswin(e)ford).

There's also an place called Oldswinford a few miles down the road.

Getting pigs to cross streams was obviously the in-thing around here a thousand years ago :D
 
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