Naming oddities

10 oddly named US towns and cities and their surprising stories

America is home to over 19,000 incorporated cities and towns. While many have familiar names, others sound so unusual that they often force credibility. However, behind these atypical names, there are stories rooted in America's past, from the Gold Rush and the westward expansion to local legends that have endured for generations. Let's walk through some of the most peculiar city names out there and discover their surprising origins.

Founded in 1879 by prospector Ed Schieffelin, Tombstone owes its notoriously bleak name to a sarcastic remark. While searching for silver in southeastern Arizona, Schieffelin was warned by soldiers that the only thing he would find in Apache territory was his own tombstone.

Instead, Schieffelin struck one of the richest silver deposits in the American West. He named his mining claim Tombstone, and the booming town that sprang up around it quickly became one of the frontier's most prosperous communities, best remembered today by Old West figures like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.

Originally known as Hot Springs, this community was founded in the late nineteenth century around a series of natural mineral springs that attracted visitors. By the middle of the twentieth century, it had become a well-known spa destination in the Southwest.

Everything changed in 1950, when radio personality Ralph Edwards announced that he would broadcast the anniversary episode of his wildly popular show Truth or Consequences from any town willing to adopt the show's name. In one of the most successful publicity campaigns in American history, the residents of Hot Springs voted in favor of the change, and the town still bears its unusual name more than 70 years later.

In 1944, minister and radio evangelist Curtis Howe Springer established a health resort in the Mojave Desert and deliberately named it Zzyzx. Springer claimed that he chose that specific name with the intention of making it the last word of the English dictionary.

Although the resort eventually closed and the federal government reclaimed the land, the name survived: today, Zzyzx is home to a desert studies center operated by California State University, and remains one of the most unusual names in America.

Founded during the colonial era, Accident traces its origins to a remarkable surveying mistake during the 1750s. Two surveyors, working independently, selected exactly the same 315-acre parcel while mapping western Maryland.

The overlapping claim became known as "The Accident", and when settlers established a community there, the name stuck. More than two centuries later, the town continues to embrace the name and its fortuitous history.

The community of Chicken was established during Alaska's gold rush around 1902. Prospectors frequently hunted the local ptarmigan for food and originally wanted to name the settlement after the bird.

The problem was that few of the miners could agree on how to spell ptarmigan. Rather than risk embarrassment, and because the two species share some similarities, they chose the much simpler name Chicken.

Founded in 1868, as the railroad expanded across western Missouri, the community encountered an unexpected problem when applying for a post office: Every proposed town name had already been claimed elsewhere in the state.

The story goes that the local postmaster, in frustration, wrote to Washington stating that he didn't care what the town was called as long as it was something "peculiar." More than 150 years later, Peculiar still bears the name with pride.

"Why" is a community located in the Sonoran Desert, whose unusual name is the product of an unexpected legal technicality. The settlement developed during the early twentieth century at the point where the State Routes 85 and 86 intersected in the shape of the letter "Y."

The community originally wanted to call itself "Y" in honor of that intersection, but because Arizona law required community names to contain at least three letters, they spelled it out. As a result, even after the intersection has since been redesigned, the town of Why still keeps one of the most curious and memorable names in America.

While the name "Boring" may sound unflattering, its story is a pretty common one. The town is named after William Harrison Boring, a Union Army veteran who moved into the area in the 1870s and became one of its earliest settlers.

Over time, the accidental double meaning of Boring turned it into a tourist curiosity. The community, rather than shy away from the jokes, embraced them, even forming a lighthearted partnership with the village of Dull, Scotland, to celebrate their similarly harsh names.

Hell began as a small milling community in southern Michigan during the 1830s, when pioneer George Reeves established it along nearby waterways. The exact origin of its name is shrouded in legend and local folklore.

One of the most popular stories claims that, when Reeves was asked what the settlement should be called, he jokingly replied: "Call it Hell for all I care." On the other hand, some historians believe that the name evolved from early German settlers using the word hell, meaning "bright".

While the true origin of the name may never be known, the town of Hell fully embraced its reputation, welcoming thousands of visitors each year with thematic attractions and souvenirs.

Unlike many Western towns that grew naturally around mines or railroads, Jackpot was created almost overnight in 1954 as a direct result of Idaho banning casino gambling. Entrepreneurs realized they could attract Idaho residents simply by building casinos just across the Nevada border.

The new community was aptly named Jackpot, and it quickly became a thriving destination. Few towns have a name that so perfectly matches the reason they came into existence.

NAME ANCESTRY

14 Surprising Origin Stories Behind State Names In The USA

Image: Pin Adventure Map

Ever wondered where most US states’ names come from? From Native American roots to foreign or made-up words, the stories behind many of them are riddled with surprising historical references. Although the origin of some US states’ names is fairly obvious, many derive from unexpected people or places. The origin of names like Colorado, Montana, or Nevada are easy to infer —especially if you know a bit of Spanish— but many others have Native American origins with intriguing meanings. Some are even derived from fiction. If you ever wanted to know where names like Oregon, Connecticut, or Wisconsin come from, you are in the right place. Enjoy the surprising etymologies behind some of the names that make our country.

Image: Joshua Woroniecki

Interestingly, for a state whose main economic activity is agriculture, the word Alabama comes from the Choctaw language and can be translated as "plant-cutters" or "vegetation pickers", recalling the farming practices of the Native Americans that lived in this area.

Image: olio creative

Alaska is a corruption of an Aleut word that means "mainland", but can be translated literally as "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed". This is one of those names that manage to bring poetry into a word as simple and down-to-earth as land.

Image: Vital Sinkevich

This one comes from… a Spanish adventure novel! Bet you didn’t expect that. In Las Sergas de Esplandin by Garcia Ordez de Montalvo, a book from the 1500s, there is a fictional place called the "Island of California". Even when the modern state of California is clearly not an island, some die-hard fanatic of the novel decided to bring the name to life here in the U.S.

Image: Juliette Dickens

Derived from the Algonquian word quinnehtukqut, which can be translated as "besides the long tidal river", in reference to the river Connecticut. If you are wondering what the "tidal" part means exactly, this is because the Connecticut River's flow and level are effectively influenced by tides along much of its course. Certainly some amazing insight into the rigorous knowledge of local hydrology that Native Americans managed to accrue over the centuries.

Image: Luke McKeown

Although the origin of this name is disputed, there are two main theories. One suggests that the islands may have been named after Hawaii Loa, their traditional discoverer. However, others have speculated that it is actually derived from the ancient Polynesian word hawaiki, meaning "place of the gods".

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Another crazy one. Although the name was first claimed to be derived from a Shoshone word that meant "Gem of the Mountains", it is highly likely that the word was fabricated by George M. Willing, and meant as a practical joke.

Image: Stéfano Girardelli

Quite literally, "land of Indians", using a Latin suffix. The word Indians originally referred to the ancient dwellers of the shores of the Indus River, in South and Central Asia.

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"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore!" said Dorothy, from The Wizard of Oz, right after a rampant tornado literally lifted her house in the air and took it to God knows where. Well, this US state’s fame for violent winds predates even the first settlers, since Kansas is a Native American word used by the Dakota, strongly related to the idea of "wind".

Image: Drew Beamer

This state owes its name to an Iroquoian word that means "land of tomorrow". Quite a blockbuster-worthy movie title, if you ask me.

Image: Mercedes Mehling

The origin story behind the name of "The Pine Tree State" is still disputed. However, there are some interesting theories. One states that it derives from "mainland", as a form of distinction from the many coastal islands in the vicinity. Other theories propose that it was named in honor of Henrietta Maria, queen of England, or after the province of Mayne in France.

Image: Anthony Cantin

To the Native Americans that lived in this region, Missouri meant "town of the large canoes", as the Missouri tribes were renowned for their skill in making dugout canoes.

Image: Ashley Levinson

A largely disputed one. Many suggest that the name has Spanish origins, being similar to other words like orejón (meaning "big ear") or orégano, in reference to a type of plant (similar to the Mediterranean oregano) that grows in the southern part of the state.

Image: Donnie Rosie

This is the only state that has a part of its founder’s name in it. It is widely believed that Pennsylvania means "Penn’s Woodland", and was named as such in honor of Sir William Penn, father of its founder William Penn.

Image: Brydon McCluskey

This is probably a French corruption of a native Miami word that meant "it lies red" or "river running through a red place", in reference to the bed of the river Wisconsin.

If our quick dive into the peculiar world of US state names wasn’t enough to quench your curiosity, stay around! We will keep uploading more content related to language and the weird stories and etymologies behind many English and foreign words.