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How did your city get its name?


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How did your city, or any city you know of, get its name?

Atlanta was known by three names:

-"Terminus": end of railroad

-"Marthasville": State gov's daughter

-"Atlanta": One of two possibilities:

------------Gov.'s daughter's middle name was Atalanta

------------In Latin, the feminine form of Atlantic (either the ocean or railroad name)

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Nashville, formerly Fort Nashborough, was named after Francis Nash, a Revolutionary war hero. The "borough" was changed to "ville" because of hate towards the English. Ville is the French word for town or village, so after the French helped us, it seemed appropriate to use that term. I think it was one of the first "villes" in this country.

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Interesting.

Do you, by any chance, know how Knoxville got it's name?

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"The founding of Knoxville: 1791, named by William Blount after President Washington's War Secretary, Henry Knox"

http://www.knoxvilletennessee.com/history.html

Heh....I didn't know either.

Btw, Nashville was founded in 1779.

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Spartanburg is named in honor of the Spartan Regiment, led by Gen Daniel Morgan, that defeated the British at the Battle of Cowpens during the Revolution.

Charleston (fka: Charles Towne) is named for King Charles II.

Columbia is the feminin style of Columbus, which is from Christopher Columbus.

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Pittsburgh (originally Pitts boro) is named for British Prime Minister William Pitt. It has gone back and forth between being a burg and a burgh. It is now the only burgh in the country, because when the government made them all drop the h's, Pittsburgh got it's h back after a few years, arguing that it needed to distinguish itself from the various Pittsburg's around the country.

It is also the most commonly misspelled city because of that h. :)

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For its first century Providence was significant much more for the principles upon which it was established than for its political or economic influence. Roger Williams made Providence (which he named for God's guidance and care) a haven for persecuted religious dissenters. His town became the "lively experiment" in religious liberty and church-state separation. This was and is its major claim to fame.

ProvidenceRI.com

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"In 1692, Spanish missionaries, looking for souls to convert and subjects for the king, arrived in the valley to find the Indian village S-tukson ("black base"). In 1775, the Spanish built an outpost, the Presidio of San Augustin."

The Indians were Pimas. The actual village was located just west of present-day Downtown, but has been completely destroyed and excavated. Tucson is now referred to as the "Old Pueblo."

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Miami was a native Tequesta word meaning "big water" referring to Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. I've also read that it meant "sweet water" meaning fresh water. The city got it's name from the river. Okeechobee is a Seminole word for "big water".

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Minneapolis got it's name from a schoolteacher in 1852, combining the Sioux word for "Laughing Waters," minnehaha, with the Greek suffix for city, or polis.

The result was "Minnehapolis" but the h was dropped right away turning the result into "City of Waters." The name was chosen by popular acclaim because the original name proposed by the County Commissioners, "Albion." was widely disliked.

Minneapolis merged with a smaller sister city just across the river named St. Anthony in 1872, retaining the larger city's name. Otherwise the Twin Cities would now be the Twin Saints of St. Anthony and St. Paul.

St. Paul was a French settlement dating from the 1840's. It was sometimes known as "Pig's Eye" because of a notorious one-eyed whiskey peddler named Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant. ;) Father Galtier established St. Paul's church in 1841, from which the city got it's name.

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Birmingham, AL was named for Birmingham, UK.

It was named this because Bham (AL) was located so near to the elemants necessary to make steel that it would likely become a manufacturing center, so it was named for the UK's leading manufacturing center.

I'm guessing Raleigh, NC was named for Sir Walter Raleigh, the founder of the Lost Colony.

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Douglasville was named because it was the seat of Douglas county, which was named after Stephen Douglas (of the Lincoln-Douglas debates before the Civil War. He was pro-slavery).

It was originally called "Skint Chestnut" after a chestnut tree that stood on the site of the first county courthouse. This tree had been stripped of its bark by the local Indians and used as a local landmark for them.

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Orlando was originally a small trading outpost called Jernigan.  During the Seminole Indian Wars, a soldier by the name of Orlando died in Jernigan, at which point they renamed the town Orlando in his honor.

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Orlando Reaves or Reeves wasn't it :)

I forgot the year 1840s 1850s?

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Pittsburgh (originally Pitts boro) is named for British Prime Minister William Pitt. It has gone back and forth between being a burg and a burgh. It is now the only burgh in the country, because when the government made them all drop the h's, Pittsburgh got it's h back after a few years, arguing that it needed to distinguish itself from the various Pittsburg's around the country.

It is also the most commonly misspelled city because of that h.

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Gerbil great presentation ;)

I recalled it being Pitts borough like the Scottish (you should love that ;) ) Edinbourough, Braddock and Forbes I think were proud Scotts (the British Generals who first attempted then succeeded in winning the forks from the French).

To my knowledge other then typos it really only went to Pittsburg once over about a 30 year span around the turn of the century (still freaky to see it like that on old stuff). It was forced to drop the H by the feds who wanted to simplify all the burgs in the country.

As far as who it was named after, your correct Gerbil it was after Prime Minister Pitt in England (NOT BRAD PITT PLEAASSSEE! :rofl: ).

But did you know? PM William Pitt "The Great Commoner" was a champion of individual rights in England and was a friend to the working common man, he was also a good friend of the colonists in America and rallied hard for our cause to an increasingly arrogant establishment in England. Pitt ended up getting squeezed out of office because of his view that the colonists were deserving of all the rights and priviledges that the English were entitled to (or at least that is my fuzzy memory of events). He was basically the FIRST REVOLUTIONARY SOLIDER! And Pittsburgh is named for him (better then Washington D.C. in that way ;) ).

William Pitt also had his son become Prime Minister in the early 1800s AND THEN had his daughter become defactor Prime Minister in the early to mid 1800s (her husband was from my recollection a compromise candidate to fill a void in leadership between party shifts for a few years but was chosen primarly because of his connections to HER family the Pitts).

If it was a century or two later William Pitt (the father of the American Revolution or at least its ideas on that side of the pond) would have had both a daughter and son succeed him in the Prime Ministers chair!

The seal of the city of Pittsburgh is based on the seal of the House of Pitt. He was duke or lord or something of Chatham, and as Gerbil knows Chatham Center is a skyscraper complex in the city, Chatham College a leading woman's institution in the city etc. etc.

And hey he must have looked HOT given how Brad makes all the ladies sigh.

^_^

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