What is etymology of you home city/town?
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  What is etymology of you home city/town?
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Author Topic: What is etymology of you home city/town?  (Read 1717 times)
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Kalwejt
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« on: September 22, 2014, 04:10:43 PM »

Warsaw, Poland

According to the most popular version, name of Warsaw came from a legendary couple: fisherman Wars and Mermaid Sawa.

Other version suggests it originated from an old-Slavic name Warcisław or Worcisław.
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anvi
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« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2014, 04:33:18 PM »

Pretty boring for me.  Dickinson, North Dakota was named for its founder, W.S. Dickinson.
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SWE
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« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2014, 04:42:38 PM »

It was named after the first station master of the Erie and Pennsylvania railroad depot
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politicus
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« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2014, 04:49:26 PM »

Copenhagen (København) means the merchants harbour. Købmand is Danish for merchant, havn is harbour.
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ilikeverin
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« Reply #4 on: September 22, 2014, 05:24:36 PM »

All more word-related etymologies from http://www.etymonline.com/

Fort Wayne, Indiana, came from General "Mad Anthony" Wayne, a famous early American general, who helped site the fort that the city was built on (and named after).  He may have named the fort after himself.  "Fort" is derived from French "fort", which in turn came from the adjective "fort" ("strong"), from Latin fortis ("strong"), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bhergh- ("high, elevated").  "Wayne" is a variant of the word "wain", as in a wainwright, which comes from Old English wægn ("wheeled vehicle, wagon"), from Proto-Germanic *wagnaz, which in turn is from Proto-Indo-European *wogh-no, derived from *wogh- "to carry, to move".

Plymouth, Minnesota's name was chosen over the much less generic "Medicine Lake" for unknown reasons when the township was first platted.  Medicine Lake is now incorporated entirely inside the borders of Plymouth.  Plymouth is named for Plymouth, which is named for Plymouth, the city on the mouth of the River Plym (the "Plum Tree River").  The name of the River Plym, incidentally, was probably backformed from the name of a nearby town (Plympton), which may either have also come from an earlier form of the word "plum" (here, Plympton would mean "plum tree farm").  Plum was a Germanic borrowing from Vulgar Latin *pruna, from Latin prunum, from Greek prounon; no one knows where that came from.    Mouth as in the mouth of a river has survived quite long as an analogy of mouth as in the body part, which came from Old English muþ ("mouth, opening, gate"), Proto-Germanic *munthaz, from Proto-Indo-European *mnto-s.
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dead0man
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« Reply #5 on: September 22, 2014, 05:41:05 PM »

Alton IL was named after the founder's son.  Omaha was named after a local NA tribe.
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Torie
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« Reply #6 on: September 22, 2014, 05:58:40 PM »

Hudson, named after Henry Hudson, the explorer seeking the Northwest passage, which didn't exist then, but does now in the Summer months, spurned by his native land, so he worked for the Dutch. The river bearing his name was one of his forays looking for the elusive Holy Grail. The city of Hudson has had an incredibly colorful history, with its glorious ups and hideously precipitous downs, including a most famous red light district, the issue of which still inhabit the place in abundance (all chronicled in Diamond Street), but I digress.
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kcguy
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« Reply #7 on: September 22, 2014, 07:04:31 PM »

Apparently, my current hometown was named after a railroad official.  I didn't know that an hour ago.

I grew up in Peculiar, Missouri.  According to legend, several possible names were rejected by the Post Office, who finally suggested that the people of the town submit a name that was more peculiar.
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Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck
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« Reply #8 on: September 22, 2014, 07:05:51 PM »

Cinnaminson, NJ. 

Cinnaminson is Iroquois for "sweet water".  As the history of NJ went on, the water became decidedly less sweet, but the name stuck. 
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Joe Republic
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« Reply #9 on: September 22, 2014, 07:08:11 PM »

'The Meadows' in Spanish
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Landslide Lyndon
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« Reply #10 on: September 22, 2014, 07:13:33 PM »

Mine was named from the city of Nicaea at Asia Minor by the refugees that founded it when they came here after 1922.
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #11 on: September 22, 2014, 07:15:05 PM »

Ah, so you're Turkish Greeks.
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MaxQue
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« Reply #12 on: September 22, 2014, 08:08:05 PM »

Val-d'Or.

From "Val", "Vale" in French,
"d'", "of" in French and
"Or", "gold" in French.

So, Vale of Gold, or rather Golden Vale. It's a mining city founded near a gold mine, in a vale.
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angus
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« Reply #13 on: September 22, 2014, 08:19:42 PM »

Copenhagen (København) means the merchants harbour. Købmand is Danish for merchant, havn is harbour.

ah, that makes sense.  Købmand looks like Kaufmann.  I lived in Germany for a year and remember enough German to figure out some Danish.  I visited Copenhagen once, and I'd decided it was Something+Haven (we also have the word "haven" in English) but I hadn't quite figured out what that something was.  Interesting.  Seller's Port, or Trader's Haven, basically.  
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H. Ross Peron
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« Reply #14 on: September 22, 2014, 09:00:06 PM »

Anaheim, California

It was originally settled by Germans so the city was called the "heim" (home) on the "Ana" (the Santa Ana River).
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DC Al Fine
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« Reply #15 on: September 22, 2014, 09:12:00 PM »

Halifax, NS

Named after Halifax, Yorkshire. Name comes from an old English word meaning rough grass.
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Flake
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« Reply #16 on: September 22, 2014, 09:39:26 PM »

Clermont's named after a town in France.
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Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck
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« Reply #17 on: September 22, 2014, 09:54:00 PM »

Anaheim, California

It was originally settled by Germans in 1904 so the city was called the "heim" (whale's) on the "Ana" (vagina).

ftfy
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Donerail
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« Reply #18 on: September 22, 2014, 09:57:31 PM »
« Edited: September 23, 2014, 09:15:43 AM by SJoyce »

St. Petersburg, Florida: John C. Williams, former mayor of Detroit, was the first person to buy land in the area, while railway owner and Russian immigrant Peter Demens brought the first rail line. They flipped for the name, Demems won, and he named it after his hometown of St. Petersburg. Williams got to name the first hotel, the Detroit Hotel.
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Redalgo
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« Reply #19 on: September 22, 2014, 10:48:20 PM »

Kalispell, MT is named after a nation of indigenous people who were displaced by European Americans generations ago and eventually relocated by the United States to a reservation in eastern Washington state.
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memphis
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« Reply #20 on: September 22, 2014, 10:59:56 PM »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis,_Egypt
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JerryArkansas
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« Reply #21 on: September 22, 2014, 11:06:47 PM »

Jonesboro.  It was named for the man who got the County, Craighead, created.
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ElectionsGuy
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« Reply #22 on: September 22, 2014, 11:51:14 PM »

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Cranberry
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« Reply #23 on: September 22, 2014, 11:58:56 PM »

Innsbruck - named after the river Inn and a bridge (Brücke/"Bruck") on it.
So Innsbruck means Inn-bridge.

Apparently the name of the river, "Inn", comes from the Celtic words "en" or "enios" which mean just water. So the full translation would be something like "Bridge over water" or "Water bridge".
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Tender Branson
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« Reply #24 on: September 23, 2014, 01:09:19 AM »

Zell am See (Austria)

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So, basically:

"Cell @ the lake."
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