H. L. Mencken

“ The second city of the United States bears an Indian name, and so do the largest American river, and the greatest American water-fall, and four of the five Great Lakes, and the scene of the most important military decision ever reached on American soil.
The Dutch place-names of the United States are chiefly confined to the vicinity of New York, and a good many of them have become greatly corrupted. ”

“ There was a time, particularly during the gold rush to California, when the rough humor of the country showed itself in the invention of extravagant and often highly felicitous place-names, but with the growth of population and the rise of civic spirit they have tended to be replaced by more seemly coinages. Catfish creek, in Wisconsin, is now the Yakara river; the Bulldog mountains, in Arizona, have become the Harosomas ”

“ Baltimore offers an example. The natives always drop the medial i and so reduce the name to two syllables; in addition, they substitute a neutral vowel, very short, for the o. Anne Arundel, the name of a county in Maryland, is usually pronounced Ann’ran’l by its people. Arkansas, as everyone knows, is pronounced Arkansaw by the Arkansans. [19] The local pronunciation of Illinois is Illinoy. Iowa, at home, is Ioway. [20] Many American geographical names offer great difficulty to Englishmen. ”

“ All our great cities are surrounded by grotesque Bensonhursts, Bryn Joneses, Smithvales and Krauswoods. The number of towns in the United States bearing women’s given names is enormous. I find, for example, eleven postoffices called Charlotte, ten called Ada and no less than nineteen called Alma. ”

“ There are seven Divides, eight Buttes, eight town-names embodying the word burnt, innumerable names embodying grove, barren, plain, fork, center, cross-roads, courthouse, cove and ferry, and a great swarm of Cold Springs, Coldwaters, Summits, Middletowns and Highlands. The flora and fauna of the land are enormously represented. There are twenty-two Buffalos beside the city in New York, and scores of Buffalo Creeks, Ridges, Springs and Wallows. ”

“ Report of the Aboriginal Names and Geographical Terminology of the State of New York, by Henry R. Schoolcraft, pt. i; New York, 1845. Other works are listed in the Bibliography.↑ Walt Whitman bitterly opposed such changes. He even demanded that Indian names be substituted for names of other origin. ‘‘California,’’ he said, ‘‘is sown thick with the names of big and little saints. Chase them away and substitute aboriginal names.... No country can have its own poems without having its own names. ”

“ The Geographic Board, in its fourth report, made a belated protest against this excessive duplication. ‘‘The names Elk, Beaver, Cottonwood and Bald,’’ it said, ‘‘are altogether too numerous.’’ Of postoffices alone there are fully a hundred embodying Elk; counting in rivers, lakes, creeks, mountains and valleys, the map of the United States probably shows at least twice as many such names.
A study of American geographical and place names reveals eight general classes, as follows: (a) those embodying personal names, chiefly the surnames of pioneers or of national heroes ”

“ Once they had begun to move back from the coast and to come into contact with the aborigines and with the widely dispersed settlers of other races, they encountered rivers, mountains, lakes and even towns that bore far more engaging names, and these, after some resistance, they perforce adopted. ”

“ This is now Allegany for the Maryland county, the Pennsylvania township and the New York and Oregon towns, Alleghany for the mountains, the Colorado town and the Virginia town and springs, and Allegheny for the Pittsburgh borough and the Pennsylvania county, college and river. The Board inclines to Allegheny for all. Other Indian names give it constant concern. ”

“ It would be hard to match the beauty of Santa Margarita, San Anselmo, Alamogordo, Terra Amarilla, Sabinoso, Las Palomas, Ensenada, Nogales, San Patricio and Bernalillo. But they are under a severe and double assault. ”

“ Etymological Derivation of the Names of the States, Journal of Education, vol. x1vii, p. 378.
Boyd, Stephen G.: Indiân Local Names; York (Pa.) , 1885.
Brainerd, E.: The Significance of Some Familiar Names of Persons and Places, Education, vol. xix, p. 140.
Branner, John Casper: Some Old French Place-Names in the State of Arkansas, Modern Language Notes, vol. xiv, p. 65.
Clarke, James Freeman: On Giving Names to Towns and Streets; Boston, 1880.
Cowan, John F.: The Origin of Familiar Names, Education, vol. xix, p. 640.
Coxe, A. C.: American Geographical Names, Forum, vol. iv, p. 67. ”

“ Skinner, Charles M.: Some Odd Names of Places Across the Border, Current Literature, vol. xxv, p. 41.
Thomas, George Francis: The Meaning and Derivation of Names of Rivers, Lakes, Towns, etc., of the Northwest (in Legends of the Land of Lakes; Chicago, 1884) .
Tooker, William W.: Indian Names of Places in the Borough of Brooklyn; New York, 1901.
——: The Indian Names for Long Island; New York, 1901.
——: The Indian Place-Names on Long Island; New York, 1911.
Trumbull, J. Hammond: The Composition of Indian Geographical Names, Collection of the Conn. Historical Society, vol. ii. ”

“ Noms Géographiques de la Province de Québec et des Provinces Maritimes; Quebec, 1906.
Salverte, Eusèbe: History of the Names of Men, Nations and Places, tr. by L. H. Mordacque, 2 vols.; London, 1862–4. ”