Do you ever wish your city kept its original name?

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

for as many states as we have with native american derived names, there aren't a ton of large US cities with such.



Cities with fully-derived native american names out of the 100 largest US cities:

Chicago
Seattle
Milwaukee
Tucson
Omaha
Miami
Wichita
Tampa
Honolulu
Chesapeake
Spokane



Cities with partially-derived native american names out of the 100 largest US cities:

Oklahoma City
Kansas City
Minneapolis

NVM... oops... I didn't read carefully

[JManc]

Originally Posted by (four 0 four)

Terminus >>> Marthasville >>> Atlanta. I'm OK with the change...change is good.

I wonder if that's where they got the name "Terminus" from in The Walking Dead.

[iheartthed]

I kinda like Terminus. Wish they'd kept it.

[MolsonExport]

Montréal was "Ville-Marie" when settled by the French, and before that there was an Iroquois village at the foot of Mont Royal called "Hochelaga". Later the settlement became "Ville-Marie de Montréal" and later, Montréal.

I like Montréal the best of the bunch.

[Chef]

Minneapolis has always been Minneapolis. St Paul on the other hand was originally Pig's Eye. Pig's Eye would be a cool name for a city.

[harryc]

Just googled it and Rockford was originally Midway Villiage - if they had kept the name then we would have Midway Airport here.

In 1837, the village of Midway was renamed Rockford, highlighting a rocky river ford across the Rock River in the village

Wiki

Rockford seems a much more apt name - the Rock River is pretty big - getting across it must have been a challenge.

[muertecaza]

Originally Posted by 10023

Londinium would sound a bit odd, but it didn’t change much. New York or New Amsterdam?

Or better yet, after the last Dutch recapture, New Orange? It's hard to imagine the counterfactuals because 'New York' is so engrained, but for me, I like New Amsterdam > New Orange > New York.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by harryc

Just googled it and Rockford was originally Midway Villiage - if they had kept the name then we would have Midway Airport here.

Rockford seems a much more apt name - the Rock River is pretty big - getting across it must have been a challenge.

I've noticed you've been posting about Rockford a bit lately, did you recently move out that way?

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

for as many states as we have with native american derived names, there aren't a ton of large US cities with such.



Cities with fully-derived native american names out of the 100 largest US cities:

Chicago
Seattle
Milwaukee
Tucson
Omaha
Miami
Wichita
Tampa
Honolulu
Chesapeake
Spokane



Cities with partially-derived native american names out of the 100 largest US cities:

Oklahoma City
Kansas City
Minneapolis

We wouldn't have so many old native place names today if there wasn't some level of respect for the natives by the Europeans in the 1700s and 1800s. Yes, many if not nearly all of the old names are mispronounced and not used contextually, but if European settlers had wanted to remake the place entirely in their likeness, they would have renamed absolutely everything instead of allowing sort-of native words to describe gigantic elements of the U.S. and Canadian landscape.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

We wouldn't have so many old native place names today if there wasn't some level of respect for the natives by the Europeans in the 1700s and 1800s. Yes, many if not nearly all of the old names are mispronounced and not used contextually, but if European settlers had wanted to remake the place entirely in their likeness, they would have renamed absolutely everything instead of allowing sort-of native words to describe gigantic elements of the U.S. and Canadian landscape.

You gotta love the linguistic diversity of American placenames. All the native, Spanish and French names. We even have Arabic names (via Spain) like Alhambra.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by muertecaza

Or better yet, after the last Dutch recapture, New Orange? It's hard to imagine the counterfactuals because 'New York' is so engrained, but for me, I like New Amsterdam > New Orange > New York.

New Orange would be weird because of the Oranges of New Jersey that retained their Dutch names.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

How about "Le détroit du lac Érié" for Detroit? Detroit could've just as well ended up being Erie, MI.

Is that Detroit's original name? Sounds nice. I sometimes wonder why LA's original name was shortened to just "the angels." Why not La Reina or Nuestra Señora? It doesn't actually have to make any sense in the original language. It's not like Los Angeles makes any sense either.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

At least non locals can pronounce it... unlike Etobicoke.

Rob Ford put the Coke in Etobicoke

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by badrunner

Is that Detroit's original name? Sounds nice. I sometimes wonder why LA's original name was shortened to just "the angels." Why not La Reina or Nuestra Señora? It doesn't actually have to make any sense in the original language. It's not like Los Angeles makes any sense either.

Yeah, the British anglicized it to "Detroit".

[MplsTodd]

Originally Posted by Chef

Minneapolis has always been Minneapolis. St Paul on the other hand was originally Pig's Eye. Pig's Eye would be a cool name for a city.

Minneapolis was originally proposed to be Minnehapolis, but they (probably wisely) lost the h.

Here's the description from Wikipedia:

In 1852, the city's first schoolmaster, Charles Hoag, proposed Minnehapolis, with a silent h, combining the Dakota word for "waterfall", Mníȟaȟa,[12] and the Greek word for "city", polis, which became Minneapolis, meaning 'city of the falls'.

As best as I can tell, Columbus (Ohio) was always called Columbus. The name dates back to 1812. Chances are good they'd select a different name if they had to do it all over again!

[suburbanite]

I wish that Waterloo had kept its original name of New Berlin.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by badrunner

Is that Detroit's original name? Sounds nice. I sometimes wonder why LA's original name was shortened to just "the angels." Why not La Reina or Nuestra Señora? It doesn't actually have to make any sense in the original language. It's not like Los Angeles makes any sense either.

It was the Yankees who shortened it to The Angels. Spanish-speakers pre CA becoming part of the US referred to it as "El Pueblo," which, when you think about it, makes more sense.

The city of Ventura's official name is actually "San Buenaventura," but nobody calls it that, to the point that even on maps, it's called Ventura.

Kind of off-topic but I kinda like how the San Manuel casino has re-branded itself as "Yaamava' Resort & Casino." I was wondering when the time would come that more indigenous tribes of California would start referring to themselves with their own native words, rather than what the Spanish called them. Tongva/Kizh has long been the word(s) used to refer to the Gabrieliños. I'm wondering if there's a Tongva word for the San Gabriel Mountains; I wouldn't doubt that they probably even thought of those mountains as sacred.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

I wish that Waterloo had kept its original name of New Berlin.

Milwaukee has a suburb named "New Berlin".

there are also several other tiny "New Berlins" in TX, IL, NY, and PA, but the one in Milwaukee's burbs is by far the the largest at ~40,000 people.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Kind of off-topic but I kinda like how the San Manuel casino has re-branded itself as "Yaamava' Resort & Casino." I was wondering when the time would come that more indigenous tribes of California would start referring to themselves with their own native words, rather than what the Spanish called them. Tongva/Kizh has long been the word(s) used to refer to the Gabrieliños. I'm wondering if there's a Tongva word for the San Gabriel Mountains; I wouldn't doubt that they probably even thought of those mountains as sacred.

Is this common in the west? The "Indian" casinos in the east seem to mostly use their tribal names.

[montréaliste]

Originally Posted by Acajack

More like Day-trwah (with a French R) in French I'd say.

Absolutely right!