Travel The U.S., Discovering The Literal Meaning Of States And Cities

22.03.2024 - 12:41 / forbes.com / Christopher Columbus

We often associate places with the historical events we know happened there and sometimes it might be the reason we travel, to commemorate and to visit these sites and museums. Places in the U.S. were also named after cities, towns and people in the old world or sometimes they simply described the geography of a place, often in local languages.

Some are easier than others—Germantown speaks for itself, but this map might help travelers identify other interesting aspects of the places they visit. Syracuse, for example, is known to be named after an Italian port on the Ionion Sea but its name stems from the Phoenician word 'serah', which can be translated as 'to feel ill' because it was located near a swamp.

Many cities are named after people. Think Colombia in South Carolina, named after Christopher Columbus or North Charleston being named after King Charles II. Erie in Pennsylvania is named after the Eriez Indians and there are lots of places still named after generals and colonels.

Some places were named after places in the Old World. Boston is named after a town in England, in the county of Lincolnshire, which itself was named after the patron saint of boundaries, Botolph, from the 7th century—who in turn became recognised as the patron saint of trade and travel.

Many places are named after the positive qualities of the land, such as Anchorage (a place good for anchoring) and Portland (the land surrounding a harbor). It is thought that Honolulu gets its name from the Hawaiian language, where 'lulu' means calm and 'hono' means port, although its original name was 'Ke ʻAwa O Kou' meaning 'the harbor of the Kou'.

Boise in Idaho gets its name from the French word 'bois' meaning 'wood', and one of the possible reasons that Buffalo is called Buffalo is because it stemmed from the U.S. pronunciation of the French name 'beau fleuve' meaning 'beautiful river'.

Many more place names though, are named from local languages, often from the geographical features of the place and the rich indigenous heritage. Kansas and Kansas City were named after the Kansa tribe (where the river gets its name) which means 'People of the Southwind'.

It seems that Chicago was named for its scent, its name coming from the quantity of wild garlic found in the area near the lakes and streams, well before the city was established in 1833—possibly named from the Algonquian word 'sheka:ko:heki', meaning 'place of the wild onion'.

Likewise, Minneapolis' name comes from the Sioux words 'minne' for 'water' and 'minnehaha' meaning 'waterfall' plus the Greek word 'polis' that means 'city'. Or think about the city of Topeka in Kansas that many believe translates from the Kansa tribe's use of the Siouan language meaning 'a good place to dig