Sources of Massachusetts town names
Jul. 18th, 2021 12:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_whomI was talking with my mother and sister the other day about, how many towns in Massachusetts have indigenous names? And the answer seemed to be... not very many, but I wasn't sure. So I went ahead and made this map, and it looks like the answer is... about 15 out of 351 towns in Massachusetts have names derived from indigenous Algonquian languages. Most of the town names in Massachusetts come from England.
Take the accuracy of this map with a grain of salt; I did very haphazard research to create it, mostly on Wikipedia and town history websites, with a lot of educated guessing. But here it is, in case you're interested:
Below are some more detailed notes and examples of what the colors mean:
0. When a town was originally part of a neighboring town, and its name reflects that, it’s colored the same as the original town. For instance, Newburyport was originally the part of Newbury where the port was, and West Brookfield was originally the western part of Brookfield; they’re colored the same as Newbury and Brookfield.
1. Such as Norfolk or Sandwich. This includes towns named after British peerages that are named after places in England; for instance, Granby is named in honor of the Marquess of Granby, whose title is named after a place in England. The name of the town in Massachusetts doesn’t have to be the same as the place in England it’s named after; for example, Framingham is named after Framlingham. When in doubt, I erred on the side of this category: if a town has the same name as a place in England, I included it in this category if I couldn’t find evidence that it wasn’t named after the place.
2. This includes towns named after places outside England that were themselves named after places in England (such as Windsor, named after Windsor, Connecticut), as well as towns named after places outside England whose names have English etymology for other reasons (such as Lanesborough, named after a town of that name in Ireland).
3. This includes towns named after English people (such as Walpole) as well as towns named after people not from England whose names have English etymology or can be traced back to English ancestors, such as Hamilton.
4. Usually descriptions of the town’s geographical features (such as Northfield or Fall River), but sometimes other concepts (such as Concord or Provincetown).
5. This includes place names from the British Isles outside England (such as Lenox, after a place in Scotland) or elsewhere in Europe (such as Orleans or Hanover), as long as their etymology is not from the English language. The ”England” criterion has some odd consequences—e.g., Pembroke, a Welsh-language name, is in this group, while Truro, a Cornish-language name, is in group 1, simply because Cornwall is part of England—but I had to draw the line somewhere, and the region Massachusetts is in is called “New England”, after all.
6. This includes names of people who are not English and whose names aren’t etymologically English or inherited from English ancestors, such as Revere (a French name) and Douglas (a Scottish Gaelic name).
7. For example, Monterey (named after Monterey, California, a Spanish name).
8. For example, Nantucket, Agawam, and Saugus. Indigenous languages of Massachusetts belong to the Algonquian family.
9. For example, Rehoboth and Goshen.
10. The only one is Canton.
Take the accuracy of this map with a grain of salt; I did very haphazard research to create it, mostly on Wikipedia and town history websites, with a lot of educated guessing. But here it is, in case you're interested:
Below are some more detailed notes and examples of what the colors mean:
0. When a town was originally part of a neighboring town, and its name reflects that, it’s colored the same as the original town. For instance, Newburyport was originally the part of Newbury where the port was, and West Brookfield was originally the western part of Brookfield; they’re colored the same as Newbury and Brookfield.
1. Such as Norfolk or Sandwich. This includes towns named after British peerages that are named after places in England; for instance, Granby is named in honor of the Marquess of Granby, whose title is named after a place in England. The name of the town in Massachusetts doesn’t have to be the same as the place in England it’s named after; for example, Framingham is named after Framlingham. When in doubt, I erred on the side of this category: if a town has the same name as a place in England, I included it in this category if I couldn’t find evidence that it wasn’t named after the place.
2. This includes towns named after places outside England that were themselves named after places in England (such as Windsor, named after Windsor, Connecticut), as well as towns named after places outside England whose names have English etymology for other reasons (such as Lanesborough, named after a town of that name in Ireland).
3. This includes towns named after English people (such as Walpole) as well as towns named after people not from England whose names have English etymology or can be traced back to English ancestors, such as Hamilton.
4. Usually descriptions of the town’s geographical features (such as Northfield or Fall River), but sometimes other concepts (such as Concord or Provincetown).
5. This includes place names from the British Isles outside England (such as Lenox, after a place in Scotland) or elsewhere in Europe (such as Orleans or Hanover), as long as their etymology is not from the English language. The ”England” criterion has some odd consequences—e.g., Pembroke, a Welsh-language name, is in this group, while Truro, a Cornish-language name, is in group 1, simply because Cornwall is part of England—but I had to draw the line somewhere, and the region Massachusetts is in is called “New England”, after all.
6. This includes names of people who are not English and whose names aren’t etymologically English or inherited from English ancestors, such as Revere (a French name) and Douglas (a Scottish Gaelic name).
7. For example, Monterey (named after Monterey, California, a Spanish name).
8. For example, Nantucket, Agawam, and Saugus. Indigenous languages of Massachusetts belong to the Algonquian family.
9. For example, Rehoboth and Goshen.
10. The only one is Canton.
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Date: 2021-07-29 07:20 pm (UTC)