4 University of Missouri Studies, Jan. 1, 1934. Ramsay is at work upon an analytical dictionary of his whole material, to be brought if possible into one volume, but when this will be finished is undetermined.
5 The second edition, published by the Oregon Historical Society in 1944, is a volume of 581 pages and lists about 4,000 names. McArthur is secretary of the Oregon Geographical Board and a fellow of the American Geographical Society. He was aided in his long inquiry by Miss Nellie B. Pipes, librarian of the Oregon Historical Society, who is now Mrs. McArthur. The publication of additions to the edition of 1944 was begun in the Oregon Historical Quarterly, Dec., 1946.
1 In 1944 the Oregon Journal of Portland brought out an abbreviated edition with illustrations by Marilyn Campbell.
2 Piedmont (W. Va.), 1945. This is a volume of 768 pages, listing more than 3,500 names.
3 University of Arizona Bulletin, Jan. 1, 1935. A volume of 503 pages, listing about 4,000 names. It includes a bibliography.
4 Vermillion (S. Dak.), 1941. A volume of 689 pages, listing about 7,000 names. There are maps and a bibliography.
5 Berkeley, 1947. This work is still in press as I write, but I have seen some specimens of it by the courtesy of Dr. Gudde. It will run to about 750 pages and will list about 7,500 names.
6 It is being published by the American Library Association. I have seen the MS. by the courtesy of Mr. Sealock, and can testify to the thoroughness of the work. It lists more than 2,000 items.
7 Indian Place-Names in Alabama, Louisiana State University Studies No. 29; Baton Rouge, 1937. This learned work is reviewed in American Speech, Oct., 1937, by John R. Swinton, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, with some minor corrections and additions. In it there is a bibliography of other writings on Alabama names, pp. 80–84. It disposes of the old theory that Alabama comes from an Indian term meaning “Here we rest.” The real meaning, says Read, is “those who clear the land.” In John Palmer’s Journal of Travels in the United States; London, 1819, p. 131, there is the interesting observation that the Alabamians of that era pronounced the State name Ol-aw-baw-mo
8 Choctaw Indian Names in Alabama and Mississippi, Transactions of the Alabama Historical Society, Vol. III, 1898–99, pp. 64–77.
1 Twenty-first Annual Report, Part II, pp. 489–509. There was a second edition in 1906.
2 Some Alaskan Place Names, American Speech, Feb., pp. 60–61.
3 Geographic Names in the Coastal Areas of Alaska; Washington, 1943.
1 Barnes prints a bibliography, but overlooks Arizonology, by Elwood Lloyd; Flagstaff, 1933, which lists about 2,000 names.
2 Some Old French Place-Names in the State of Arkansas, by John C. Branner and Raoul Renault, Modern Language Notes, Feb., 1899, pp. 33–40, and March, 1899, p. 96.
3 Arkansas Place-Names, in Folklore of Romantic Arkansas; New York, 1931, Vol. I, pp. 59–64 and 65–107.
4 California Names in Their Literal Meanings; Los Angeles, 1893.
5 An American Primer was published posthumously in the Atlantic Monthly, April, 1904. But most of it had been written in the 50s, before the appearance of Leaves of Grass.
6 Spanish and Indian Place Names of California; San Francisco, 1914.
7 Trends in the Pronunciation of Spanish Place-Names of California. American Speech, Aug., 1931, pp. 461–63.
8 A Handbook For Californiacs: A Key to the Meaning and Pronunciation of Spanish and Indian Place Names; San Francisco, 1926.
9 A Pronouncing Dictionary of California Names in English and Spanish; San Francisco, 1925.
10 California Place-Names From the Spanish, American Speech, April, 1932, pp. 317–18, and April, 1933, p. 75.
1 California Spanish and Indian Place Names; Los Angeles, 1931.
2 The Pronunciation of Spanish Place Names in California, American Speech, Dec., 1942, pp. 239–46. There is an anonymous article in the California Historical Nugget, Vol. I, 1924, pp. 59–66.
3 California Place Names of Indian Origin, University of California Publications in Anthropology and Ethnology, Vol. XII, No. 2, June 15, 1916, pp. 31–69.
4 Francis P. Farquhar published Place Names of the High Sierra, Sierra Club Bulletin, Vol. II, 1923, pp. 380–407. Other contributions to the subject are in California Names; Their History and Meaning, by Thomas P. Pollok; San Francisco, 1934; Origin of California, by Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez, Motor Land, Sept., 1933, pp. 9–13; Dictionary of Spanish-Named California Cities and Towns, by Henry M. Moreno; San Luis Obispo, 1916, and The Dictionary of California Land Names, by Phil Townsend Hanna; Los Angeles, 1946. The last-named gives the Spanish pronunciation of all the Spanish names listed. There is a bibliography and nearly 4,000 names are discussed.
5 Feb., pp. 180–87.
1 American Speech, April, pp. 88–92, and Oct., pp. 203–07.
2 I am indebted here to Mr. Harry Simonson, supervisor of the project.
3 The History of Connecticut as Illustrated by the Names of Her Towns, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, New Series, Vol. III, 1885, pp. 421–48.
4 Indian Derivatives in Connecticut Place-Names, New England Quarterly, June, pp. 364–69.
5 Some Vagaries in Connecticut Valley Indian Place-Names, New England Quarterly, Sept., 535–44.
1 Florida Place-Names of Indian Origin and Seminole Personal Names; Baton Rouge, 1934. See also Some Florida Names of Indian Origin, by Frank Drew, Florida Historical Society Quarterly, April, 1926, pp. 181–82, and April, 1928, pp. 197–205.
1 The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States, before cited.
2 In a review of Read in American Speech, Oct., 1934, pp. 218–20, John R. Swanton, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, offered some valuable additions. A note by Read on Caxambas, the name of a pass making in from the Gulf of Mexico, is in Language, July-Sept., 1945.
3 I am indebted here to Dr. Alfred D. Schoch. A note on the name Jupiter is in American Speech, Oct., 1938, pp. 233–34.
4 Charleston (S.C.), 1827; second edition, Washington, 1837; third edition, Washington, 1837; fourth edition, Macon and Atlanta (Ga.), 1860.
5 Dr. Wells tells me that “most of the work on the names of Georgia towns” was done by Dr. Edward Dawson, of the college English faculty.
6 Ee Places in Georgia, New York Sun, March 30, 1938.
7 I have been unable to locate his article. What follows is from a reprint in the Idaho Statesman (Boise), of July 3, 1939, p. 10.
8 It was organized on March 3, 1863
1 This word appears in no English dictionary and is unknown to music. It may be a mistake for aspiration.
2 In the same issue of the Idaho Statesman from which I have quoted, p. 62, is an article giving the origins of the names of the Idaho counties, by Clyde A. Bridger. It is reprinted in the Northwest Quarterly, April, 1940, pp. 187–206. See also Some Non-English Place Names in Idaho, by E. W. Talbert, American Speech, Oct., 1938, pp. 175–78.
3 Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Oct., 1936, pp. 181–311. Minor notes are in The Naming of Bloomington, by V. A. Syfert, the same, July, 1936, pp. 161–67, and Speech Currents in Egypt, by Grace Partridge Smith, American Speech, Oct., 1942, p. 173.
4 I am indebted to Mr. Sealock for a copy of this bibliography. In the Saturday Review of Literature, Nov. 21, 1942, p. 24, Virginia Scott Miner, a resident of Kansas City but apparently Hoosier-born, printed some dithyrambs on the charm of Indiana place-names “from the Wabash banks to Tippecanoe, from Vincennes to Buzzards’ Glory.” There are some minor notes by Jacob Piatt Dunn, the State historian, in the Indiana Magazine of History, and a card-index of Indiana place-names is kept by the State Historical Society.
5 Observations on Iowa Place Names, American Speech, Oct., 1929, pp. 27–44. This was followed by Liberty in Iowa, the same, June, 1931, pp. 360–67.
1 The names of Appanoose are dealt with in American Speech, Oct., 1927, pp. 39–66; the others, in Annals of lowa, 1929–39.
2 Louisiana Place-Names of Indian Origin; Baton Rouge (
La.), 1927.
1 Read published More Indian Place-Names in Louisiana, Louisiana Historical Quarterly, July, 1928, pp. 445–62, mainly made up of addenda and corrigenda. There is a note on Place Names in New Orleans Parish (chiefly French), in the New Orleans City Guide compiled by the Federal Writers’ Project; Boston, 1934, pp. 403–06.
2 Indian Place-Names of the Penobscot Valley and the Maine Coast; University of Maine Studies, Second Series, No. 55; Orono (Maine), Nov., 1941.
3 In AL4, p. 531 I quoted one stanza of a satirical poem on these names by R. H. Newell (Orpheus C. Kerr). Another such poem, by Francis B. Keene, was printed ir the Saturday Review of Literatur July 13, 1946, p. 32.
1 Maryland Place Names Have Strange Oddities, Baltimore Sun, May 23, 1937, Sect. II, p. 2; Maryland Place Names Have Varied Origins, the same, March 24, 1940; Maryland Place Names, the same, Sept. 8, 1940. Dr. Hermann Collitz printed a note on the meaning of Baltimore in the Johns Hopkins Alumni Magazine, Jan., 1934, pp. 133–34. See also The Place-Names of Baltimore and Harford Counties, by William B. Marye, Maryland Historical Magazine, Dec., 1930, pp. 321–65.
2 An Essay Relating to the Names of Towns in Massachusetts, by W. H. Whitmore; Boston, 1873; The Indian Names of Boston and Their Meaning, by Eben N. Horsford; Cambridge, 1886; Massachusetts Names, by A. E. Winship, Journal of Education, Aug. and Sept., 1898, pp. 109–10 and 142–43; Indian Names of Places in Worcester County, by Lincoln N. Kinnicutt; Worcester, 1905, and Dictionary of American Indian Place and Proper Names in New England, by R. A. Douglas-Lithgow; Salem, 1909.
3 The Origin of Massachusetts Place Names of the State, Counties, Cities and Towns; New York, 1941.
4 Father Chrysostom Verwyst, O.S.F., says in Geographical Names in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan Having a Chippewa Origin, Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Vol. XII, 1892, pp. 390–98, that Kalamazoo is a corruption of the Chippewa ki-kanamoso, it smokes, or he is troubled with smoke, i.e., in his wigwam. He derives Michigan from michagami, a large body of water; Saginaw from osaginang, the place of the Sacs; Mackinac from mikinak, a turtle, and Petoskey from pitoskig, between two swamps.
5 William L. Jenks has written upon the county names of Michigan, and there are many short articles on local names in the Michigan Historical Magazine.
6 I am told by Mr. E. P. Brown, of Minneapolis, that Pigs Eye Landing was the original name of St. Paul, but no citizen of St. Paul has corroborated this. Pigs Eye, its eponym, was a half-breed trader whose legal name was Pierre Parrant. Mr. Brown says that Sleepy Eye was named after a Sioux chief named Ishtaba, meaning sleepy eye.
1 A volume of 735 pp., published by the Minnesota Historical Society in 1920.
2 Minnesota Names Derived From the Dakota Languages; St. Paul, 1884.
3 Minnesota Geographical Names Derived From the Chippewa Language, in annual report of the Minnesota Geological and Natural History Survey, 1886, pp. 451–77.
4 Scandinavian Place-Names in the American Danelaw, Swedish-American Historical Bulletin, Aug., 1929, pp. 5–17. See also North Shore Place Names, by William E. Culkin; St. Paul, 1931. A State Geographic Board was set up in 1937.
5 The Origin of Certain Place Names in the State of Mississippi, Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, 1902, pp. 339–49.
6 Choctaw Indian Names in Alabama and Mississippi, by H. S. Halbert, before cited, pp. 64–67.
7 Note on the Origin of Natchez, by Henry P. Dart, Louisiana Historical Quarterly, Oct., 1931, p. 515. He suggested its derivation from a Caddo Indian term meaning timber-land.
8 Nebraska Place-Names, University of Nebraska Studies in Language, Literature, and Criticism, No. 6; Lincoln, 1925. Miss Fitzpatrick took her M.A. under Dr. Pound in 1924, and then proceeded to Cornell for her Ph.D. Unhappily, she died soon afterward.
1 There is a good bibliography in Miss Fitzpatrick’s monograph. A section on Nebraska place-names is in the Nebraska volume of the American Guide Series, prepared by the Federal Writers’ Project.
2 Holt says that in the Iowa town of the same name the a is that of blade. I am indebted here to Mr. Daniel L. Reardon, of Reno.
3 Geographical Review, April, 1938, pp. 303–05. He says that it was called White Mountain or the Sugar Loaf down to 1786 and that its renaming may have followed George Washington’s visit to New England in 1789. The first known map showing Mount Washington is one by a German named Sotzmann, published in Hamburg in 1796.
1 Appalachia, Dec., 1915, pp. 359–90, and June, 1918, pp. 261–68.
2 Magazine of History, Jan., 1909, pp. 48–50.
3 The Origin of New Jersey Place Names, 1939; reissued by the New Jersey Public Library Commission, 1945. It lists less than 900 names.
4 New Jersey: Some Early Place Names, by C. C. Vermeule; New Series, Vol. X, pp. 241–52, and Vol. XI, pp. 151–60.
5 Origin of New Jersey Names, by John Venable. The first two appeared in the Perth Amboy Evening News, but I have been unable to determine the exact dates. I am indebted here to Miss Katharine L. McCormick, of Perth Amboy.
6 Originally, Barende-gat, meaning an inlet with a heavy surf. See Barnegat, by A. R. Dunlap, American Speech, Oct., 1938, pp. 232–33. According to Poughkeepsie: the Origin and Meaning of the Word, by Helen Wilkinson Reynolds; Poughkeepsie, 1924, p. 69, the term also designated a lime-kiln.
7 Ghost Towns, by Alfred S. Campbell, Holiday (preview issue), p. 83.
8 New Mexico Folk Etymologies, El Palacio, Oct., 1943, pp. 229–34.
9 I am indebted here to Mr. J. Nixon Hadley, of Evanston, Ill.
1 Indian Names in New York; Fayetteville (N.Y.), 1893. In 1907 this was reissued, greatly expanded, by the New York State Museum under the title of Aboriginal Place-Names of New York. I am indebted here to Mr. Alvin G. Whitney.
2 Some Indian Names of Places on Long Island, N. Y., and Their Correspondences in Virginia, Magazine of New England History, July, 1891, pp. 154–58; Indian Place Names on Long Island and Islands Adjacent; New York, 1911.
3 For example, J. Dyneley Prince in Fragments From Babel; New York, 1939, pp. 165–71. Only a year after Schoolcraft B. F. Thompson printed a paper on the Indian names of Long Island in the Proceedings of the New York Historical Society, 1845, pp. 125–31.
4 Mannahatta, by John Howard Birss, American Speech, April, 1934, pp. 154–55. See also American Speech, April, 1930, p. 444.
5 Poughkeepsie: the Origin and Meaning of the Word, by Helen Wilkinson Reynolds, before cited. In The Ithaca Dialect, Dialect Notes, Vol. I, Part III, 1891, Oliver Farrar Emerson recorded some local pronunciations of Indian names, e.g., Chenang for Chenango, Tiog for Tioga, Cayugy for Cayuga and Weego for Owego.
6 Kromme Ellebog: A Seventeenth Century Place-Name in the Hudson Valley, by Helen Wilkinson Reynolds, Yearbook of the Dutchess County Historical Society; Poughkeepsie, 1933, pp. 58–68. I am indebted here to Mrs. Amy Ver Nooy.
7 It was approved in an editorial in the Democratic Reflector of Hamilton, March 26, 1845. I am indebted here to Mr. Charles J. Lovell.
8 Pronunciation of Upstate New York Place-Names, American Speech, Dec., pp. 250–65. A State Board of Geographic Names was set up by Chapter 187 of the Acts of 1913, but it has been inactive.
9 The Names of the Counties of North Carolina and the History Involved in Them; Winston, 1888.
10 Some curious specimens from the mountain section are recorded by Josiah Combs in Language of the Southern Highlanders, Publications
1 It was read before the State D.A.R. at Toledo, Oct. 29, 1903, and published in Publications of the Ohio Archeological & Historical Society, June, 1905, pp. 272–90.
2 But Wooster is not a respelling of the Eastern (and English) Worcester. Lowell W. Coolidge shows in Words, March, 1937, p. 60, that it was actually named after a Major-General David Wooster, of the Revolutionary Army. For Cincinnati see American Speech, Jan., 1926, p. 226.
3 American Speech, Dec., 1939, p. 315. There is a State Geographic Board, and a report on its work was publ
ished in the North Dakota Historical Quarterly, Oct., 1927, pp. 53–56, but that work does not seem to have been productive.
4 Oklahoma Place Names; Norman (Okla.), 1933.
5 Some Geographic Names of French Origin in Oklahoma, by Muriel H. Wright, Chronicles of Oklahoma, June, 1929, pp. 188–93.
1 The Source of the Name Oregon, American Speech, April, 1944, pp. 115–17.
2 Stewart is supported in Ouaricon and Oregon, by Frederick Bracher, American Speech, Oct., 1946, pp. 185–87. In Features of the New North-West, Century Magazine, Feb., 1883, p. 553, E. V. Smalley noted some of the curious place-names of the State, e.g., Glad Tidings, Needy, Sublimity, Hardscrabble, Humbug, Whiskeytown, Louse creek, Jump-off Joe creek and Eltopia (from hell to pay). Sublimity, Humbug creek, and two Whiskey creeks and one Whiskey run still survive.
3 State College (Pa.), 1925.
4 Place Names and Altitudes of Pennsylvania Mountains; Altoona, 1923.
5 Indian Local Names With Their Interpretation; York, 1888. In 1822 the Rev. John G. E. Heckewelder (AL4, p. 110) published a work on the Lenni-Lennape or Delaware Indian place-names of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia.
6 A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania; Harrisburg, 1928. Donehoo also collaborated with Shoemaker in Changing Historic Place Names in Pennsylvania; Altoona, 1921.
7 The Place Names of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, American Speech, Oct., 1939, pp. 181–90. This is an excellent paper and lists more than 150 names. A Pennsylvania Geographic Board was set up in 1923, and three years later it published a list of decisions (American Speech, Dec., 1926, pp. 163–64). An amendment of 1929 made it consist of the Secretary of Forests and Water, the Secretary of Highways, the chairman of the State Historical and Museum Commission, and an officer of the Department of Internal Affairs. Its chairman in 1947 was Admiral Milo S. Draemel U.S.N., ret.
1 Dr. Raven I. McDavid, Jr., in the course of his studies for the projected Linguistic Atlas of the South Atlantic States, has picked up some picturesque names in South Carolina, e.g., Hell Hole Swamp, Gobbler’s Knob, Pumpkinville, Tiger-town and Fingerville. A suburb of Greenville is Apeyard, and a section of Greenville county is ’Possum Kingdom.
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