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THE NAMING
OF NAMES
by John Troesser
"Texas is one of those rare state names that goes with
anything."
- John Fergus Ryan
Can you imagine Abilene, Wisconson or Lubbock, Massachucetts? |
If
you live in Texas, there are several books on Texas place names. The
most recent and one of the best is "Muleshoe
& More: The Remarkable Stories Behind the Naming of Texas Towns"
by Bill Bradfield & Clare Bradfield. We thought our piece
"The Naming of Names" would be an appropriate introduction
for the Bradfields' book. Some of these names may be old hat to our
Texas readers, but there's bound to be some you haven't heard of,
and for our out-of-state readers, here's a collection straight off
The Texas Department of Transportation's Official Highway Map
for the year 2000.
Railroads were built by men, but they named many towns after their
women-folk. A sampling:
Louise, Edna,
Inez, Sarita,
Donna,
Mercedes, Maybelle
and Thalia. Pandora
sounds like a place to keep the lid on and Hedley might have
been named after a Lamar family member. (name courtesy of Mel
Brooks). For people who say bafroom or birfday, there's Marfa
as in Marfa Washington. And then there's Maud. There's Winona
and Annona, Lydia and Celeste. Idalou
was named after two girls, as was Mineola.
Desdemonia
will connect us to Iago
and our other male names:
Gordon, Vernon, Seymour,
Chester and Sidney all have a 19th Century sound to them.
There's a New Willard, but no sign of an old one, and there's
a Smiley,
Leroy
and Dabney as well. Some towns are both first and last names
like George
West, who got to name the town since he built it on his ranch.
Ben Bolt,
the person, has been lost to history, but he's a lyric in a song and
the town still wears his name. Tom Ball has become Tomball,
Burk Burnett has become Burkburnett
and Ed Couch Edcouch.
Tarzan
was condensed when he got here. |
Condense
Milk, Not Names!
While we're on the subject of condensing: It's safe to
say everyone's heard of Texarkana,
and maybe Lake Texoma. But unless you live close to Austonio,
you might not be aware it exists. One would think Austonio would be
between Austin and San Antonio. If one did, then one would be wrong.
It's between Houston and Dallas (Houston County).
There was a recent movie called Happy, Texas, and indeed
there is one. The movie was shot in some other state, though. Speaking
of shooting, there are towns of Gun Sight, Gun
Barrel City, Point
Blank and Cut
and Shoot.
There's the modest trio of Elysian
Fields, Utopia
and Paradise. There's Munday
and Friday and Keene's
Post Office is open on Sunday*. There's Telephone, Telegraph
and Energy.
There's Coffee City, which is almost as good as Hot Coffee,
Alabama, and other food names include Raisin,
Oatmeal,
Rice and Noodle.
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Old
foes here are not forgotten
Indian names are well represented with Caddo, Seminole,
Comanche
and Kickapoo. While we're sure there's no Sam Houston City
in Mexico, we've got a Santa
Anna in Coleman County. Actually, the town's name comes from
local mountains named after an Indian Chief, or so we're told.
One would think Levelland,
Horizon City and Sundown would be in a straight line, but
they're not. Other names which we hope are only in Texas include:
Grice, Latexo, Lazbuddie, Wamba, and Fluvanna.
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Texas
is not a four-letter word
But these towns are: Alto
(Cherokee Co.), Port
Alto (Jackson Co.), Acme, Best,
Buda, Bula, Buna, Cash, Fink,
Grit, Hext, Lawn,
Lodi, Nada, Spur,
Toca, Voca,
Wink
and Zorn.
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Texas
isn't a three-letter word either
Arp, Dew
and Tow. Coy, Joy, Hye, Guy,
and Rye. |
*Since
Keene's population is mostly comprised of Seventh Day Adventists,
most businesses are closed Saturday, but open Sunday. Including the
Post Office.
© John Troesser
June 2000 |
Texas Town
Names / History - Recommended Books
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