View source for Place Names Derived From Names Of Persons

Many place names, whether the names of sovereign states, constituent parts of sovereign states, cities, towns, or villages, have been formed from the names of persons, often the name of their founder or a person whom the founder wished to honour (e.g., a relative, a member of the reigning royal family, or a saint adopted as the patron saint of the place). For example, the South American republic of '''Bolivia''', established in 1825, is named after Simón '''Bolívar''' (1783-1830), one of the leaders of the forces which drove the Spanish out of South America. The state of '''Maryland''' in the United States takes its name from '''Henrietta Maria''' (1609-1669), the wife of King Charles I (1600-1649), in whose reign, in 1632, the Province of '''Maryland''' was founded as an English colony. '''Constantinople''', now the Turkish city of Istanbul, was so named by the emperor '''Constantine the Great''' (reigned 306-337) when in 330 CE he made the city, formerly known as Byzantium, the capital of the Roman Empire: the final part of the name '''Constantinople''' is the Greek [[noun]] πόλις, (''polis'', ‘city’) and so the whole name means ‘City of '''Constantine'''’. The town of '''St Neots''' in Cambridgeshire is named after '''Neot''', a ninth-century Cornish monk who is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches and whose bones were transferred c 980 to the Priory of '''St Neots''', a Benedictine monastery close to the modern town which bears his name. Finally, '''Saltaire''', a model village in West Yorkshire, combines the names of its founder, Sir Titus '''Salt''', and the river on which it stands: in 1851 '''Salt''', a wealthy industrialist, moved his woollen mills from the city of Bradford to a healthier location outside the city beside the river '''Aire''', building a village there to house his workers.

Here, in alphabetical order, are some more place names formed from the names of persons:

*The city of '''Annapolis''' in the United States has had many names, including for much of the second half of the seventeenth century Anne Arundel’s Towne (in honour of Ann Arundel (1616-1649), the wife of Lord Baltimore, the founder of the state of Maryland, of which '''Annapolis''' is now the capital). The city was renamed '''Annapolis''' in 1694 in honour of '''Princess Anne of Denmark and Norway''' (1665-1714), who became '''[[Queen Anne]]''' of England (reigned 1702-1714). (For the significance of the ending ‘–polis’ see above under Constantinople.)

*The city of '''Baltimore''' in the US State of Maryland was founded in 1729 and named in honour of (the second) '''Lord Baltimore''' (1605-1675), an Irish peer who in 1632, by charter of the English King Charles I, became the first ’Proprietor’ of the Province of Maryland.

*'''Bury St Edmunds''', a town in Suffolk in the UK, takes the second part of its name from '''Edmund''', a 9th century East Anglian king, who after his death in 869 fighting against the Vikings came to be venerated as a saint and martyr. In the 11th century '''Edmund'''’s bones were transferred to a church on the site of the present '''Bury St. Edmunds''' (the first part of the town's name is derived from 'borough'), and the shrine remained a popular place of pilgrimage until the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]] in 1539. (Note that the cathedral in '''Bury St Edmunds''' is known as '''St Edmundsbury''' Cathedral, i.e., the two parts of the town’s name are reversed, as also in the [[diocese]] of '''St Edmundsbury''' and Ipswich, of which it is the cathedral.) 

*The US State of '''Carolina''' derives its name from ''Carolus'', the Latin form of the English first name Charles. '''Carolina''', the [[feminine]] form of the [[adjective]] ''Carolinus'' (meaning ‘Of Charles’), is used because the [[adjective]] is understood to qualify the [[feminine]] [[noun]] ''Terra'' (‘Land’). '''Carolina''' was so named in honour of '''Charles I''', the English king who in 1629 granted land to the English immigrants who had settled in the region.

*The city of '''Charleston''' in the US State of South Carolina was founded in 1670 with the name of '''Charles Town''', chosen in honour of the English King '''Charles II''' (reigned 1660-1685).

*'''Charlottesville''', a city of c. 47,000 in the US state of Virginia, was founded in 1762 and named in honour of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Electress of Hanover and Queen Consort of the British king [[George III]] (reigned 1760-1820), whom she had married in 1761. (Do not confuse '''Charlottesville''' with two other North American cities named in honour of Queen Charlotte; '''Charlotte''', a city in North Carolina (incorporated in 1768, current population c. 2,000,000); and '''Charlottetown''' (founded in 1764, current population c. 520,000), the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island.)

*The city of '''Cincinnati''' in the US State of Ohio was so named in 1790 by Major General Arthur St. Clair (1737-1818), the Governor of the Northwest Territory, who changed its name from Losantiville as a tribute to the '''Society of Cincinnati''', an association of officers who had served in the American War of Independence (1775-1783). The Society took its name from Lucius Quinctius '''Cincinnatus''', a Roman general who in 458 BCE was recalled from retirement and appointed ‘dictator’ to deal with a military emergency and, after rescuing the situation by a decisive victory, immediately resigned his ‘dictatorship’ and returned to his farm.

*'''Colombia''', the republic in the northwest of South America, derives its name from (Christopher) '''Columbus''' (!451-1506), the Italian navigator who discovered Cuba and the Bahamas, and in 1498 landed on the northern coast of South America.

*'''Cottingham''', a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and one of several claiming to be ‘the largest village in England’, is named, according to one widely accepted etymology, after '''Cot''' (or '''Cotta'''), presumably a local king or chieftain. The name combines the personal name '''Cot''' (or '''Cotta''') with ''inga'' (in Old English ‘belonging to’ or ‘named after’) and ''ham''  (in Old English ‘home’), and so means ‘the home of Cot’s (or Cotta’s)  people’.

*The city of '''Port Elizabeth''' in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province, founded in 1820 as a settlement for English immigrants, was named by its founder, the Acting Governor of the Cape Province, Sir Rufane Shaw Donkin (1772-1841), in memory of his young wife, '''Elizabeth''' (Frances, nee Markham), who had died two years earlier.

*The German city of '''Friedrichshafen''', established in 1811 on the northern shore of Lake Constance (in German ''Bodensee''), was named after King '''Friedrich I''' of Württemberg (1754-1816), who granted the city special privileges as a free port. (In German the name means ‘Friedrich’s Harbour’.)

*The US State of '''Georgia''', founded in 1733 by the soldier, politician, and philanthropist, James Oglethorpe (1696-1785), was named in honour of the English King '''George II''' (1683-1760, reigned 1727-1760), who had issued the charter for its foundation.

*The German city of Chemnitz, the fourth largest in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany), was renamed '''Karl-Marx-Stadt''' (i.e., Karl-Marx-City) in 1953 in honour of '''Karl Marx''' (1818-1883), the founder of modern international communism. After the re-unification of Germany in 1990, following the collapse of East Germany, the citizens of Chemnitz voted overwhelmingly in a referendum for the restoration of their city’s former name.

*The city of '''[[Louisville]]''' in the US State of Kentucky was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark (1752-1818), the leader of the American forces in Kentucky during the American War of Independence (1775-1783), and was named by him after the French King '''[[King Louis|Louis XVI]]''' (1754-1793), whose forces fought with the Americans during the War of Independence.

*'''Porto Empedocle''', a town on the south coast of Sicily, founded as Marina di Girgenti in the 16th century, takes its name from the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher '''Empedocles''' (c 500-430 BCE), who was born in nearby Agrigento (ancient Akragas) and, according to legend, died by throwing himself into the flames of Mount Etna.

*The city of '''Rome''' (in Latin and Italian ''Roma''), founded, according to its official history, in 753 BCE, owes its name to its legendary founder and first ruler, '''Romulus''', who having killed his twin brother Remus in a violent quarrel over the site of the new city, named it after himself. 

*The city of '''San Francisco''' in the US State of California was founded in 1776 by Spanish settlers, who named the city after the Italian mystic and preacher, '''St. Francis of Assisi''' (1181/2-1226) (in [[Romance languages|Spanish]] ''San Francisco de Asis'').

*The city of Volgograd on the banks of the Volga River in the south of the Russian Federation was originally called Tsaritsyn, but in 1925 its name was changed to '''Stalingrad''' (i.e., in Russian ‘'''Stalin'''’s City’) after Joseph (Vissarionovich) '''Stalin''' (1879-1953), the leader of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1952. In 1961 the city’s name was changed to Volgograd as part of the process of de-Stalinisation that followed '''Stalin'''’s death.

*According to Sebastian Cabot (1474-1557), the city of '''St. John’s''' in the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador is so called because his father, the great Venetian explorer, John Cabot (1425-c1500), the first European to reach the area, sailed into the bay on 24th June 1494, the feast day of '''[[Saint John#John the Baptist|St. John the Baptist]]''', after whom he named the settlement. However, this account is disputed: some claim that '''St. John’s''' was so called by Basque fishermen who crossed the Atlantic in the first decades of the 16th century and finding a close resemblance between the Bay of '''St. John’s''' and the Bay of Pasaia in the Basque country, named the settlement after a similarly named town (''San Juan'') in the Basque Country.

*'''St. Mawes''', a small village on the Roseland Peninsula on the south coast of Cornwall, takes its name from '''St. Maudez''' (or '''St. Maudé'''), who probably lived in the 5th or 6th century CE. He came originally from Ireland but is particularly venerated in Brittany.

*The Russian city of '''St. Petersburg''' has had several names. When it was established as the capital of the Russian Empire by Czar '''Peter I''' (Peter the Great (1672-1725)) in 1703, it was named '''St. Petersburg''' (Санкт-Петербург, ''Sankt Peterburg'') in honour of '''St. Peter''', one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. On the outbreak of war with Germany in 1914 its name was changed from the German-sounding '''St. Petersburg''' to the more authentically Russian '''Petrograd''' (Петрогра́д, i.e., in Russian ‘City of Peter’). In 1924, shortly after the death of '''Lenin''' (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, (1870-1924)), the communist revolutionary and head of the government of Soviet Russia (1917-1924), '''St. Petersburg''' was renamed '''Leningrad''' in his honour. However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 '''St. Petersburg''' became '''St. Petersburg''' again.
 
*The Australian State of '''Victoria''', established in 1851, is named after Queen '''Victoria''' (1819-1901, reigned 1837-1901), who was on the throne of the United Kingdom at the time. (The State of '''Queensland''', established in 1859, is also named after her.)

*'''Washington, D.C.''', the capital of the United States of America, and the state of '''Washington''' in the Pacific northwest of that country are both named after '''George Washington''' (1737-1799), one of the country’s [[Founding Fathers]], the Commander-in Chief of its army in the American War of Independence and its first president. '''George''' '''Washington'''’s surname derives from '''Washington''', a village in county Durham in the UK (designated a new town in 1964): his ancestors lived in '''Washington Old Hall''', from which the family took its name

*The German town of '''Wilhelmshaven''' on the North Sea coast was founded in 1869 as a base for the Prussian fleet by '''Wilhelm I''' (1797-1888, King of Prussia 1861-1888, Kaiser 1871-1888), after whom it is named. (The name means ‘Wilhelm’s Harbour’ in German.)



[[Category:Etymology]]
[[Category:place-names]]
[[Category:Names]]