Bozrah, Connecticut: Fill & Download for Free

Are there specific ways in which you’ve noticed that the pattern of place names is different in New England compared to other parts of the U.S.? I went to college in New England, but I can’t pinpoint the difference. Perhaps you are referring to a pattern I’ve not noticed.From what I’ve seen city and town names in New England, and elsewhere in the U.S., are often based on one of the following:The name of a place in Great BritainBoston, Massachusetts is named after Boston, Lincolnshire and Portland Maine is named after the Isle of Portland. Portland, Oregon is named after Portland, Maine. Places named Portland tend to be on the coast and often have seaports. Thus the etymology of the name would be geographical.Birmingham, Alabama is named after Birmingham, West Midlands.The name of a respected historical personage or a founder of the town or cityAlfred, Maine was named after Alfred the Great.New Orleans, Louisiana was founded by the French and named after the Philippe II, Duke of Orléans.Cleveland, Ohio was named after founder and surveyor, Moses Cleaveland.Native American wordsSkowhegan, Maine comes from the Abenaki people and means a place to watch, particularly for fish.Roanoke, Virginia is thought to have come from an Algonquian word, though they did not live in the area. (They lived closer to where the Roanoke River reached the coast.)Ashtabula, Ohio’s name comes from the Lenape word ashtepihəle, which is thought to mean 'always enough fish to be shared around.'Some names based on Native American words may not have the correct usage or meaning. They were often adopted by settlers who did not speak the native languages.The name of a place (other than Great Britain). It may or may not have been settled by people from that place.Lisbon, Maine is named after Lisbon, Portugal. According to History of Maine, the the Portuguese explorer Estêvão Gomes was the first European to explore and map the Maine coastline. He was searching for the Northwest Passage for Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. I don’t know whether or not this inspired the name.Florence, Alabama is named after Florence, Italy. It was named by the Italian surveyor Ferdinand Sannoner who surveyed the city for the Cypress Land Company in 1818.Holland, Michigan was settled by by Dutch Calvinist separatists.Lima, Ohio doesn’t have a large contingent of Peruvians. It was named after Lima, Peru because that was a good source of Quinine and malaria was a problem in the Great Black Swamp.The name of a place referenced in literature including classical literature and the bible. This would include places from the ancient world.Bozrah, Connecticut is named after a place mentioned in the bible, which may or may not be Bozrah.Corinth, Mississippi is named after Ancient Corinth.Something that relates to the geography of the area.Waterville, Maine is located on the Kennebec River. It was founded by residents of Winslow, Maine who had trouble crossing the river to get to town meetings. Waterville is on the west bank of the river and Winslow is on the east.Cave Spring, Georgia is named for a site that features a cave and freshwater spring.My area reflects many of the various naming patterns we’ve seen in these examples.I live in Cleveland Heights, Ohio which is uphill (in the heights) from Cleveland, so that part of the name is geographical.As mentioned earlier, Cleveland is named after Moses Cleaveland.It sits at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River on the shore of Lake Erie. Both of those names are Native American. I was always told that Cuyahoga comes from the Mohawk word Cayagaga, meaning crooked river. Apparently the Senecas called it Cuyohaga, which means place of the jawbone. The lake is named for the Erie people.South of Cleveland we find Medina, Ohio which was named after Medina, Saudi Arabia. Apparently it was originally named after Mecca, but another town in Ohio had already used that name.Many names in New England have little to do with England. We often think of New England as being founded by the British, but it is worth remembering that other Europeans also explored the region, and that Native Americans had been living there for thousands of years by the time the Europeans arrived.This is also true of the U.S. as a whole. We speak English, and many places were settled by the British and their descendants, but there are also many places that were settled by others and their names will sometimes reflect that. St. Augustine, Florida , for example, was named San Augustin by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. St. Augustine was settled by the Spanish well before the British settled New England.Place names throughout the U.S. can have many origins. New England seems no different from the rest of the country in this respect.List of place names of Native American origin in New England - WikipediaPlace name origins - WikipediaHow Places Get Their Names20 Towns Named for Other Towns But Pronounced Differently