Odd Cities

In my line of work, I have to place orders and have them sent to several different towns and cities in the Southeast, Midwest, and in some of the Northeast. Most of the cities have "normal" sounding names like Marksville, LA or Richmond, VA. However, during these years of ordering, I have noticed some unusual names for towns and cities that is a part of my area. There is Weeping Water, NE (Wouldn't you want to live there? It sounds so inviting!), Red Cloud, NE, and Friend, NE. Kansas has Tonganoxie and Wamego while Mississippi has Yazoo City. Waumea is in Florida, as is Okeechobee.

But I have also noticed some very not-so-imaginative names as well. These cities and towns just sound ho-hum. Places like Paris, KY or Geneva, AL are deceptive really. The state with the most of these uninspired cities seems to be Missouri. They have Pacific, Louisiana, Mexico, Glasgow, Normandy, Milan, and Nevada. Were the founders of these places having a huge dearth of original ideas when naming these towns? Maybe the founders were from these areas and missed their homes? Who knows? Naming towns after other countries, world-renown cities, or other states just seems silly to me. (In Missouri's defense, they do have original or pleasant sounding names like Mountain View and Chillicothe.)

It would be interesting to find out the history of these town names, both original and unimaginative. Maybe there is an understandable reason behind naming a town Mexico...

Until then, check out Lizard Lick, Turkey, and Whynot, North Carolina!!