1 Portland
There was a 50-50 shot that Portland, Ore., was going to end up being called Boston, Ore. In 1845 what is now known as Portland was just a small settlement called “the Clearing.”Settlers, Asa Lovejoy and Francis Pettygrove, both wanted to name the settlement after their own hometowns. Lovejoy was from Boston, while Pettygrove was from Portland, Me. The pair settled their argument by flipping a coin. Pettygrove and Portland won the best-two-out-of-three contest, and the city became Portland. The so-called Portland Penny they flipped is still on display at the Oregon Historical Society.
2 Atlanta
The ATL was very nearly the MAR. In the early 1840s, what is now Atlanta called itself “Marthasville,”a nod to former governor Wilson Lumpkin’s daughter Martha. The name changed to Atlanta in 1847, and although J. Edgar Thomson, chief engineer of the Georgia Railroad, gets credit for coining the “Atlanta”name, there is some debate over what inspired him. Some sources claim the aforementioned Martha Lumpkin’s middle name was Atalanta. Others claim that Thomson took inspiration from Greek mythology’s Atalanta. Still others claim that Thomson shortened the name from his original idea, “Atlantica-Pacifica.”
3 Chicago
Chicago may be the Windy City, but its name has a fragrant origin. “Chicago”comes from the French pronunciation of shikaakwa the word for “wild garlic”in the Miami–Illinois language. Chicago was originally rife with the wild garlic we also know as ramps.
4 Cincinnati
Cincinnati was originally known as Losantiville, but that didn’t sit well with territorial governor Arthur St. Clair. During a 1790 visit to Losantiville, St. Clair changed the name to Cincinnati to honor the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization of former Continental Army officers. (You guessed it; St. Clair was a member of the society.)
“Jay”used to be slang for “foolish person.”So when a pedestrian ignores street signs, he’s referred to as a “jaywalker.”
5 Denver
Colorado’s capital is named after James W. Denver, a 19th-century Renaissance man who served in Congress, fought in the United States Army, and served as Governor of the Kansas Territory. He only visited his namesake city twice, in 1875 and 1882, and was reportedly unhappy that the residents didn’t give him more of a hero’s welcome.
10 Common Words That Used to Be Trademarked
1. Cellophane
2. Crock-Pot
3. Dry Ice
4. Escalator
5. Heroin
6. Kerosene
7. Linoleum
8. Touch-Tone
9. Trampoline
10. Zipper
6 Phoenix
When the Arizona city was first taking off in the late 1860s, settlers realized that their little town needed a name. Founder Jack Swilling, a Confederate veteran, wanted to name the town Stonewall in honor of Stonewall Jackson, but Darrell Duppa recognized that their site had been a Native American settlement centuries earlier. He suggested Phoenix because their new city would rise from the ruins of the former civilization.
7 Cleveland
Cleveland takes its name from General Moses Cleaveland, a surveyor and investor for the Connecticut Land Company who led the first group to settle in the area in 1796. Cleaveland oversaw the planning of the early town before heading back to Connecticut a few months later. He never returned to the town that bears his name.
It’s not exactly clear when the first “a”in his surname got dropped from the city’s name, but one story explains that in 1830 The Cleveland Advertiser was short on space in its headline and simply axed the “a.”The change caught on, and the town became known as Cleveland.
Alaska is the only state whose name can be typed on one row of keys. (Go ahead and try typing the other 49 states. We’ll wait.)