Do you ever wish your city kept its original name?
This could be a fun and informative exercise.
Do you ever wish your city kept its original name? Or had a different name for one reason or another? Is New Amsterdam a cooler name than New York? Maybe. Atlanta an improvement over Terminus? I think so.
Does your city have an original name that you'd prefer it be named?
I'll go first with my hometown and two cities of residence:
Erie, PA
Erie... cool meaning, translating as "people of the cat"... but yeah, not really a great name. Named after the Great Lake, which was named after the Erie or Erielhonan people who inhabited the southern shore of Lake Erie before being massacred by/absorbed into the Iroquois. So that's all good, but the word "eerie" is obviously going to be associated (and perhaps it is fitting as Erie is the weirdo of Pennsylvania). Just not a great sounding name.
However, the original settlement around the French fort of the same name, Presque Isle, has a nice ring to it. Meaning "almost an island" in French, referring to the peninsula stretching out into the lake, creating the bay and harbor which made the place good for a settlement.
Presque Isle, Pennsylvania... sounds like place I'd want to visit much more so than "dreary Erie".
Pittsburgh, PA
Nothing too cool about the name's origin... named for British statesman William Pitt, First Earl of Chatham. Early Scottish pronunciation style of Pittsborough (Pitts-burrah), owing to being named by British general Scotsman John Forbes. The original European name, Duquesne, just has a more sophisticated and interesting sound to it. Meaning "of the oak" in French, was also the name of the French fort at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers.
But of course, the English had to make it something that rhymes with shit... Shittsburgh. Pittsburgh... the pits are not where one wants to be... doesn't match the beauty of the city. But Duquesne, Pennsylvania... a certain elegance there.
Miami, FL
I like it as is. Miami is a cool sounding name. Fun to say. Rolls off the tongue and lips. Named for the original name of Lake Okeechobee, the river draining it into Biscayne Bay, and the Mayaimi people who inhabited the area south it.
Originally the site of Fort Dallas. Name already taken.
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