I noticed a lake clipped by the stair-step border in Arkansas. What kind of nimrod would name something Nimrod Lake (map)?
Nimrod applies in a derogatory way in various usages of American English. It references someone rather dim-witted. However, I don’t know if that applies elsewhere in the English speaking world. Maybe our regular readers in Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and such can confirm or deny that.
In any case, many people in the United States would chuckle if they saw a sign for Nimrod Lake. Does the Nimrod refer to the absurdity of this particular geographic location? Or does it describe people who fish there? Well, neither actually.
Historical Context
Nimrod traces back to the Book of Genesis and the Books of Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible. I am by no means a biblical scholar. So I intend no disrespect if I don’t get this exactly right. Succinctly, Nimrod reigned as king of Mesopotamia / Babylonia. He was a great-grandson of Noah and a mighty hunter of exceptional abilities.
There are way too many things named for Nimrod to even begin to cover them here adequately. So feel free to jump over to Wikipedia’s disambiguation page if so inclined. Historically Nimrod has been a common name for ships and more recently for an airplane, a maritime patrol aircraft for the UK military. They all played off the “mighty hunter” theme. It even included a group of phantom islands. Those oddities actually continued to appear on maps until the early 20th Century.
It should surprise nobody that Nimrod place name appears in various locations throughout the United States. They all draw upon the biblical definition of the mighty hunter. Alas, the United States Geological Survey’s Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) lists 37 Nimrod features. These include towns, lakes, buildings, creeks, canyons, hills, mines, dams, historical sites and more.
From Hunter to Moron
Nobody seems entirely sure how Nimrod acquired its negative connotation. One popular theory, often repeated as fact, traces back to the Looney Tunes cartoons. Bugs Bunny apparently referred to the hapless Elmer Fudd repeatedly as “poor little Nimrod.”
Of course Elmer hunted the Wascally Wabbit relentlessly and failed miserably. The writers meant Nimrod as sarcasm, tying back to the Biblical definition. However the audience somehow flipped the meaning from Mighty Hunter to something more akin to Elmer Fudd himself. It transformed from sarcasm to criticism.
I don’t have any way to fact-check that anecdote. Take it as one of those Internet things that sounds plausible on the surface but may or may not be true. Other sources seem to point to an older origin as used amongst hunters to make fun of each other. So feel free to decide for yourself.
U.S. Nimrods
At least five inhabited places in the United States carry the Nimrod designation regardless of how the alternate usage arose.
Nimrod, Minnesota (map) is probably the largest, and even it had fewer than 100 people in the most recent Census. It is an incorporated “city” under Minnesota law, one of the smallest localities in the state with such a designation. It’s best known for it’s annual Labor Day celebration, Nimrod Jubilee Days. I also love that Nimrod was established as a halfway point for wheat traders traveling on the Wheat Trail between Shell City and the nearest railroad at Verndale. This places Nimrod firmly in the “Halfway to what?” category.
Other inhabited U.S. Nimrods include those in:
- Oregon (map)
- Texas (map)
- Arkansas (map)
- Montana (map) — coincidentally next to Running Rabbit Mountain, to keep with that Bugs Bunny theme!
International Nimrods
Nimrods also exist outside of the United States.
One such Nimrod is a small Israeli settlement in the disputed lands of the Golan Heights. It’s named for and located near the Nimrod Fortress (map). The biblical Nimrod, by speculation and tradition reputedly lived on the summit.
Happy hunting.
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