I recently read the the Basement Geographer’s True Name Map of the West Kootenay/Boundary. That, in turn, derived from an earlier project from Kalimedia. I wondered how a detailed True Name map would look for my little corner of the world as I considered the project. For now it remains on that large pile of unaccomplished things I hope to get to someday.
I did notice that a disproportionate number of place names in my area came across the Atlantic Ocean with the early European settlers, primarily the English. This makes sense as Virginia was a colony of England / Great Britain. A few names influenced by original Native American inhabitants remain. One example includes Potomac, from the Patowamek tribe. However, most of those names fell by the wayside along with the people shoved out by the colonists.
Another thought crossed my mind as I gazed at the markers. Are there instances where place names moved in the opposite direction, from North America back into England? I suspected that it might be unusual, pushing hard against a tide of human migration. But it might be feasible. I started dropping random North American locations into the Gazetteer of British Place Names.
Anyone on the other end of that tool checking their website statistics would probably get a chuckle as they noticed my counter-intuitive queries such as Orlando, Las Vegas and Vancouver. I’ll bet they thought it was another woefully geo-ignorant American who couldn’t discern North America from the UK. Usually they’d be right, but not this time.
Then I started to receive a few unlikely hits.
Philadelphia
Philadelphia is a small village southwest of Sunderland in Tyne and Wear. I didn’t think that this Philadelphia got its name from the one in Pennsylvania when I spotted it. I thought it more likely that the naming came independently from the same Greek phrase for “brotherly love.”
So I was wrong. The designation did cross the Atlantic in the opposite direction. I also learned a new word: colliery; which refers to a coal mine and it’s supporting buildings and equipment.
I’ll let The Northern Echo newspaper explain:
“Philadelphia on Wearside derives from its larger namesake, The City of Brotherly Love, in Pennsylvania… a local mine owner gave the name to his colliery to commemorate a British victory in the American War of Independence… When names such as Philadelphia occur in England, they usually derive from an old name for a field. A field that is situated furthest from a farmhouse is often given a name such as Nova Scotia, Philadelphia or California to emphasise its distance. In most parts of the country, such field names go unnoticed, but in our region colliery towns and villages often sprang up in the neighbourhood and took the name of the field. Colliery owners also sometimes chose exotic names for their collieries, and this is why we find places in the North-East called Toronto, Quebec and New York.”
That’s similar to terms used generically on the American side of the Atlantic to reference distant places such as “the back 40,” Siberia or “East Bum–” (well, you get the idea). The article also explained that the local cricket field became “Bunker Hill” to commemorate another British victory (sort-of) during the same war. I noticed they didn’t have anything commemorating the Battle of Yorktown, however.
California
A few minor places in England became California. They fell primarily into the explanation provided above from what I can determine. One California location north of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk had a more precise lineage.
According to a local tavern named after the village, “Around 1840 a group of beachmen from Winterton moved south and established the California settlement which was so named because of Gold coins being found in the cliffs at the time of the California Gold Rush.” Another source said even more precisely, “On May 11th, 1848 a quantity of sixteenth century gold coins was found at the foot of the cliffs near Scratby by local beachmen. At the same time the California gold rush in America was much in the news. The beachmen decided that their new village needed a name – and California, Norfolk came into being.”
Truth or legend? Who knows. It’s the Intertubes after all.
America
I thought variations on America might be more popular but I found only a single reference in the Gazetteer, for America Moor outside of Leeds in Yorkshire. I couldn’t find America Moor as a distinct place on a map. However, be careful if you search for this on your own. Google confuses it with cinematic content that’s inappropriate for this website. The only remnant appears to be an obscure street called America Moor Lane.
I couldn’t trace a history. Someone might have named it directly for Amerigo Vespucci for all I know.
Not an Example, but Amusing Nonetheless
New York and Boston are towns in Lincolnshire. This New York was named after the York in England, and this Boston gave its name to the one in Massachusetts so they don’t fit the backwards naming convention. Even so this may be the only time one can drive from New York to Boston in less than twenty minutes — and heading south!
Totally Unrelated
An interesting article appeared in the Washington Post today, “D.C. area and Dixie drifting farther and farther apart.” It discusses both the use of Dixie as a business names and the Sweet Tea Line. I’ve mentioned sweet tea before.
My background provides anecdotal evidence to support the premise. Absolutely, I was born south of the Sweet Tea Line. However today I live north of the line. I am a sweet tea drinker in a foreign land where it’s practically unavailable. The straight-line distance from my birthplace to my current residence is less than four miles.
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