City/town names that are mistakes/misspellings

[index]

The two examples I know of:

Erwin, Tennessee was supposed to be Ervin, and Seagrove, North Carolina was supposed to be Seagraves. The former came about due to a typo, while the latter's name came about due to running out of space, then a typo.

[formulanone]

Arab, Alabama was supposed to be "Arad".

It's pronounced A-rab (like "a rabbit").

[Max Rockatansky]

Santa Nella's modern name is a bastardization of Rancho de Centinela.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Cleveland's namesake was named Moses Cleaveland. Theories suggest either a typo, or a local newspaper's name that couldn't fit his full name as part of the prints, so it dropped the first "A".

[Henry]

Cincinnati was once called Cincinatti. And Pittsburgh used to be Pittsburg.

[LilianaUwU]

Longueuil, QC should be Longueil, after the commune in Normandy.

[Bruce]

Seattle should be Si'ahl, going by the modern conventional anglicization of the name siʔaɫ.

A lot of our indigenous-derived names have spellings that aren't close to what they should be. Turns out you should consult actual linguists when naming your town.

[CtrlAltDel]

Seattle should be Si'ahl, going by the modern conventional anglicization of the name siʔaɫ.

A lot of our indigenous-derived names have spellings that aren't close to what they should be. Turns out you should consult actual linguists when naming your town.

Fair enough, of course, but I think it's worth noting that the city of Seattle was named in the 1850s, while the modern writing system of Chief Seattle's language was developed in the 1950s.

[Max Rockatansky]

Could be worse, New York Alki wasn't exactly a catchy name.

[IowaTraveler]

Centerville, Iowa was supposed to be named Senterville, after a senator from Tennessee. However, when the paperwork was filed for the name change, someone assumed it was a typo and "corrected" it to Centerville.

[JayhawkCO]

Nome, AK is named as such because someone reading a map saw "? Name" and misread it as "C. Nome" with the C being "Cape".

[Scott5114]

Seattle should be Si'ahl, going by the modern conventional anglicization of the name siʔaɫ.

A lot of our indigenous-derived names have spellings that aren't close to what they should be. Turns out you should consult actual linguists when naming your town.

Of course, then you fall into the rabbit chasm of English orthography and the gulf between it and other languages. For instance, if I saw "Si'ahl" without context I'd pronounce it "see awl" which is of course nowhere close to Seattle. So you have to pick between using the original language's orthography (historically accurate but will cause problems with English users spelling and pronouncing it correctly) or something closer to English (more likely to be spelled and pronounced correctly, but less historically accurate).

We have the same issue with a lot of the Native-derived toponyms in Oklahoma. Chickasha comes to mind–it is spelled after the English pronunciation "chick-uh-SHAY" as opposed to the original Chikasha (pronounced "chi-KAH-shah"). From what I can tell, the Chickasaw (hey, look, another spelling and pronunciation of the same word!) tribe doesn't really see this as a problem, probably because they have the good sense to not really want to be associated with Chickasha.

[jakeroot]

English versions of non-English words or names should not count as mistakes or misspellings. There is always going to be, as Scott correctly points out, some kind of orthographic gap between the original word or name, letters or characters in the original language, and whatever sounds the second language is capable of producing.

For example, the Japanese people write Tokyo as "東京", which is kanji. But, since my Japanese skills are limited, and I certainly don't know much kanji, I write it as "Tokyo", which is a recognizable series of letters that I can pronounce easily. The Japanese pronunciation is similar, but not precisely reproducible in English, so an approximation is used. The same things is done in Japanese for Seattle, which is written as "シアトル" and pronounced "Shiatoru", a series of characters that Japanese can pronounce easily.

This sort of thing happens all. the. time. In every language.

[DandyDan]

Norfolk, Nebraska was supposed to be Norfork,  because it's on the North Fork of the Elkhorn River,  but someone in the Post Office screwed up and called it Norfolk. Everyone pronounces it Nor-FORK.

[elsmere241]

Seattle should be Si'ahl, going by the modern conventional anglicization of the name siʔaɫ.

A lot of our indigenous-derived names have spellings that aren't close to what they should be. Turns out you should consult actual linguists when naming your town.

My wife (born in Seattle, raised near Sunnyside in Yakima Valley) says the way I pronounce many Washington town names (including Yakima) grates her ears.  I've been trying to learn the right way to say them, but apparently I'm not there yet.

[ethanhopkin14]

The community south of Austin is called Manchaca.  There is a spring there called Manchaca Springs.  There is an elementary school there called Menchaca Elementary School, which always confused everyone.  The road going there was always Manchaca Road.  The kicker is it was always pronounced Man-shack Road.  The story gets more confusing when people allege the road was named after José Antonio Menchaca who fought in the Battle of San Jacinto for the Texian army.  Only problem is, there is zero documentation that the community, the springs or the road were named after him, nor any documentation that all three were even named after the same person.  Also confusing is other reports put him in the Mexican army during the War for Texas Independence.  A group also suggests the name "Manchac" stems from a Choctaw word, and not named after Menchaca at all.  Now the city council did what the Austin City Council always does and were convinced it was an anglofication of the name Menchaca, which makes it racists, so the road was renamed Menchaca Road to correct what they perceived to be a misspelling.  Only issue was they pushed it along without talking to the community first.  Most small business owners were not happy, especially ones that named their business "Manchaca Road Auto Parts" or the like.  Since it got pushed through as a hot button racial issue, of course the city had zero problem spending stupid amounts of money changing all the street signs, plus the state to update the BGSs on US_290/SH-71 for the Manchaca Road exit.  This whole story to say the city changed the name of a street that there is no proof was a misspelling but took it upon themselves to not only call it a misspelling but wipe away the over 100 years that people called the road by its other name. 

All this is why I am not pro "rename I-19 as I-17 because I-19 is dumb" or "I-12 is too short, let's give it a 3di and the reasoning is, because."  It causes many people who actually live on those roads a lot of headache so renumbering a highway just because you don't like it is never a good reason. 

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2019/09/27/south-austins-manchaca-road-to-be-renamed-menchaca-after-judge-tosses-suit/2660669007/

https://www.kut.org/austin/2019-09-27/manchaca-road-can-now-be-called-menchaca-road-after-judge-tosses-case

[WillWeaverRVA]

Culpeper County and the Town of Culpeper, Virginia are named after Thomas Colepeper, a colonial governor of Virginia, whose family name and baronet were corrupted to Culpeper in the 1700s.