67 Small Towns That Make You Wonder Where They Got Their Names

We’ve heard that residents of Accident are called “Accidentals.”

This small town is named after Bell Buckle Creek, near which the town was founded.

Few agree on the origin of this name, but some think that it involved a campfire made of corn.

This town was settled near a cornfield, hence the name.

Your guess is as good as ours, but we bet it has to do with crickets.

Coffee Springs is one of many Alabama towns with unusual names. It was named for the nearby springs and for General John Coffee who once camped at the springs.

Perhaps named for the Coward family, this small town is located in Florence County.

Named for the area’s cucumber trees or the nearby Cucumber Creek, this place name is truly unique. It’s the only spot in the U.S. with the name of Cucumber.

Any ideas? We’re thinking this is of game-piece origin.

A mural painted in the 1930s bearing the phrase “Ding Dong” supposedly gave this town its onomatopoetic name.

We’d expect this town to have one killer deviled egg recipe.

While obscure, we sure do like this one. 

This spot was named after a town across the Atlantic—an English hamlet called Dragonville in County Durham.

While Georgia itself was named for England’s King George II, this little town was not to be outdone.

This town got its name after a eureka! moment of discovering the town’s local springs.

This small town was named after the University of Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station that’s located there.

Fame is in good company. Other creative Mississippi place names include Panther Burn, Gin, Christmas, and Whynot. 

This particular Fame is a small town in Pendleton County, West Virginia.

This fun-to-say town name is probably related to a variant of the name Philip.

While first glance would tell you this spot was named for the doctor in Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein, it was actually named for the area’s Franken family.

Everything’s friendlier in Friendsville.

With a population of only 484, this little spot started out as a mill town in the mountains.

This town name is so catchy, a musical group better adopt it ASAP.

Tennessee town names range from the understandable, like Goat City, to the personal, like Edith, and also from the descriptive, like Difficult, to the downright festive, like Disco.

This town name was adopted by a band. Goodnight, Texas, is a place you can visit and a band with music you can enjoy.

This locale was originally named Mack’s Corner, but, supposedly, a spot of grease changed the name, and it stuck.

Who wouldn’t want to live in Happyland?

Hazard was named for Oliver Hazard Perry, a commodore in the U.S. Navy who fought in the War of 1812.

This name apparently originated from a beloved 1920s dance hall once located in the area.

This spot got its name from an area store where locals would meet to chat and “catch up.” The store came to be called Ketchup Town, and the town name followed.

Legend has it that this town got its name from—what else?—licking skillets. The last person to arrive to dinner or to a campground is left licking the skillet to satisfy their hunger, or so the saying goes.

Apparently local lizards were brought in to put a dent in the area’s insect problems. Or perhaps a passerby saw a group of lizards sunning themselves. Either way, lizards gave this North Carolina town its unusual name.

This North Carolina town takes its inspiration from the locust tree. To name the town, a resident suggested “Locust Level.” So it was called until the word “level” was dropped years later.

This spot was named after the surname Loving; this one in particular belonged to locals John and Amanda Loving.

Legend has it that the namesake for this town was the love interest of the town’s first postmaster.

Residents here must be a little more fortunate than the rest.

Sorry to disappoint, but this town isn’t named for the comic strip character. It’s named after John Sappington Marmaduke, a former governor of Missouri.

This one was also named after a person. Hernando Money, a U.S. Senator from Mississippi, to be precise.

Perhaps the most memorable of all, this town name still leaves us scratching our heads. Locals say it was named Monkey’s Eyebrow because A. the county resembles a monkey’s head and the town is located where the eyebrow would be, or B. from an aerial view, the town resembles the aforementioned monkey’s eyebrow.

This town name came from a local business—an area cement plant that produced “OK” brand cement.

Most think that this town name was derived from a resident’s name—a Mr. Othneil—not, surprisingly, the breakfast food made of oats.

Sugar and spice and everything nice, this town name was chosen by the daughter of the local postman.

This small-town name also originated from a small-town business—the OK Truck Manufacturing Company (which is, incidentally, the abbreviation for Oklahoma).

This town was first named Minersville, and when the time came to change it, one resident said, “It’s 'Ore' or no go.” Running with the idea, the town landed on Oronogo, a decidedly memorable moniker.

This town shares its name with the nearby Paw Paw Tunnel, also the native, Southern-favorite paw-paw tree.

The name Possum Grape was supposedly the result of a compromise between residents who wanted the name to be “Possum” and “Grape.” Also, possum grape is the name of a vine indigenous to North America.

There are plenty of towns in the U.S. named Pumpkin Center, including in Oklahoma, California, and Indiana.

French traders gave this place its name. "Sallisaw" is from the French salaison, which roughly translates to "salt meat.”

We’ve heard that this name came from locals scratching the mosquito bites on their ankles. We believe it. Those summertime mosquito bites are no joke.

There are countless origin stories for this name. Some think that “Soddy” came from William Sodder, the owner of a local trading post. Others believe the name came from nearby Soddy Creek. 

Another place name pulled from the natural world. This one might make you shiver, though.

This area has historically been a big producer of potatoes. Is there any surprise that it’s called Spuds?

This small town lives on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, hence the dual addresses.

While the name is obscure (and pretty catchy), locals claim this town name comes from the idea that sips from the area’s waterways are sweet.

We bet you can guess this one. This small town was named after the fictional, jungle-going Tarzan character. It was named during the height of Tarzan’s novel and comic strip popularity.

No surprises here. The Bottle was inspired by an actual bottle building. John Williams, the owner of Nehi Bottling Co., built a 64-foot-tall structure that resembled a Nehi bottle. While the building burned, the name lives on.

This small town received its name when a lightning strike formed the local freshwater spring—allegedly.

The origins of this place name are a mystery. It was supposedly suggested by the employees of the local post office, and we’d like to think it’s an homage to a crisp slice of toasted bread.

This spot also has conflicting accounts of its origins. Our favorite: Someone dropped two eggs, inspiring the moniker. However, some say that during the Great Depression, eggs were often traded for other wares at the area country store, inspiring the name.

The story of Uncertain is not so uncertain. When applying for township, this community’s residents wrote “Uncertain” in the field asking for the name of the town. Once the wheels of bureaucracy turned, the town was officially designated Uncertain.

Where’s Waldo? Florida, that’s where.

This West Virginia town is named for nearby War Creek.

The location of this town changed three times, moving miles to avoid the rising Mississippi floodwaters. The issue of flooding also led to the construction of a levee around the town. After some work, it’s truly become waterproof.

True story: This town was originally named Poor until popular opinion demanded a name change.

Picture it: Residents couldn’t decide on a name, so someone suggested, “Why not name it 'Why Not'?” It stuck, becoming Whynot forevermore.

This spot is named for Henry A. Wise, a former Virginia governor.

On the spectrum of Southernness, this place name is supremely Southern. It was named either for the classic shout “Yeehaw!” or the nearby Yeehaw Station of the Florida East Coast Railway.