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History of Orange County
Introduction
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In our present etymological paper up on the names of places, etc., we shall not be able from pure domestic manufacture to produce any thing equal to, or that will compare with, the cases cited; unless, as in those cases, we go abroad for them, which we may be compelled to do, as we have been liberal to prodigality in appropriating to our own localities the proper names of foreign places; and that, too, in many cases, without either rhyme or reason for it. The truth is, we have drawn them without stint or measure from the vocabularies of the four quarters of the earth.
Other States in the Union are equally guilty, for a writer on the vast multiplication of European and classic names for towns in the United States, remarks, that in all Europe there is but one London, whilst in this country we have five Londons, one New London, and seven Londonderrys. We have six towns called Paris, twenty-one Richmonds, sixteen Bedford, nine Brightons, nine Chathams, eleven Burlingtons, sixteen Delawares, fourteen Oxfords, fourteen Somerset, nine Cambridges, twenty-five York, and other English names in proportion. We have three Dreedens, fourteen Berlins, twenty Hanovers, and four Viennas. All the cities of the East are multiplied a great many times, with the exception of Constantinople, in place of which we have Constantine. There are one hundred and eighteen towns called Washington; there are ninety-one Jacksons, sixty-nine Jeffersons, fifty-eight Monroes, fifty Madisons, thirty-two Harrisons, nineteen Adamses, sixteen Van Burens, twenty-one Clays, three Websters, and but one Tyler. Of Bentons, there are fourteen, Franklins, eighty-three, and Lafayettes, thirty-four. The popularity of an individual can hardly be inferred from the number of times his name occurs on the map. Clinton is multiplied twenty-seven times, Decatur nine times, and Perry one. The national habit of imitation is very strongly shown in our names. There are very few that occur but once, and these are very peculiar. Small Pox, for instance, a town in Joe Davies county, Illinois, stands alone yet, or did when the census was taken; so does the town of Jim Henry, Miller county, Missouri; but they will doubtless be multiplied before long.
The practice of Latinizing names is sometimes truly ridiculous, and is not, to be encouraged, as it savors of learned pedantry. Take an example: the island of Jersey was called Caesarea by the Romans, in honor of Julius Caesar. The State of New Jersey was named after the island of Jersey and never called Caesarea,—yet the diplomas granted to the students—graduates at Nassau Hall—by the authority of college, say they are granted to them by the Praeceptor et curatores in collegio. Neo Caesariensis—that is, in the college of New Jersey. What learned nonsense at this day, as far as New Jersey is concerned—for the island of Jersey had lost its name of Caesarea centuries before New Jersey was known, or the continent discovered by Columbus. The same applies to New York. We admit that in a contract made by the Duke of York, 23rd June, 1664, with Lord Berkley and Sir George Cartoul, by which he sold to them a large part of New Jersey, declared the name to be Nova Cessarea, or New Jersey; yet we mean to say, this name was never generally applied in a popular form to the country, but remained dead upon the contract.
We have said thus much partly by way of amusement, and partly for the purpose of impressing the truth strongly upon the attention of the Society, that our names, with their origin and meaning, ought to be firmly fixed and clearly established, before the lapse of time shall, in a hundred ways, obscure and cover them by the mists of uncertainty, and the deeper clouds of learned fictions. The name, cited are cases in point.