Mike Dubost
Posts: 273
Joined: 8/24/2008
From: Sacramento, CA
Status: offline
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In a previous thread, Warspite 1 asked if an American would like to start a thread on US place names.
Having a bit of spare time, I decided why not?
I will start with 3 from my home state of California:
There are 3 cities near San Francisco called Dublin, Benicia, and Calistoga (ever buy Calistoga water?).
What is now the US state of California used to be the Mexican state of Alta California back before the Mexican War. The Spanish and later the Mexicans would issue land grants that covered large areas of the state.
The owner of one such land grant sold a portion of it to an Irishman, who then brought in friends and relatives from Ireland. A small town grew up, and the time came to name the town. Someone said "There are so many Irishman here it might as well be Dublin.", and so it is. I forget where I read this story.
I think the next story comes from W.T. Sherman's memoirs. A man by the name of General Mariano Vallejo was running this part of Alta California (hey, that's a 4th city name source, since Vallejo is named after him). He sold a portion of his land grant to someone else on the condition that he found a port city there. The buyer, in gratitude wanted to name it after Senora Francesca Benicia Vallejo, the General's wife. The city of Yerba Buena had just changed its name to San Francisco (after the mission there), so in order to avoid confusion, the city was named Benicia, rather than the first choice of Francesca.
In the case of Calistoga, I heard this story from a resident of the city. It sounds almost too good to be true, so you may want to take it with a grain of salt. There is a famous resort with springs in New York state called Saratoga (those of you familiar with the War of the American Revolution will recognize the name). Calistoga has mineral springs, and an early promoter of them wanted to make it "the Saratoga of California". Unfortunately, having had a bit of drink, he Spoonerized the phrase into "the Calistoga of Sarafornia", and everyone laughed so much, they decided to use the name. I haven't ever heard this elsewhere, so it may be just a good story, but it is too good not to pass along.
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