The names of some places (St. Louis, Washington: neighborhood, living in, moving to)

[2beamissourian]

There has to be a give here..who named some of these towns and where did the names come from?

humanville?

Lickney or something I seen


Now where I presently live we are named of a Jersey cow so ... I just find it interesting what the forefathers before us did and why they called towns the way they did.

Mo. has some very interesting names!

[Inoxkeeper]

Have you ever heard of Tightwad, MO?

Its a small town with a big bank! Afterall who doesn't want
"Bank of Tighwad" on their checks!

[2beamissourian]

That is funny ..are you pulling my leg..lol

We have been teasing our daughter that she was going to be going to Lickney High and she would have to cheer for that team ... She thought we were joking and came in one evening and she said can we please find another town to live in that towns name is embarrassing! haha ..

I just wish I knew the stories behind the names.

Tightwad ..........thats too much! I might look it up tonight!

[Inoxkeeper]

It's real...

check it out.

Tightwad, Missouri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sorry for the spelling error in the earlier post. I also saw that the Bank of Tightwad has closed. What a bummer!

[2beamissourian]

I guess they put the "squeeze" on the bank hehe

[Inoxkeeper]

Another good one is Peculiar, MO...

[Ozarks21]

I heard the story with Peculiar had to do with a dispute with the post office at the time of naming the town. They went through several names and each was rejected by the Postmaster. One of the complaints was that the name was not unique, hence the name Peculiar (probably as a joke). It was accepted.

[mrsgenealogy]

I'm with you, Deborah!

I "put my foot down" on moving to towns like Humansville, Licking and Blue Eye! Many in our families thought we were crazy to move here and I said, "There is no way I am sending them an address with THAT in it!". Of course, we quickly realized that some of the towns with pretty names didn't always meet our expectations, either. For all I know, they are wonderful towns!

I've noticed that it is a package deal that usually makes us happy. Something has to "tip the scale" for us. We have discovered that there is no perfect house, neighborhood, town or even state. As much as we love living here, it would be silly to think that we love everything about everything.

Having said all that and I must say that there would have had to have been some "serious" "plusses" to make it worthwhile for us to live in a town with a weird name like those.

Another funny thing is how some of the towns are pronounced here.
Most of us familiar with how Spokane, WA pronounces their name: Spoke-ann
But Spokane, MO is pronounced: Spoke-ain or Spoke-ane
and
El Dorado, TX is pronounced "El Door-odd-oh"
but El Dorado, MO is pronounced, "El Doe-ray-doe"
and don't EVEN think that those French names are still pronounced as the French would have done. Many are not.
Suffice it to say that Missourians like to do things their way and are keepin' it interesting!

I hope I haven't offended anyone in those towns by my silly and rather shallow statements. After all, I have never even visited their towns. I have to wonder, though, if those people would have CHOSEN to live there if they had a better choice. If I have offended anyone, though, I really do apologize. That was not my intent. Words are something I love...or hate...as the case may be. I used to live on HORST Street so I know what it feels like to live in a place with a funny name.

Take care, ya'll!

[la_missourienne]

I think it's funny how in Missouri, you can go to California, Mexico, Nevada, Louisiana, Washington, Cuba and even Lebanon without leaving the state hehe. (Yep, I used to get to say I was from "Lebanon" and get some interseting looks :P )
There are really some odd names for places indeed; I've often wondered, too, how they came up with some of them. One of the amusing ones to me is "Competition". Every time I hear that Boston song line, "People living in competition", you can guess what I think of...
Don't even get me started on the French place names; as a French teacher, it is most disturbing to hear people say "Ver-sails" for Versailles (Fr. pron.="Ver-sigh") Here in St. Louis, I'm constantly having to learn the Missourian way of saying many of the street names (took me months before I said Gravois "correctly").
And isn't it interesting that Licking is known for having a state prison? Just had to add that one on for fun

[da jammer]

woo-hooo MO has the only Nixa in the whole world