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List of place names of French origin in the United States

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List of place names of French origin in the United States
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Several thousand place names in the United States have names of French origin, some a legacy of past French exploration and rule over much of the land and some in honor of French help during the American Revolution and the founding of the country (see also: New France and French in the United States). Others were named after early Americans of French, especially Huguenot, ancestry (Marion, Revere, Fremont, Lanier, Sevier, Macon, Decatur, etc.). Some places received their names as a consequence of French colonial settlement (e.g. Baton Rouge, Detroit, New Orleans, Saint Louis). Nine state capitals are French words or of French origin (Baton Rouge, Boise, Des Moines, Juneau, Montgomery, Montpelier, Pierre, Richmond, Saint Paul) - not even counting Little Rock (originally "La Petite Roche") or Cheyenne (a French rendering of a Lakota word). Fifteen state names are either French words / origin (Delaware, New Jersey, Louisiana, Maine, Oregon, Vermont) or Native American words rendered by French speakers (Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Wisconsin).

The suffix "-ville," from the French word for "city" is common for town and city names throughout the United States. Many originally French place names, possibly hundreds, in the Midwest and Upper West were replaced with directly translated English names once American settlers became locally dominant (e.g. "La Petite Roche" became Little Rock; "Baie Verte" became Green Bay; "Grandes Fourches" became Grand Forks).

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Alabama

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Alaska

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Arizona

Arkansas

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California

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Colorado

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Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

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Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Summarize
Perspective

Cities

Counties

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

  • Currie (named for Pierre and Marie Curie)[208]
  • Frenchman
  • Frenchman Flat
  • Lamoille (after the Lamoille Valley)[208]
  • Montreux
  • Pioche, named after François Louis Alfred Pioche, a financier who purchased the town in 1869. (Pioche also means "spade" in French).[208]
  • Primeaux
  • Reno (named after Major General Jesse Lee Reno, a Union officer killed in the American Civil War. Reno's family name was a modified version of the French surname "Renault")
  • Valmy, named after the place in France of a famous battle during the Revolutionary period.

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

  • Bernon, a neighborhood in Woonsocket, RI (named for a local settler)[248]
  • Lafayette Village, a historic district in North Kingstown, RI (named for the Marquis de Lafayette)[248]
  • Marieville, a neighborhood in Providence, RI

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

U.S. Virgin Islands

See also

Notes

  1. Coulet du Gard & Coulet du Gard 1974, p. 1 suggests that this town is named for a French settler.
  2. Gudde 1998, p. 263 suggests this town was named from German, which also has "Nord" as its word for "North."
  3. Savage 2007, p. 129 states that this place was named for a local attorney, Le Grand Byington.
  4. Rennick 1984, p. 20 suggests that this town's originated with a furnace belonging to the Belmont family.
  5. Rennick 1984, p. 163 states that the town was originally named "La Centre," but the spelling was anglicized by the postal service.
  6. Coulet du Gard & Coulet du Gard 1974, p. 100 notes that the town could also have been named from the German word for "step." Although, another explanation is that the town was named for Frenchman Jules Trappe.
  7. Coulet du Gard & Coulet du Gard 1974, p. 131 gives the source for this name as "an early French settler," but Ramsay 1952, p. 56 argues that this town was named for American politician Albert Gallatin.
  8. Coulet du Gard & Coulet du Gard 1974, p. 160 suggests that this town was named for explorer Louis Joliet.
  9. Coulet du Gard & Coulet du Gard 1974, p. 184 suggests that this town was named for a luberman named John DuBois.
  10. Coulet du Gard & Coulet du Gard 1974, p. 211 suggest that this town was named for August Belmont.
  11. This is disputed; Palús is the name of the aboriginal people who lived at the mouth of the river and the name has been connected to a group of rocks at the same area. French fur traders referred to the river as pavillon (flag).[277]

References

Bibliography

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