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List of place names of French origin in the United States

(Redirected from List of U.S. place names of French origin)

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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  • Frenchman
  • Frenchman Flat
  • Lamoille
  • Montreux
  • Pioche, named after François Louis Alfred Pioche, a financier who purchased the town in 1869.
  • 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.

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See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Bee Branch Creek History | Dubuque, IA - Official Website". www.cityofdubuque.org. Retrieved 2022-09-04.
  2. ^ "An Indian Legend". Bellevue Herald Leader. 19 June 2019. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  3. ^ "Pinardville NH Home Page". Retrieved June 2, 2010.
  4. ^ "Cheyenne | Origin and meaning of the name cheyenne by Online Etymology Dictionary".

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