A different OT ??

Maybe a quiz. Especially for those of you who live in Illinois, do you know how many cities and towns in your state have the "ville" ending in the name?

It's a trivia question I guess. I was surprised at the number. I don't live in Illinois, but it seemed like a fun project since I have family in a "ville" there.

You got me thinking about town name suffixes. I live in new england - and a lot of towns here have regular suffixes. Like ville, bury, den, wich, and ford.

For example somerville, millbury, malden, harwich, hartford.

I googled it - here's part of what I found - interesting. (I had to remove because of posting rules - like for middlesex county)

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... that's because the suffix "-bury" derives from the Anglo-Saxon "burh," meaning "a fort or fortified place." So when you drive along I-84 from Waterbury to Danbury, passing Middlebury and Southbury along the way, you're traveling a well-fortified route.

The military also plays a role in "Manchester," "Colchester" and, well, "Chester" itself. All are derived from the Latin "castra," meaning "military encampment."

The "wich" in "Greenwich" refers to a port, but in "Norwich" it means a "trading place." "Nor" means north, as it does in "Norfolk" and "Norwalk," so the original Norwich was a northern trading place.

"Ford," of course, means "river crossing," as in "Hartford," "Stratford" and "Stamford." "Hartford" derives from the Anglo-Saxon "heort ford," meaning "deer crossing." "Stratford" means a street (Old English "straet") that crosses the river, while "Stamford" derives from the Old English "stan" (stone) and means "stony ford."

The "wind" in "Windsor" derives from the Old English "windels," which meant "windlass," a crank-turned device that winds rope around a barrel. "Ora" meant a "river bank," so "Windsor" was "a landing place with a windlass for hoisting cargo."

The "ham" in "Hamden," "Windham" and "Barkhamsted" meant "place." "Den" meant "pasture," so the original "Hamden" was probably a place with a pasture. In the "sted" of "Winsted" and "Barkhamsted" we find the Old English "stead," meaning "farm."

And the "bark" in "Barkhamsted" refers neither to trees nor dogs. "Bark" is an alteration of the Old English "berk," from the Old Norse "berg," meaning hill, as in "iceberg." So "Barkhamsted," with its three syllables reassembled, means "hilly place with a farm." Sounds about right.

Mn. has so many saints that you can't visit them all in one day with a motorcycle I was told. Like St. Paul, St Cloud etc.

I'm sure there are more, but Hawleyville, Iowa is the first one that comes to mind.

very interesting. Thanks for "digging this up"

JRSutton , that was interesting. Thank you.

Here in California's Central valley the Railroad barons named a lot of new towns along railroad lines by whatever methods they felt like. Some of us call them the M towns and the T towns. Eg, Modesto, Merced, Manteca, and Turlock, Tulare, etc.

One town was to be named after a banker named Ralston, who declined the honor, and the town was named after his modesty, "Modesto".

I can think of about 8 up here at the top and for extra credit I can think of about that many in Wisconsin.