List of U.S. place names of French origin

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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, etc.). Some places received their names as a consequence of French colonial settlement (e.g. Baton Rouge, Detroit, New Orleans, Saint Louis).

The suffix "-ville," from the French word for "town" 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). In contrast, Spanish place names in the Southwest were generally not replaced by English names.

Contents

[edit] Alabama

[edit] Alaska

[edit] Arizona

[edit] Arkansas

[edit] California

[edit] Colorado

[edit] Connecticut

[edit] Delaware

[edit] Florida

[edit] Georgia

[edit] Hawai'i

[edit] Idaho

[edit] Illinois

[edit] Indiana

[edit] Iowa

[edit] Kansas

[edit] Kentucky

Cities

Counties

[edit] Louisiana

[edit] Maine

[edit] Maryland

[edit] Massachusetts

[edit] Michigan

[edit] Minnesota

[edit] Mississippi

[edit] Missouri

[edit] Montana

[edit] Nebraska

Further information: Category:Place names in Nebraska of French origin

[edit] Nevada

  • Frenchman
  • Lamoille
  • Pioche (named for François Louis Alfred Pioche, financier who purchased the town in 1869)
  • Reno (named after Major General Jesse Lee Reno, a Union officer killed in the American Civil War, Reno's family name was simplified from the French surname "Renault")

[edit] New Hampshire

[edit] New Jersey

[edit] New Mexico

  • Bayard (named for George D. Bayard, Union general in the Civil War of French ancestry)
  • Clovis (named for Clovis, first Christian King of the Franks)

[edit] New York

[edit] North Carolina

[edit] North Dakota

[edit] Ohio

[edit] Oklahoma

[edit] Oregon

[edit] Pennsylvania

[edit] Rhode Island

[edit] South Carolina

[edit] South Dakota

[edit] Tennessee

[edit] Texas

[edit] Utah

[edit] Vermont

[edit] Virginia

[edit] Washington

[edit] West Virginia

[edit] Wisconsin

[edit] Wyoming

[edit] U.S. Virgin Islands

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Pinardville NH Home Page". http://www.gotopinardville.com/. Retrieved June 2, 2010. 
  2. ^ http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Cheyenne
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_U.S._place_names_of_French_origin&oldid=472556848"
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