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).
Chicago, although not a French place name in itself, shikaakwa or "wild onion" in the Native-American Miami-Illinois language, the pronunciation of the "chi" (as opposed to the "chi" as in China) is the result of early French settlement
Reno County, 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".)
Presque Isle (from the French word "presqu'île" meaning "peninsula"--- from presque meaning "almost", and isle meaning "island". The town is surrounded on three sides by water, and therefore is "almost an island")
Brule River (from the Ojibwe name Wiisakode-ziibi "half-burned wood river", which was translated directly into French as Bois Brulé. Half of the river disappears into a pothole in the
Judge C. R. Magney State Park).
Saint Paul (once known as Pig's Eye Landing after
Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant - French: l'Oeil du Cochon, a French-Canadian trader and innkeeper, renamed Saint Paul by French-Canadian pastor Lucien Galtier when he built the first Roman Catholic chapel in the area)
Sedan (named after the french city of the same name)
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
Belmont (named for
August Belmont, German-born financier who changed his name to Belmont upon arriving in the United States)
Grasse River (named after the Comte de Grasse, a French admiral who decisively defeated the British fleet in the Battle of the Chesapeake in September 1781 during the American Revolution)
Pend Oreille County (named after the
Pend d'Oreilles tribe. French for "earring" and a reference to heavy earrings and distended lobes of the people of the same name)
Guyandotte River (a river in southern West Virginia, running from Wyoming County near Beckley, to the Ohio River near Huntington. Guyandotte is the French spelling of the name of an Indian tribe also known as the
Wyandot.)
Apple River (corruption of the French Rivière Pomme de Terre des Cygnes, which in turn is a translation from the Ojibwe Waabiziipinikaani-ziibi, "River abundant with
swan potatoes")
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).
Chicago, although not a French place name in itself, shikaakwa or "wild onion" in the Native-American Miami-Illinois language, the pronunciation of the "chi" (as opposed to the "chi" as in China) is the result of early French settlement
Reno County, 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".)
Presque Isle (from the French word "presqu'île" meaning "peninsula"--- from presque meaning "almost", and isle meaning "island". The town is surrounded on three sides by water, and therefore is "almost an island")
Brule River (from the Ojibwe name Wiisakode-ziibi "half-burned wood river", which was translated directly into French as Bois Brulé. Half of the river disappears into a pothole in the
Judge C. R. Magney State Park).
Saint Paul (once known as Pig's Eye Landing after
Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant - French: l'Oeil du Cochon, a French-Canadian trader and innkeeper, renamed Saint Paul by French-Canadian pastor Lucien Galtier when he built the first Roman Catholic chapel in the area)
Sedan (named after the french city of the same name)
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
Belmont (named for
August Belmont, German-born financier who changed his name to Belmont upon arriving in the United States)
Grasse River (named after the Comte de Grasse, a French admiral who decisively defeated the British fleet in the Battle of the Chesapeake in September 1781 during the American Revolution)
Pend Oreille County (named after the
Pend d'Oreilles tribe. French for "earring" and a reference to heavy earrings and distended lobes of the people of the same name)
Guyandotte River (a river in southern West Virginia, running from Wyoming County near Beckley, to the Ohio River near Huntington. Guyandotte is the French spelling of the name of an Indian tribe also known as the
Wyandot.)
Apple River (corruption of the French Rivière Pomme de Terre des Cygnes, which in turn is a translation from the Ojibwe Waabiziipinikaani-ziibi, "River abundant with
swan potatoes")