Origins of American city names

In the early 1900s, Henry Gannett cataloged the origins of city names in the United States. For the Wall Street Journal, Carl Churchill made a searchable map to see where your city’s name came from.

The herculean effort, by famed geographer Henry Gannett of the U.S. Geological Survey, sheds light on America’s past. First published in 1902, then updated in 1905, the report reveals the country’s linguistic history spanning colonization, independence and westward expansion.

If Gannett’s name sounds familiar, you might recall he headed the Statistical Atlas of the United States in 1880 and 1890, which is cherished work around these parts.