List of place names of French origin in the United States

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), compared to only two that are Spanish (Sacramento and Santa Fe). 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), versus eight state names that are Spanish or Spanish rendered (California, Colorado, Florida, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah).

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). In contrast, Spanish place names in the Southwest were generally not replaced by English names.

Alabama

Alaska
  • La Chaussée Spit at the entrance of Lituya Bay. Named originally in charts prepared by French explorer Jean-François de La Pérouse in 1786. La Chaussée means "causeway".
  • Mount La Pérouse (3231 m) and La Pérouse Glacier in the Fairweather Range of Alaska, both named after French explorer and naval captain Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse
  • Gastineau Channel named after John Gastineau, an English Civil Engineer and Surveyor with a French surname. Compare with Gatineau.
  • Juneau named after Joseph Juneau, French-Canadian prospector and gold miner

Arizona
  • Clemenceau (Named after the French prime minister during World War I)
  • Picket Wire (Corruption of the French Purgatoire, "Purgatory")
  • Peridot

Arkansas
  • Arkansas (named by French explorers from aboriginal word meaning "south wind")
  • Antoine ("Anthony")
  • Aurelle
  • Auvergne (a French region)
  • Barraque ("barracks")
  • Bayou
  • Beauchamp (fair of beautiful field or plain)
  • Beaudry
  • Belleaire (from "belle aire", beautiful place)
  • Belleville ("Beautiful City")
  • Bellfonte (maybe from "belle fontaine", beautiful fountain)
  • Boeuf ("Beef")
  • Bonair (good air)
  • Buie
  • Burdette
  • Cache
  • Cadron
  • Calumet The French word for a Native American tobacco pipe.
  • Calvin (Anglicized version of Cauvin, famous French Protestant)
  • Champagnolle
  • Chancel
  • Chicot County (a stump)
  • Claude
  • Cloquet
  • Darcy
  • De Roche (of the rock)
  • Deberrie
  • Decatur
  • Delaplaine (Of-the-plains, surname)
  • Departee
  • Devue
  • Des Arc ("At the bend")
  • Dumas (French surname)
  • Ecore Fabre
  • Fayetteville (named for French general, Marquis de La Fayette)
  • Fontaine ("Fountain", a surname)
  • Fourche ("Pitchfork")
  • Fourche Lafave
  • Fourche Valley
  • Francure
  • French
  • Frenchman's Bayou
  • Frenchport
  • Gallatin
  • Grand Glaise ("Large Clay")
  • Gravette
  • La Fave
  • La Grue (the crane)
  • La Grue Springs
  • Lacrosse
  • Ladelle
  • Lafayette County
  • LaGrange
  • Lamartine (French author Alphonse de Lamartine, also a surname)
  • L'Anguille ("The Eel")
  • Lapile
  • Larue (the street)
  • Latour (the tower)
  • Lave Creek
  • Levesque ("Bishop", a common French-Canadian surname)
  • Little Rock (A translation of La Petite Roche)
  • Macon (French city "Mâcon")
  • Marais Saline (saline marsh)
  • Marche
  • Maumee
  • Maumelle (breasts)
  • Monette
  • Mont Sandels
  • Montreal (royal mount)
  • Moreau (feedbag, probably a family's proper name)
  • New Gascony
  • Ozark (phonetic rendering of either aux Arks, "of the Ark(ansas)" or aux Arcs, "of the arches", or possibly aux arcs-en-ciel, "of the rainbows")
  • Ozark Mountains as per immediately above
  • Paris
  • Paroquet
  • Partain
  • Petit Jean ("Little John" named after a French sailor on the Arkansas River)
  • Pollard
  • Prairie County
  • Sans Souci (literally without concern)
  • Segur (French city)
  • Sevier County
  • Smackover (Anglicization of chemin couvert, "covered way")
  • Soudan
  • Terre Noire (black earth)
  • Terre Rouge (redland or red earth)
  • Tollette
  • Tully
  • Urbanette
  • Vallier (French surname)
  • Vaucluse (French region)
  • Vaugine
  • Vidette
  • Villemont (ville = city, mont = mount)

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Hawai'i

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Cities

Counties

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada
  • Frenchman
  • Frenchman Flat
  • Lamoille
  • Montreux
  • Pioche, named after François Louis Alfred Pioche, a 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 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

New Jersey

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)

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island
  • Lafayette Village, a historic district in North Kingstown, RI
  • Louisquisset, a neighborhood and major parkway in Providence, RI
  • Marieville, a neighborhood in Providence, RI

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

U.S. Virgin Islands
  • Saint Croix ("Holy Cross")

See also

References
  1. "Pinardville NH Home Page". Retrieved June 2, 2010.
  2. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Cheyenne
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