The stories behind 19 odd Iowa town names

Editor's note: This story was first published in 2019.

Driving down the interstate or single-lane highways throughout Iowa, it's hard not to wonder: How did some of these towns get their names?

Many of the smaller towns that dot the countryside of the Hawkeye State were shaped by the establishing of post offices and railroad routes. Their names were taken from Native American words — some real, some fake — or really whatever the founders wanted to name the town. Most towns went through several names before settling on their enduring titles.

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Defiance took their name from, well, an act of defiance. Nora Springs was named for a woman that didn't share the town founder's romantic feelings. Villisca's founders thought they were naming it a Native American word for "pretty place" when really it meant "evil spirit."

The stories behind the names listed here have been drawn from Tom Savage's excellent "A Dictionary of Iowa Place-Names" (University of Iowa Press, 2007) unless otherwise cited.

Adel

Population: 4,386

Est: 1847

Story behind the name: Though originally called Penoach, the town's current name was reportedly to honor an "attractive child" or possibly describes the physical location of the town, on "a dell."

Charles City

Population: 7,373

Est: 1854

Story behind the name: The Floyd County seat went through a variety of names before reaching its current iteration. It started as Freeman before being retitled Charleston after a man named Joseph Kelly named it for his son. When the townspeople realized there already was a Charleston, they changed it to St. Charles City. The local paper led the fight to drop the "St." by reason of it being unnecessarily long, making it Charles City since 1860. 

Correctionville

Population: 801

Est: 1855

Story behind the name: This northwestern Iowa town was named for a surveying term. Surveyors alter their line every six miles to account for the curvature of the earth. Correctionville was established along one of those "correction lines." 

Defiance

Population: 267

Est: 1882

Story behind the name: Many Iowa towns lived and died by the laying of railroad tracks. Defiance, originally called Marmon, was changed by townspeople who were unhappy the railroad hadn't come through their community and proclaimed themselves "defiers."

Des Moines

Population: 217,521

Est: 1846

Story behind the name: The state capital took its name from the military fort of the same name established along the banks of the Des Moines River. The river received its name from French cartographers who named it after a group of Native Americans called the Moingwenas, who had been found living in the area in the late 17th century. 

Doon

Population: 596

Est: 1889

Story behind the name: H.D. Rice named the town for "Bonnie Doon," a reference in a line of 18th-century Scotch poet Robert Burns' poem "Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon." The poem's opening lines read: "Ye banks and braes o' bonie Doon,/

How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?"

Elkader

Population: 1,226

Est: 1845

Story behind the name: One of the towns three founders named the town for Abd El Kader, a Muslim emir who was widely known at the time for resisting the French invasion of Algiers. 

Gravity

Population: 183

Est: 1881

Story behind the name: This town drew its name from the Old Gravity Post Office, a nearby landmark. Though not definitive, some speculate that the post office received its name due to it being the "center of gravity" for the township.

Independence

Population: 6,056

Est: 1847

Story behind the name: This is a simple one, according to the city's website. After being founded in June 1847, the town, which has a motto of "America's Fame is in our Name," was named Independence "thanks in part to the approaching 4th of July

Ionia

Population: 279

Est: 1883

Story behind the name: Though not definitive, a local folk tale has it that, when a railroad man came to town to talk to business owners about choosing a new name for the town, he was confronted by an indignant citizen. "I don't care what you call it," he said, "I own the lumberyard, I own that land, I own that building." To this the railroad man responded: "We'll call it Ionia!"

Jamaica

Population: 217

Est: 1882

Story behind the name: Local history has it that, after first attempting to register under the name Van Ness, which was denied due to another town having that name, the residents of the town couldn't agree on a new name. The town's mayor then faced a map wearing a blindfold. His finger ended up pointing to the Caribbean island of Jamaica. The town most recently made the news when its mayor was arrested for marijuana possession. 

Lone Tree

Population: 1,376

Est: 1872

Story behind the name: The town founded by John Jayne was named for a large white elm that stood as the only tree for miles. 

Lost Nation

Population: 418

Est: 1872

Story behind the name: Several stories are cited as the creation myths behind this town's name. One refers to a tribe of Native Americans that starved and froze in the area long before settlers arrived. Another cites a man named Balm looking for relatives in the area, saying he was looking for a "lost nation." Another source tells of the area's first French settlement, called "New Nation," that was wiped out by disease. 

Marysville

Population: 67

Est: 1851

Story behind the name: Joseph Brobst, the town's founder, named the town after the number of Marys that were in his family.                                                                       

Nora Springs

Population: 1,371

Est: 1857

Story behind the name: A man named Greeley wanted to name the town "Elnora" in honor of his love interest. One of the founders, Edson Gaylord, wanted to name it "Springs." They compromised on naming it Nora Springs, even after Elnora turned Greeley down. 

Ocheyedan

Population: 461

Est: 1884

Story behind the name: "Ocheye" means "where they cry" in the Dakota language. The "dan" part means small. The Osceola county town's name quite literally translates to "small place to cry."

Villisca

Population: 1,171

Est: 1872

Story behind the name: The town's founders took the name for the site from the Sac and Fox word "waliska," thinking it meant "pretty place." Unbeknownst to them, the word refers to "an evil spirit" or "Satan." The town would go on to gain great notoriety for a grisly and unsolved ax murder in 1912.

Waukee

Population: 20,649

Est: 1869

Story behind the name: The Northwestern Railroad wanted the town to have an "Indian name." There was some belief among the locals that Waukee had some meaning to local Native Americans, but it was later proven that it, in fact, did not and was merely a contraction of Milwaukee. It's now a fast-growing suburb of Des Moines. 

What Cheer

Population: 621

Est: 1865

Story behind the name: After the original name of Petersburgh was rejected by the postal department, local politician Joseph Andrews got the town name changed to What Cheer in 1879. One origin tale claims a Scotch miner proclaimed "what cheer!" — an English expression of happiness — when he discovered a seam of coal near the town.

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