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Maine’s county names come from a mix of British, American, and Native American sources, reflecting Maine’s pre-colonial, colonial, and national heritage. Counties by Year. York County (originally Yorkshire County, Massachusetts) was the first county created on November 20, 1652. Knox County was the last county created on March 9, 1960.
Maine was granted statehood on March 15, 1820 as part of the Missouri Compromise. Nine of the sixteen counties had their borders defined while Maine was still part of Massachusetts, and hence are older than the state itself. Even after 1820, the exact location of the northern border of Maine was disputed with Britain, until the question was ...
by Dan Landrigan. $26.95. Buy On Bookshop.org Support Local Bookstores. This story about Maine place names was updated in 2024. American Revolution French and Indian Wars. The story of why Maine place names like Mexico, Paris and Poland are the way they are. (The French and Indian wars had something to do with it.)
Aug 11, 2022 · Border disputes existed with Maine's neighbors to the east and north in Canada. The same piece of land an ancestor lived on might be identified differently because borders, counties, and names changed. Genealogical research in Maine is challenging principally because of the numerous governmental changes affecting the way records have been kept.”
- Alabama. Before Europeans landed on American shores, the upper stretches of the Alabama River in present-day Alabama used to be the home lands of a Native American tribe called – drum roll, please – the Alabama (Albaamaha in their own tribal language).
- Alaska. Like Alabama (and, as we'll see, plenty of other state names), the name Alaska comes from the language of the area's indigenous people. The Aleuts (a name given to them by Russian fur traders in the mid 18 century; they used to, and sometimes still do, call themselves the Unangan), natives of the Aleutian Islands, referred to the Alaskan Peninsula and the mainland as alaxsxaq (ah-lock-shock), literally, “the object toward which the action of the sea is directed.”
- Arizona. There are two sides in the argument over the origin of Arizona's name. One side says that the name comes from the Basque aritz onak (“good oak”) and was applied to the territory because the oak trees reminded the Basque settlers in the area of their homeland.
- Arkansas. The first Europeans to arrive in the area of present-day Arkansas were French explorers accompanied by Illinois Indian guides. The Illinois referred to the Ugakhpa people native to the region as the Akansa (“wind people” or “people of the south wind”), which the French adopted and pronounced with an r. They added an s to the end for pluralization, and for some reason it stuck when the word was adopted as the state's name.
Feb 15, 2020 · What We Know. Until recently, two dominant theories have existed regarding the origin of the name Maine, but no consensus has ever been reached as to its precise beginnings. The answer to this ...
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Sep 24, 2015 · Geography. A few towns and cities in Maine are, or may have been, named after foreign places because their geography seemed reminiscent of the geography of the original cities. Woolwich, for example, may have been called that because its location on the Kennebec River was similar to that of the English town of Woolwich on the Thames.
