Way back in 2007, I wrote a
post about my fascination with U.S. counties, focusing on ones that shared the same names. More recently, I did a
another post or two on the shapes and sizes of counties in each state, suggesting that some of them shouldn't even exist. For the newspaper at which I work, I even published a column a few years ago about some confusing quirks of Minnesota counties in which (for instance) one county often shares its name with a town or city in another county. And of course I'm always amusing myself by making note of what county I'm passing through wherever I travel. So, of course, being an obsessive type, I recently put a lot of time and effort into creating a spreadsheet counting how many times each county name occurs within the 50 United States of America. And let me tell you the results. Hold still. This will only hurt a bit.
NOTE: I hope Drew Durnil doesn't mind me using his map of the instances of Washington County in the U.S., which I found on his Reddit. I have enjoyed quite a few of his videos on YouTube. Apparently we both have a bit of the same sickness. Another note: I'm including Louisiana parishes, Alaska boroughs and independent cities (of which Virginia has quite a few) in this list, since they're county-equivalent, second-level divisions after the states themselves.
So here's the damage. Counting variant spellings, and allowing for a margin for error in my vast task, I found 1,809 distinct county names in the U.S. The majority by far – 1,379 of them – are one-offs, which I'm obviously not going to list in full even though some of them are quite interesting. They range alphabetically from Abbeville (SC) to Ziebach (SD).
There are 225 pairs of two counties with the same name, alphabetically from Albany (NY, WY) to Yuma (AZ, CO). There are 85 triples, from Baker to Wyoming; 138 foursomes, from Adair to Wood; 19 groups of five counties sharing names from Allen to York; 16 groups of six counties with names from Custer to Webster; only four groups of seven (Howard, Lewis, Pulaski and Richland); 11 groups of eight, from Boone to Randolph; and seven groups of nine counties sharing names from Benton to Shelby.
Breaking into two digits, we find six names shared by 10 counties: Hamilton, Hancock, Henry, Logan, Perry and Pike. If you're playing one of those Sporcle puzzles where you have to name all the counties in a state, these are all very good guesses; they'll be right one-fifth of the time. They get better from here. There are six names shared by 11 counties each: Calhoun, Crawford, Fayette, Lawrence, Morgan and Scott. (The variant Lafayette accounts for another six counties.) The seven names shared by 12 counties each are Adams, Clark (with no e; Clarke is in the five-county bracket), Douglas, Lake, Lee, Marshall and Polk. Only three names are distributed among 13 counties each: Carroll, Johnson and Warren. Greene (with an e) is the only name shared by exactly 14 counties. At 15, there are only two: Grant and Wayne. There are no 16-county name groups. The three names for groups of 17 counties are Marion, Monroe and Union. There are two names representing just 18 counties: Clay and Montgomery. And no 19-county groups.
At exactly 20 counties we have just one name: Madison. There's a wee gap, then two names with 24 counties each: Jackson and Lincoln. Tied for third place at 26 countiess each are Franklin and Jefferson; though Franklin is one of those cases where Virginia has a county and an independent city by the same name. But of course, and this can't be a surprise given my previous essay on this subject, holding the top spot is Washington at 30 states. Count 'em: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin. I should have listed the states that
don't have a Washington County, but it's too late now!
I glanced at the derivation of many of the names in passing, and there are some surprises, such as a whole group of counties in Michigan whose names were made up by
Henry Schoolcraft on purpose to be unique, and perhaps also to pass them off as Native American lingo. He's the same guy who gave us "Itasca" for the headwaters of the Mississippi River, based on the Latin phrase "veritas caput," though to this day there are people who cite it as a Native American word.
Many of the unique county names are genuine Native American words, though, or at least corruptions of them, which along with misspellings or corruptions of French and Spanish terms and even anglo names just show how fallible human beings are, especially in large groups such as a state legislature. And there are several instances where tiny differences of spelling separate essentially the same name into separate entries on this list, such as Cheboygan (MI) vs. Sheboygan (WI). There are Allegan (MI), Allegany (MD, NY), Allegheny (PA) and Alleghany (NC, VA); Andrew (MO) and Andrews (TX); Burnet (TX) and Burnett (WI); Callaway (MO) and Calloway (KY); Cook (GA, IL, MN) and Cooke (TX); Glascock (GA) and Glasscock (TX); Hayes (NE) and Hays (TX); Highland (OH, VA) and Highlands (FL); Hot Spring (AR) and Hot Springs (WY); Kearney (NE) and Kearny (KS); Leflore (MS) and LeFlore (OK); Loudon (TN) and Loudoun (VA); Pottawatomie (KS, OK) and Pottawattamie (IA); Storey (NV) and Story (IA); Uinta (WY) and Uintah (UT); Vermilion (IL) and the directly adjacent Vermillion (IN), Wyandot (OH) and Wyandotte (KS).
In other cases, similar county names are really unrelated, but though spelled differently, they're pronounced about the same, such as Aiken (SC) vs. Aitkin (MN), which has a silent
t; Barber (KS) vs. Barbour (AL, WV); Barren (KS) and Barron (WI); Coffey (KS) vs. Coffee (AL, GA, TN); Coal (OK), Cole (MO) and Coles (IN); Coos (NH, OR) and Coosa (AL); Dickson (TN) and Dixon (NE); Foard (TX) and Ford (IL, KS); Forest (PA, WI) and Forrest (MS); Green (KY, WI) and Greene (14 states); Harford (MD) and Hartford (CT); Huntingdon (PA) and Huntington (IN), not to mention Hunterdon (NJ); Johnson (13 states) and Johnston (NC); Kewaunee (WI) and Keweenaw (MI); Kimball (NE) and Kimble (TX); Linn (IA, KS, MO, OR) and Lynn (TX); Stafford (KS, VA) and Strafford (NH); Tooele (UT) and Toole (MT).
On the other hand, there are also county names that are externally different but, secretly, named after the same things, such as Berks (PA) and Berkshire (MA); Buckingham (VA) and Bucks (PA); Charlotte (FL, VA) and Mecklenburg (NC, VA), etc. Several county names memorialize people by both their first and last name, such as Charles Mix (SD); Jo Daviess (IL), also the namesake of three Daviess counties (IN, KY, MO); Deaf Smith (TX); Jim Hogg (TX); Jim Wells (TX); and Tom Green (TX).
Louisiana has three pairs of parishes with the same name except either "East" or "West": East Baton Rouge and West Baton Rouge, East Carroll and West Carroll, East Feliciana and West Feliciana. Some of Virginia's independent cities have the same name as a Virginia county. Awkwardly, two or three of Virginia's actual counties have the word "City" in their name. Other independent cities, outside of Virginia, include St. Louis (MO), Carson City (NV) and Baltimore (MD); both Missouri and Maryland also have counties by the same name. Don't get me started on cities and counties with unified governments!
Quite a few counties share their names with a state of the U.S. Surprisingly few of them are within the state so named. They include Arkansas (AR), Colorado (TX), Delaware (IN, IA, NY, OH, OK, PA), Hawai'i (HI), Indiana (PA), Iowa (IA, WI), Mississippi (AR, MO), Nevada (AR, CA), New York (NY), Ohio (IN, KY, WV), Oklahoma (OK), Oregon (MO), Texas (MO, OK), Utah (UT) and Wyoming (NY, PA, WV). Arguably, you could also include Dakota (MN), Hampshire (MA, WV), Jersey (IL) and York (KY, NE, PA, SC, VA). And of course there are those 30 Washington counties across the country, right?
Quite a few counties share the same opening move, such as Grand Forks (ND), Grand Isle (VT) and Grand Traverse (MI); Green Lake (WI), Greenbrier (WV), Greenlee (AZ), Greenup (KY), Greenville (SC) and Greenwood (KS); King and Queen (VA), King George (VA), King William (VA), Kingfisher (OK), Kingman (KS) and Kingsbury (SD); La Crosse (WI), La Paz (AZ), La Plata (CO), Labette (KS), Laclede (MO), Lafourche (LA), LaGrange (IN), Lamoille (VT), LaMoure (ND), LaPorte (IN) and LaRue (KY); McClain (OK), McCone (MT), McCook (SD), McCormick (SC), McCracken (KY), McCreary (KY), McCulloch (TX), McCurtain (OK), McDonald (MO), McDonough (IL), McDowell (NC, WV), McDuffie (GA), McHenry (IL, ND), McIntosh (GA, ND, OK); McKean (PA), McKenzie (ND), McKinley (NM), McLean (IL, KY, ND), McLennan (TX), McLeod (MN), McMinn (TN), McMullen (TX), McNairy (TN) and McPherson (KS, NE, SD); San Augustine (TX), San Benito (CA), San Bernardino (CA), San Diego (CA), San Francisco (CA), San Jacinto (TX), San Joaquin (CA), San Juan (CO, NM, UT, WA), San Luis Obispo (CA), San Mateo (CA), San Miguel (CO, NM), San Patricio (TX) and San Saba (TX); St. Charles (LA, MO), St. Clair (AL, IL, MI, MO), Ste. Genevieve (MO), St. Joseph (IN, MI), St. Louis (MN and both a county and an independent city in MO), St. Bernard (LA), St. Croix (WI), St. Francis (AR), St. Francois (MO), St. Helena (LA), St. James (LA), St. John the Baptist (LA), St. Johns (FL), St. Landry (LA), St. Lawrence (NY), St. Lucie (FL), St. Martin (LA), St. Mary (LA), St. Mary's (MD) and St. Tammany (LA); Wood (OH, TX, WV, WI), Woodbury (IA), Woodford (IL, KY), Woodruff (AR), Woods (OK), Woodson (KS) and Woodward (OK); and a partridge in a pear tree!
If I've forgotten to mention anything remotely interesting, it's no fault of mine. I've worked hard enough and long enough on this to get on with my life now. Are you still here? If so, thanks for bearing with my insanity!
