What鈥檚 in a name? Sometimes, a number.
Recently I was about to mention in an email that I had been in touch with someone in the community of Ninety Six, S.C.
Writing out the name forced me to double-check its 鈥渟tyling鈥�: hyphen or no? (Editors are never completely off duty, not even when emailing friends.) Ordinarily a double-digit number written out in words takes a hyphen: 鈥淭wenty-eight people attended the meeting.鈥�
But a check of the town鈥檚 website showed that no, the people of Ninety Six do not hyphenate. That question settled, another soon arose: What kind of place has a number for a name? Not many places, but , it seems, in the United States and abroad.聽
Some have fairly straightforward back stories. Hatvan, Hungary, for instance, whose name means 鈥渟ixty鈥� in Hungarian, is 60 kilometers (about 35 miles) from the capital, Budapest.聽
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 argue with logic like that,鈥� travel writer has noted.聽
But a good bit of mystery attends the origin of . Take Ninety Six.
The of the Ninety Six National Historic Site (commemorating local Revolutionary War events) refers to a 鈥渞omanticized legend鈥� involving 鈥渁n Indian named Cateechee鈥� and her 鈥淏ritish boyfriend鈥� during the Cherokee War (1760), but then debunks the legend with a reference to a 1730 map and segues to a perhaps more critical question: 鈥淎re dogs allowed in the Park?鈥澛�
Hundred, W.Va., is actually named for a person, Henry Church.聽
Mr. Church first came to America as a British soldier to help put down the colonial rebellion. He stayed on after the war, though, and once he鈥檇 crossed the century mark was known as 鈥淥ld Hundred.鈥� He lived to be 109. The community that grew up around his farm was named for him.聽
, was 鈥渞eportedly鈥� named for the number of its school district after the US Post Office rejected the settlement鈥檚 original name, 鈥淣ewcomb,鈥� as it was already taken.聽
Likewise, , would have been Smithville, but that name was taken. It went numeric because of a railroad marker, or the year (1884), or the number of marauding Indians killed in one particularly fierce engagement with white settlers, or the number of those settlers who survived an especially tough winter. Pick your legend. The building materials company 84 Lumber has roots in Eighty Four, however: That is a fact.聽
Only four integers larger, but about 500 miles away by highway, is The origin legend here is that the community鈥檚 first postmaster feared people couldn鈥檛 read his handwriting and thought the place would do better with a number for a name. But what number? He reached into his pocket and pulled out 88 cents.聽
What to make of all these? I can鈥檛 help noticing how many of these numeric place names are US presidential years 鈥� even the one in Hungary. Or at least they鈥檙e even numbers.聽
If they weren鈥檛, I suppose, it would be odd.
