WHAT’S IN A NAME?
There’s no place like home. Marion McMullen looks at some towns and cities to have adopted new monikers
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ASBESTOS, in Canada, pictured left, earned its name for once being the site of the world’s largest asbestos mine. However, residents of the Quebec town decided it was time for a new image and voted this week to call their home Val-des-Sources instead. The name change is expected to come into force at the end of the year.
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SACHA BARON COHEN’S comedy character Ali G, inset, claimed to have grown up in the Staines ghetto and was responsible for the Surrey town being renamed Stainesupon-Thames in 2012. Cllr Colin Davis, of Spelthorne Borough Council which covers the area, said: “The honourable name of Staines has been sullied by negligent reporting on one hand and perhaps irresponsible humour on the part of others such as Ali G.”
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PILE O’BONES, in Canada, earned its name from the Cree tradition of leaving bones in the area to attract buffalo. It left the boneyard title behind in 1882 when Queen Victoria’s daughter
Princess Louise, who was married to Canada’s governor general, proposed the area should be called Regina in honour of her mother, pictured.
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AMERICAN game show host Ralph Edwards promised to broadcast a 10th anniversary episode of his radio show Truth Or Consequences in the first town to name itself after the quiz. Hot Springs, New Mexico, took up the challenge and voted to make the change in 1950. Ralph later became a regular visitor to Truth Or Consequences and a local park was named after him.
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NORTH Tarrytown in New York became Sleepy Hollow after residents voted for the name change in 1996. Writer Washington Irving, top left, set his story The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow in the area and is buried there. Johnny Depp, left, starred in the film version of the spooky take in 1999.
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GERMAN immigrants chose Berlin as the name of their new home in Canada in the 19th century, but it became a problem with the outbreak of the First World War. A referendum resulted in the town being renamed Kitchener after Britain’s Lord Kitchener, who was the face of the “Your country needs you” poster.
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THE residents of Ismay in Montana were persuaded to rename their town Joe, Montana for a football season in 1993 to mark the arrival of quarterback Joe Montana, to the Kansas City Chiefs. The town was originally named after two sisters Isabelle and Maybelle, the daughters of railroad official George Peck.
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RESIDENTS of the Texan town of Clark were all given a 10-year free subscription when they renamed their home DISH in 2005 in a deal with a satellite TV company.
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TOPEKA in Kansas changed its name to Google for a month in 2010 to persuade the tech giant to choose them as a site to test its experimental ultra-fast broadband. Google repaid the compliment by changing its famous online logo to Topeka for April Fool’s that year. Topeka was also briefly renamed ToPikachu in 1998 to mark the arrival of Pokémon in America.
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THE town of Augusta in Kansas was renamed Hill Valley for a day to mark the 30th anniversary of the Michael J Fox movie Back To The Future. Screenings of all the Back To The Future movies were held and there was a Marty McFly lookalike contest. The town reverted to its original name at the stroke of midnight on July 3, 2015.