Origins of West Virginia Place Names

Last revision: Feb. 3, 2013

According to William T. Price in his Historical Sketches Of Pocahontas County, West Virginia, Allegheny County, Virginia, and Pocahontas were created on the same day. Because of an error by the clerk, the names of the two new counties were switched and, instead of the higher county being called Allegheny County, it was called Pocohontas and the county that was lower in elevation was called Allegheny County.

Coco - A child named Forest Rose Myers won a contest to name the post office, suggesting the name Poco, which was the name of her pet rooster. There was an error and the town ended up as Coco. This information was supplied by her daughter.

Hinton - According to A History of Clayton Community (1923) by C. H. Graham, “In 1872 Summers County was formed, taking into its territory that part of Monroe to which we belonged. The first sheriff to whom we paid taxes in the new county was Evan Hinton, after whose family the town of Hinton was named and who also was the chief promoter in having the new county formed.” According to the city's web site in 2007, “Hinton was laid out on the land of Avis Gwinn Hinton by her husband, John Hinton, in 1831. The town grew very slowly until 1871 when the Chesapeake & Ohio River Railroad company blasted a path through the New River gorge and made Hinton the division terminal. The town then started to grow and was incorporated on September 21, 1880. Some historians claim that the town was named for Evan Hinton, who was active in the movement to create Summers County. Others suggest that it was named for John (Jack) Hinton, who was a prominent lawyer in the county and laid out the town in 1831.”

Jenkinjones and Freeman - Jenkin Jones was born at Glyn Neath, Wales on Sept. 25, 1839. He came to the U. S. in 1863, and worked as a coal miner in Pennsylvania before moving to West Virginia, where he developed coal mines. Jones and John Freeman formed a partnership which opened the Caswell Creek Coal and Coke Co. and later, with Isaac T. Mann, they operated Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Co.

Lizemores. According to this web page, the town was first called "Adonijah" after King David's fourth son in the Bible. According to local residents, the name was changed to "Sizemores" during the Civil War period, but a spelling error was made in the recording documents and the town has been "Lizemores" ever since.

Mannington. According to Wikipedia, “It was not until 1856 that the village officially became known as Mannington, named after Charles Manning, a civil engineer with the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad. Manning was well liked by the community and the inhabitants were eager to have a more "dignified" name for a growing town on the new railroad line.” However, Semi-centennial History of West Virginia has: “In 1852 the place was renamed Mannington for James Manning, a civil engineer of the new railroad; and in 1856 it was incorporated by the assembly.”

Oceana - One claim is that the town is named for Oceana, younger daughter of Cornstalk. Another theory is that it comes from an Indian word meaning big bottoms or level land. A third theory is that it is named for Ocie Anna, the Indian-stolen daughter of “old” William Cooke. Hamill Kenny of WVU believed this last explanation is most likely, pointing out that Ocie was a common West Virginia given name in earlier times and that the local pronunciation is oh-see-an-uh, not o-shee-an-uh.

Ovapa - Quincy Potasnik writes, “I was always told that Ovapa (pronounced oh-VAY-puh), Clay County, WV, was named after the gas well companies from Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, (year unknown) who went there to drill the rich gas supplies in that area.”

Poca - according to Poca city councilman Arnold G. Stephens, Pocatalico was a local Indian who lived in the area, supposedly shot by settlers whom he was harassing. He was shot on one bank of the river, swam across and died on the other. However, other sources indicate Pocatalico was an Indian word meaning "land of the fat deer." A reader of this page says, as he heard it, the story of the Indian claims he jumped off a rock cliff into the river and swam across. He says he knows of no rock cliff near enough to the river to jump into it, and he believes the "land of the fat deer" is the more likely origin.

Rainelle - The origin of the town name shown above is taken from the West Virginia Blue Book. Warren Napier writes, "Jeff, I grew up in Rainelle, as did my older brothers, and my father knew the Raines pretty well. You're right about it being associated with the Raines, of course, but, as we were told, it also is from the wife of one of the gentlemen, 'Nelle' Raine."

Rig - Shawn Simon of Altus, Oklahoma, writes, "There is a small town between Moorefield and Petersburg called Rig. My grandfather, Elmer Riggelman, founded the post office and general store there. In order for the place to have a post office it had to have a name, so the Post Master General called it Rig after my grandfather. There is no longer a post office there, so they get their mail from a rural route using the Moorefield zip code. Just though I'd share with you my family's little piece of WV history."

Ten Mile - According to A Brief History of Ten Mile Community (1927) by Artie J. Norvell and Ruth Spiker, "There seems to have been a double reason for the naming of the village. The old settlers thought that the little stream flowing into the river was ten miles long so they named it Big Ten Mile Creek and its main branch they called Little Ten Mile Creek. They estimated the distance from the mouth of the stream to Buckhannon at ten miles so they named the village Ten Mile. About the year 1888 a post office was established near the mouth of Big Ten Mile Creek and named Sellars in honor of Colonel Sellars from Ohio who was a pioneer in the lumber industry in the community and at that time was operating one of the first saw mills in that section. A few years later the people had the name of the post office changed to Ten Mile."

Wheeling - said to be from a Native American word for "place of the skull" According to an Internet website, "In an effort to warn and intimidate intruders, the chief and his warriors placed the decapitated head of a prisoner on a pole near the mouth of a small creek. Nothing could be clearer in meaning than a sun-bleached skull placed near the pathway into one of the richest hunting grounds existing in that time. Historians claim that the Delaware word Wihling,or Wih for head and -ling for place, has evolved to become Wheeling. Other variations reported are Weel-ung or Wih-lunk. Most writers agree that these are documented facts and are the origin of the name of Wheeling Creek and eventually of the city itself." A reader of this web page writes, "It's an Iroquois word (originally spelled 'Wheling') meaning 'the place of the skull,' and the reason for the name is that the heads of the first five white people in the area wound up on stakes at the mouth of what is now known as Big Wheeling Creek as a rather emphatic 'NO TRESPASSING' sign. Doesn't seem to have worked."