ToponymicaUS City Name Origins
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Invented/Industrial

Atlanta

Georgia (GA)est. 1847pop. 510,823/at-LAN-tuh/

The meaning

“Feminine coinage from 'Atlantic'”

How it got the name

The town began as Terminus — the literal end of the railroad line — then became Marthasville for the governor's daughter. In 1847 a railroad engineer proposed 'Atlantica-Pacifica,' shortened to Atlanta, as a feminine form of the Western and Atlantic Railroad's name. The city is named after a corporation, and it kept the name even after the railroad faded.

Disputed / alternate theory

Some accounts credit Governor Wilson Lumpkin with intending the name as a nod to his daughter Martha Atalanta Lumpkin, which would make it a person-name after all.

Former names

  1. Terminus
  2. Marthasville
  3. Atlanta