ToponymicaUS City Name Origins
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Classical/Biblical

Phoenix

Arizona (AZ)est. 1868pop. 1,650,070/FEE-niks/

The meaning

“Phoenix, the self-resurrecting bird”

How it got the name

Settlers found the valley threaded with ancient Hohokam irrigation canals, abandoned for centuries. Darrell Duppa argued the new town would rise from the ruins of that vanished civilization exactly as the phoenix rises from its own ashes, and the name stuck over rivals like Stonewall and Pumpkinville.

Former names

  1. Pumpkinville (informal)
  2. Swilling's Mill
  3. Phoenix