ToponymicaUS City Name Origins
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Person

Reno

Nevada (NV)est. 1868pop. 268,851/REE-noh/

The meaning

“Surname, of Italian origin”

How it got the name

The Central Pacific Railroad named its new Truckee River station in 1868 for Jesse Reno, a Union general killed six years earlier in Maryland. Reno had no connection to Nevada whatsoever; the railroad simply had a list of war heroes and a lot of stations to name.

Former names

  1. Lake's Crossing
  2. Reno