ToponymicaUS City Name Origins
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Spanish

Toledo

Ohio (OH)est. 1833pop. 265,304/tuh-LEE-doh/

The meaning

“Disputed — possibly 'raised up' or Latin Toletum”

How it got the name

Nobody can prove who suggested it. The best-attested story credits a merchant who said the name was 'easy to pronounce, is pleasant in sound, and there is no other city of that name on the American continent.' The Spanish city's own name is pre-Roman and unexplained.

Disputed / alternate theory

A romantic version claims a resident had just read Washington Irving's tales of Moorish Spain.

Former names

  1. Port Lawrence
  2. Vistula
  3. Toledo