Nowadays, neighborhood sobriquets are designed by real estate marketing gurus to make an area more appealing. In 100 years, that story will be forgotten, but the names will remain. We often forget that the names of our oldest neighborhoods hold a deep history and sense of place. Here are some favorite neighborhoods and neighborhood names, and the people, geographies, and stories from which they came.
Bucktown, Chicago Named for the goats that Polish immigrants raised in the neighborhood. A male goat is called a buck.
Frogtown, St. Paul Theories about the neighborhood's name abound: because of the area's French settlers, because a Catholic priest witnessed croaking frogs in the area, or because railroad couplers were known as "frogs," and the area was full of railroad workers.
Greenwich Village, Manhattan Named in the 1670s for Greenwyck, the town on Long Island where the neighborhood's developer, Yellis Mandeville, had lived previously.
Haight Ashbury, San Francisco Named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury Streets. The origin of the name Haight is unknown. Ashbury was a city supervisor at the time.
The Mission District, San Francisco Named for the nearby Spanish mission, which, while officially known as San Francisco de Asis, is commonly known as Mission Dolores, after a nearby creek.
Park Slope, Brooklyn Named for its location on a hill leading up to Prospect Park.
Pigtown, Baltimore Named for the fact that it was the area where the railroad released cargoes of pigs to go to the city's slaughterhouses.
SoCo, Austin, Texas Named for its proximity to South Congress Avenue, which was itself named for the location where, according to legend, Mirabeau Lamar, vice president of the Texas Republic, shot a buffalo and declared the location to be the new seat of the Texan government.
TangleTown, Seattle Named for the fact that the area is where the city's orderly grid system of streets breaks down.
Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn Named after a battle in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, in an attempt to lure Irish immigrants to settle in the area.
Watts, Los Angeles Named for the neighborhood's developer, Charles Watts.
Wicker Park, Chicago Named for the local park, which in turn was named after the developers Charles and Joel Wicker, who donated a parcel of land to the city in the 1870s to build a public park.
Wrigleyville, Chicago Named for its proximity to the Cubs' stadium, Wrigley Field, which was named after the Cubs' owner, the chewing-gum magnate William Wrigley Jr., in 1926.
Some local names:
5 - O's - Oconomowoc. If you notice, there are 5 "o"s in Oconomowoc (if you spell it right).
Icehouse Bay, Okauchee - the bay where the largest Ice house was located in the late 1880's to 1900's. I believe most lakes in Wisconsin had at least one bay with this sobriquet.
Norweigan Bridge, Oconomowoc - So called because it was the bridge from downtown over the flowage from Fowler Lake to the Norwegian Church.
I'm collecting a list of local neighborhood names in the lake country area of Wisconsin, Waukesha County. Feel free to send me any you wish.
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