American Place-Names: Ties That Bind

The train depot in Boonville, MO, proudly boasts the town's unusual name, which comes from the American folk hero Daniel Boone's sons. robertstinnett / CC BY 2.0

Long ago, when I first met my sister-in-law-to-be, a student in her early 20s, she asked me where I’d grown up. I told her that I’d spent my elementary school years in Boonville, North Carolina, and that we’d moved to Winston-Salem when I was in high school.

She pondered my remarks for a moment and then said, “Those are strange names.”