Talk:List of Ohio county name etymologies

Difficult to understand

Under the Columbiana entry, this line occurs:

Howe states "Kilbourn, in his 'Gazeteer,' says: 'Columbiana is a fancy name, taken from the names Columbus and Anna'"

I first thought that this line was gibberish, but after deleting it and having someone re-instate it, I realize it isn't completely meaningless. Someone should change way it is written, perhaps even adding the source that this information ACTUALLY appears in, as opposed to a text that cites this information.Acewolf359 14:59, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Initial Discussion

Why were all the references to "Indians" replaced with "Native Americans"? PedanticallySpeaking 14:51, August 6, 2005 (UTC)

Defiance County: The Battle of Fallen Timbers (U.S. victory, 1794) was not "the worst defeat ever suffered by the U.S. Army against the Indians"! Look it up for yourself! Corrected back once again to "St. Clair's Defeat". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.60.185.28 (talk • contribs)

Geauga county: no mention of word Sheauga, Grand river name?

Howe's text (ref. #6 in article) describes the following etymology in the Geauga county section:

The name Geauga, or Sheauga, signifies, in the Indian language, raccoon: it was originally applied to Grand river; thus, "Sheauga sepe," i.e. Raccoon River.

I have also found Sheauga mentioned in a separate source: the article in the article "ORIGIN OF OHIO PLACE NAMES". Ohio History. 14: 278.

The Grand River was called Sheauga, or "Raccoon," by the Indians, hence, Geauga County;

Any reason this detail shouldn't be mentioned? Wanted to discuss before I edited, since this is a featured list. --KeithB 18:50, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Indian changed to American Indian

I feel that the term "Indian" in the lead is ambiguous, and assumes an Anglo-American perspective. I note that there has been some flipping back and forth between "Indian" and "Native American" throughout the history of this article. The term "American Indian" would seem an acceptable comprimise, and specifies the meaning of "Indian" throughout the remainder of the article, although perhaps this definition should be stated explicitly in the lead as well? --KeithB 16:07, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

The phrase "local Indian dialect" is like saying that a word in English comes from a "local European dialect". It sounds backward, like you're from the Lewis & Clark expedition. There were thousands of vibrant living languages in North America before European colonial days, and to say a word coming from one of these languages is derived from "local Indian dialect" is to deny their distinct linguistic heritage.

This issue is not about vandalism, nor about WP:RS. All my edits were taken from, or rephrased from List of Ohio county name etymologies. --128.146.172.220 (talk) 21:56, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Citations

The method used to cite references is IMO hard to use and doesn't follow either Harvard referencing or the footnote system. I suggest this article be revised to use the Cite.php footnote system as described in Wikipedia:Footnotes. Colin°^Talk 16:34, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like a great idea. You have my support if you care to start. :) JonathanFreed 17:06, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

I'll jump in and get it started. --KeithB 17:18, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

I shall be away for a few days. If you haven't finished by then, I could help. I don't, however, have access to any of these books so would be unable to give page-specific citations. Are you able to do this? If so, consider following the suggestion in Wikipedia:Footnotes of having separate Notes and References sections, where the notes are just eg. "Stewart 1945:43" for page 43 of American Place Names. Then your references can remain pretty much unchanged (except bullet-points and alphabetical on author). Also, convert the refs to use {{cite book}} or equivalent hand-formatting if you don't like templates.

If you don't have page numbers, then just use Notes and follow the guidelines on how to cite a footnote more than once. Colin°^Talk 18:11, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

No, I don't have the books readily available, so I was thinking of the latter option. I may be able to find some of these books in the library, but that could take some time. I do prefer to use the citation templates. --KeithB 19:07, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Still working at this. Have a preliminary copy in my sandbox. Thing that bothers me with this method is all the backlinks that are created in the references section. Makes it look cluttered, and isn't really necessary. I have been trying to find a way to suppress the backlinks, if possible. --KeithB 05:44, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Naming of Allen County

For my comments about why John Allen should be considered the more reliable origin of the name of Allen County, please see the Discussion page of Allen County, Ohio. Steve Baskauf 03:41, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Indian fighter vs. American Revolutionary War soldiers

In the "analysis of names" section, what criteria was used for sorting "Indian fighters" from "American Revolutionary War soldiers"? Three names are listed in the "Indian fighter" category: Crawford, Hardin, and Wayne. All three of these soldiers fought Indians, but of course they also fought in the American Revolution. Perhaps they were placed in the "Indian fighter" category because they were more famous for fighting Indians in Ohio than for fighting British troops in the Revolution. If so, then Clark and Logan belong in that category too, because they were primarily Indian fighters. Butler and Darke probably belong in the "Indian fighter" category too, because their claim to fame in Ohio (and thus why counties were named after them) rests with their participation in the Northwest Indian War. —Kevin Myers 01:27, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

 Done —Kevin Myers 14:51, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Adams County

I think that the information suggesting this county was named for John Quincy Adams is so obviously in error that it should be deleted from the list, and simply mentioned in a note as an apparently erroneous piece of information found in one source. It is not plausible that the county would have been named for the sitting President's 30-year-old son, who was at the time serving as U.S. minister to Prussia. --Orlady (talk) 21:43, 25 March 2008 (UTC)