List of Wisconsin county name etymologies

This is a list of Wisconsin county name etymologies:

* Adams County: Adams is named for U.S. President John Quincy Adams.
* Ashland County: Ashland is named for Henry Clay's home in Kentucky.
* Barron County: Barron is named for Wisconsin state legislator and judge Henry D. Barron.
* Bayfield County: Bayfield is named for Henry Bayfield, a British naval officer who performed the first survey of the Great Lakes region.
* Brown County: Brown County is named after Major General Jacob Brown, who was the commanding general of the U.S. Army from 1815 until 1828.
* Buffalo County: Buffalo is named for the Buffalo River.
* Burnett County: Burnett is named for Wisconsin state legislator Thomas P. Burnett.
* Calumet County: Calumet is named for the French language word for a Menominee peace pipe.
* Chippewa County: Chippewa is named for the Ojibwe (or "Chippewa") people.
* Clark County: Clark is named for either American Revolutionary War leader George Rogers Clark or A.W. Clark, who founded Clark's Mill.
* Columbia County: Columbia is named for Christopher Columbus.
* Crawford County: Crawford is named for U.S. Secretary of the Treasury William Harris Crawford.
* Dane County: Dane is named for Continental Congressman Nathan Dane.
* Dodge County: Dodge is named for governor of Wisconsin Territory Henry Dodge.
* Door County: Door is named for a dangerous strait near the peninsula which was known to the French as "porte des mortes", or, in English, as the "door of the dead".
* Douglas County: Douglas is named for U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas.
* Dunn County: Dunn is named for first Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Charles Dunn.
* Eau Claire County: Eau Claire is named for Eau Claire, Wisconsin, which takes its name from the Eau Claire River, which, in turn, takes its name from the French for "clear water".
* Florence County: Florence is named for the first woman pioneer in the region Florence Julst.
* Fond du Lac County: Fond du Lac is named from the French "bottom of the lake" for its location at the south end of Lake Winnebago.
* Forest County: Forest is named for the dense forest which once covered the county.
* Grant County: Grant is named for an early pioneer who opened a trade with local Native Americans.
* Green County: Green is named for American Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene.
* Green Lake County: Green Lake is named for Green Lake, Wisconsin's deepest.
* Iowa County: Iowa is named for the Iowa Native American people.
* Iron County: Iron is named for the iron distributed throughout the county.
* Jackson County: Jackson is named for U.S. President Andrew Jackson.
* Jefferson County: Jefferson is named for U.S. President Thomas Jefferson.
* Juneau County: Juneau is named for Solomon Juneau, the first mayor of Milwaukee.
* Kenosha County: Kenosha ("ginoozhe") is named for an Ojibwe word meaning "pike (fish)".
* Kewaunee County: Kewaunee is named either for a Potawatomi word meaning "river of the lost" or an Ojibwe word meaning "prairie hen", "wild duck" or "to go around".
* La Crosse County: La Crosse is named for the city of La Crosse, which takes its name from "Prairie La Crosse" or "Prairie de la Crosse" [http://murphylibrary.uwlax.edu/digital/lacrosse/BryantMemoirs/00230031.htm] (although folk etymology associates its name with the game of lacrosse).
* Lafayette County: Lafayette is named for the Marquis de la Fayette.
* Langlade County: Langlade is named for adventurer and soldier Charles Michel de Langlade.
* Lincoln County: Lincoln is named for U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.
* Manitowoc County: Manitowoc ("manidoowag") is an Ojibwe word meaning "spirits".
* Marathon County: Marathon is named for Marathon, Greece.
* Marinette County: Marinette is named for Marinette, a 19th century trader who was the daughter of a French-Canadian trapper and a Menominee woman.
* Marquette County: Marquette is named for French missionary Father Pere Jacques Marquette.
* Menominee County: Menominee is named for the Menominee people and the Menominee Indian Reservation.
* Milwaukee County: Milwaukee received its name from the Indian word "Millioke" which means "The Good Land", or "Gathering place by the water." Another interpretation is "beautiful or pleasant lands". [Bruce, William George (1936). A Short History of Milwaukee. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: The Bruce Publishing Company, 15. LLCN 36010193.]
* Monroe County: Monroe is named for U.S. President James Monroe.
* Oconto County: Oconto is named for the Oconto River.
* Oneida County: Oneida is named for the Oneida Native American people.
* Outagamie County: Outagamie is named for the Outagamie (Meskwaki, Fox) Native American people.
* Ozaukee County: Ozaukee ("Ozaagii") is named for the Ojibwe word for the Sauk people.
* Pepin County: Pepin is named for the explorers Pierre and Jean Pepin of Chardonnets.
* Pierce County: Pierce is named for U.S. President Franklin Pierce.
* Polk County: Polk is named for James K. Polk.
* Portage County: Portage is named for the overland carry between the Fox River and the Wisconsin River.
* Price County: Price is named for Wisconsin state legislator W.T. Price.
* Racine County: Racine is named for the Root River, "racine" being the French word for "root".
* Richland County: Richland is named for the rich farmland found within the county.
* Rock County: Rock is named for the Rock River.
* Rusk County: Rusk is named for Governor of Wisconsin Jeremiah Rusk.
* Sauk County: Sauk is named for the Sauk Native American people.
* Sawyer County: Sawyer is named for U.S. Senator from Wisconsin Philetus Sawyer.
* Shawano County: Shawano ("zhaawanong") is named for an Ojibwe word meaning "southern".
* Sheboygan County: Sheboygan is named for a Native American word meaning "great noise underground"
* St. Croix County: St. Croix is named for French explorer Monsieur St. Croix who drowned in the St. Croix River in the 17th century.
* Taylor County: Taylor is named for Governor of Wisconsin William Robert Taylor.
* Trempealeau County: Trempealeau is named for Trempealeau Mountain. From the French "trempe a l'eau," which could be translated as "dunk (or saturate, or quench) in the water."
* Vernon County: Vernon is named for George Washington's home Mount Vernon in Virginia.
* Vilas County: Vilas is named for U.S. Postmaster General, U.S. Secretary of the Interior and U.S. Senator from Wisconsin William Vilas.
* Walworth County: Walworth is named for New York judge Reuben Hyde Walworth.
* Washburn County: Washburn is named for Governor of Wisconsin Cadwallader Washburn.
* Washington County: Washington is named for U.S. President George Washington.
* Waukesha County: Waukesha is named for a Potawatomi meaning "little foxes".
* Waupaca County: Waupaca is named for a Menominee word meaning "white sand bottom" or "brave young hero".
* Waushara County: Waushara is named for a Native American word meaning "good earth".
* Winnebago County: Winnebago is named for the Winnebago Native American people.
* Wood County: Wood is named for Wisconsin state legislator Joseph Wood.

References

* [http://www.wicounties.org/WS_County_Directory.asp Wisconsin Counties Association: County Directory]
* [http://www.freelang.net/dictionary/ojibwe.html Freelang Ojibwe Dictionary]

ee also

* Wisconsin
* List of Wisconsin counties
* County (United States)