Place Names on the Virginia Peninsula

Abstract

T HE VIRGINIA PENINSULA1 is a long, narrow neck of land running down into Chesapeake Bay in a direction somewhat south of east. It is held tightly between the broad James and York rivers as they flow into the bay, and it varies in width from about ten to about twenty miles. The Peninsula is considered by Virginians to join the main part of the state at some indefinite point about forty or fifty miles from its lower tip-perhaps a little below West Point on the York and perhaps a little above the mouth of Chickahominy River on the James. Thus, it covers an area of roughly five hundred square miles. The Peninsula is deeply laced and cut by inlets and creeks, and it is heavily fringed with marshlands that are affected by the tides. Although these waters and lowlands are no barriers to modern highway and bridge builders, they were definite barriers to earlier residents of the Peninsula. Not only was the Peninsula effectively cut off from neighboring land areas, but sections of the Peninsula itself were separated from each other until only recently. The place names of the Peninsula lend themselves naturally to consideration in an article of the length of this one; for the area is small, and its place names may be treated rather thoroughly in brief compass. The territory is so bounded geographically that there is no necessity for setting up artificial limits in order to restrict the subject. In addition, in the place names of the Peninsula there are evident certain characteristics peculiar to the locale, even though, at the same time, one may also see trends in naming which are common throughout the United States.2