Which President Comes Out on Top in U.S. County Naming?
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The answer might not be a surprise but the geographic history of that common name is interesting to navigate.
It might not be surprising that when it comes to place names in the United States, George Washington, the nation’s first president, dominates all other chief executives when it comes to being honored by county governments.
There are, in fact, 31 U.S. county-level jurisdictions that share Washington’s name.
For those counting, there are 26 named "Jefferson" and 24 are named for "Jackson" and "Lincoln," each. (There is no Lincoln County in Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, however.)
For Presidents Day, we decided to take a closer look at the U.S. county geography of “Washington.”
There is a Washington County in the following states:
- Alabama: This Washington County was the Yellowhammer State’s first county.
- Arkansas: This Washington County was recently proclaimed a “Purple Heart” county.
- Colorado: This Washington County is “one of the highest agricultural producers in Colorado” according to its website.
- Florida: This Panhandle jurisdiction “a rural county that covers approximately 391,040 acres, of which 16,448 are fresh water and 374,592 are land,” according to its website.
- Georgia: Georgia’s ninth county was the first in the United States to be named after George Washington, according to its website. But that claim might not be true. (Washington County in Maryland was named for Gen. Washington in 1776.)
- Idaho: This Washington County is the “Heart of Idaho.”
- Illinois: This Washington County was originally part of St. Clair County.
- Indiana: This Washington County “is a wonderful place to call home,” according to the county’s website.
- Iowa: This Washington County was “originally organized and established in 1839 as Slaughter County,” according to its website, “however, residents soon changed the name to Washington County in honor of George Washington.”
- Kansas: In recent news from this Washington County, “residents presented environmental information on water and health concerns with the growing number of confined feeding facilities” within the county during a recent county commission meeting, according to KNDY Radio.
- Kentucky: This Washington County “was the first county formed after Kentucky became a state in 1792,” according to the county’s website.
- Louisiana: Yes, there aren’t any counties in Louisiana. But there’s a county-level government, Washington Parish, named after George Washington. According to the website of the parish president, Washington Parish is “known for agriculture, timber and paper industry, watermelons and our annual Washington Parish Free Fair.”
- Maine: When you’re in this Washington County, you’re in “Sunrise County.”
- Maryland: This Washington County, created in 1776 and named for Gen. Washington, boasts “24 graceful stone arch bridges built between 1819 and 1863,” according to the county’s website.
- Minnesota: This Washington County says it’s “a great place to live, work and play … today and tomorrow.”
- Mississippi: While it’s obvious that this Washington County was named for George Washington, its county seat, Greenville, was named for Revolutionary War Gen. Nathaniel Greene.
- Missouri: Smelting furnaces and lead mining put this Washington County on the map more than 215 years ago.
- Nebraska: This Washington County was one of Nebraska’s original eight counties, according to the county website.
- New York: This Washington County was once named Charlotte County, honoring Queen Charlotte of England, but the New York state legislature changed that name in 1784 “because of its reference to the Queen and the bad feelings the new country had about England,” according to the county’s website.
- North Carolina: This Washington County in eastern North Carolina has “a population of fewer than 13,000 residents and a poverty rate much higher than the state or nation as a whole.”
- Ohio: This Washington County was “originally about one-half the Northwest Territory now included in the State of Ohio” when it was established in 1788.
- Oklahoma: This Washington County was able to score CountyCourthouse.org as a website URL. Nice proactive work!
- Oregon: This Washington County is “located minutes away from downtown Portland.”
- Pennsylvania: This Washington County was the hub of the Whiskey Rebellion.
- Rhode Island: County jurisdictions in Rhode Island exist, but they have no official county government.
- Tennessee: This Washington County is the “Birthplace of Tennessee.”
- Texas: This Washington County is the “Birthplace of Texas,” according to the county seal.
- Utah: This Washington County “has been known as Utah's Dixie since pioneers settled here in the 1850s,” according to the county’s website.
- Vermont: This Washington County, like all counties in Vermont, has limited official duties but does have a county sheriff, whose website says that the county’s “first jail was built into the dwelling erected by Montpelier’s founder, Jacob Davis, shortly after his arrival as the first settler in 1787.”
- Virginia: The Washington County, in Appalachia, was “known for its healthful climate as opposed to the lowlands in the South where communicable disease raged most summers.”
- Wisconsin: We wrote this feature on priority-based budgeting in Washington County, Wisconsin.
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive's Route Fifty.
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