{"id":4086,"date":"2010-05-09T06:44:29","date_gmt":"2010-05-09T11:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=4086"},"modified":"2022-05-26T06:06:18","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T11:06:18","slug":"county-aficionados","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/county-aficionados\/","title":{"rendered":"For Aficionados of Counties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I know there are several regular readers of Twelve Mile Circle who are fascinated with the county level of government in the United States. Some of you are county counters<\/a>, others of you are county highpointers<\/a>, and still others might be county radio hunters<\/a>. All of you are aficionados of this phenomenon of one sort or another and today’s post is intended specifically for you. Don’t worry, the rest of the audience will probably enjoy this too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I confess that I share elements of this fixation as if that wasn’t already self-evident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What’s in a Name?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I found myself on the National Association of Counties<\/a> website recently and I came across an interesting page called, What’s in a Name? A Look at County Names. I won’t spoil all of the surprises in case you want to check it out yourself but here are a few of the highlights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Northumberland<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
  • The longest county names have fourteen characters. This happens twice, a tie between Northumberland County, Virginia and Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. I’d have collected that Pennsylvania county if only I’d crossed the river.<\/li>
  • There are county names that begin with every letter of the alphabet except for X. I wonder, with the state of the economy and all, if a county might consider corporate naming rights. It’s acceptable for sports arenas so I figure its only a matter of time before cash-strapped localities put their names out for bid too. Maybe Xerox could take care of this particular situation?<\/li>
  • The most common name for a county is Washington, found in thirty States. Paradoxically one of the states that doesn’t have a Washington County is the state of Washington.<\/li>
  • The shortest county names have only three characters. Twenty seven different counties fall into this category. Most but not all of them are Lee and they do tend to congregate in the South.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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    My Latest County Counting Adventure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n