Here’s a newspaper article from the 1930s that features a list of North Dakota towns with feminine names:
When a train conductor calls “Bessie” and “Josephine” in North Dakota he is not addressing passengers by their first names.
For these and other feminine names were given to towns and villages by rugged pioneers.
Prominent among the list is the cow town of Medora in Billings county, known as the ranching headquarters of Theodore Roosevelt.
Others are: Ines, Norma, Olga, Christine, Silvia, Hannah, Frances, Janet, Stella, Willa, Ella, Mary, Flora, Marion, Alice, Elizabeth, Sophia, Beulah, Kathryn, Jessie, Luverne, Juanita, Freda, Cherry and Mona.
(Only Ella is among the top 10 baby girl names in the state right now.)
Which of the above names do you like best?
Source: “Dakota Pioneers Gave Towns Feminine Names.” Miami Daily News-Record [Miami, OK] 2 Feb. 1936: 8.
Medora is a tourist town in the western part of the state. It was named after the wife of the Marquis de Mores, who tried and failed to start a meat packing business there. Medora was a socialite from a prominent banking family. I’ve seen the name used for several girls here.
Beulah is also a town of some size. Hannah is quite tiny.
Those are all such beautiful names! Mary, Mona, Flora and Alice are some of my favorites.l
@Andrea – Thanks for the extra info on Medora!