Unusual Town Names in Pennsylvania

Moving to Pennsylvania a few years ago, I discovered that, unlike Virginia, not all places are named after English nobility or geographic features. I have collected some of the more amusing/unusual place names I discovered in Pennsylvania into a Google map.


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I love how the triangle of Paradise, Intercourse, and Fertility are so far removed from Climax.

Many coal towns in Western PA were named by the mining companies. Uninventive names like “Mine 71” are common. But I think the best is “Revloc”. This is the next town over from Colver, and whoever named it just decided to spell Colver backwards.

Cambria county doesn’t allow outdoor advertising of pornography; so immediately outside of the county on U.S. route 22 (near Climax PA) there are a group of video stores and strip clubs. One sign in particular has a rather amusing mis-use of quotation marks:

“Live” girls!!!

Atom Feed for Comments 4 Responses to “Unusual Town Names in Pennsylvania”

  1. Eric Shepherd Says:

    The misuse of quotes thing reminds me of a church near here that until recently had a sign posted that read:

    Preaching “TRUTH”

    Hmmm. :)

  2. Mark Finkle Says:

    Thanks for not pointing out the uninventive “State College”, but I couldn’t let it slip.

  3. Ted Mielczarek Says:

    Over here on the eastern side of PA we have a random mix of “named after cement-related things” like Cementon and Slatington, and “named after places of religious significance” like Bethlehem, Nazareth and Emmaus.

  4. Fred Wenzel Says:

    Oh, didn’t know you lived in PA. /me waves from Pittsburgh :)

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