Gavin de Gruiter
September 25, 2022
Table 1. Streams in Lamar County, Mississippi. Geographic Names Information System (nationalmap.gov).
According to the Geographic Names Information System, there are one hundred and ten different streams located here in Lamar County, Mississippi. Some of the streams in the list are stated to be in counties other than Lamar County, but these streams, like Black Creek, run through a number of counties and include Lamar County. Sixty of the one hundred and ten streams are creeks. There are thirty-five streams that are branches. The rest of the streams consist of Brakes, Prongs, Runs, or Bays. Each of the streams use toponyms in their names. Toponyms can show the history of an area's people. Some toponyms are creek, branch, brook, bayou, runs, and many others.
The majority of the streams here are creeks. Streams that have the name creek are common all over the United States. All of the states in the mainland United States use creek in many names of their streams, except for the northeastern states in New England. Places like New Jersey, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts use the name brook more than the name creek. Other states use the name brook in some streams, but these northeastern states use the name often.
The second biggest name used for streams here is branch. Branch is used often to describe streams in the South. According to Derek Watkin's map on Generic terms for streams in the Contiguous United States, branch is the common generic term used for streams in the Southern states of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia. It is also common in parts of Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Florida, and Louisiana.
These toponyms show the history of the area and the people who named and settled the area. While Louisiana has bayous, which shows the French background, this area has creeks and branches which shows the English background. The toponym that is surprising is prong. There are two prongs: Alec Prong and Bushy Prong. There are not many prongs around here in Mississippi, and I have never heard of any streams with the name prong here until seeing the table above. The stream that is the most surprising is Sandy Run. It is the only stream that uses the name run in Lamar County. According to Derek Watkins, the name run is mainly used in the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Tennessee. Of the one hundred and ten streams, only seven have been designated names by the United States Board on Geographic names, which designate names to geographic features that have different names to different groups of people. I was surprised that only seven had to be decided on by the Board on Geographic names, and four of these seven are relatively small streams.
The table shows how the majority of the streams here in Lamar County, Mississippi, and the streams that pass through the county, use the names creek and branch. These toponyms show the English and Southern background and history of the people who named these streams.
Streams in Lamar County, Mississippi. Geographic Names Information System (nationalmap.gov). Accessed September 25, 2022.
Watkins, Derek. Inundated with place names | Derek Watkins (wordpress.com). Accessed September 25, 2022.
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