There is a little exercise I’ve been wanting to do for some time and I just decided to get around to it.
I live in North Carolina, a state with 100 counties. However, the town/city names rarely match up to county names. For example, I live just south of Asheboro, which is not to be confused with Asheville, but neither city is in Ashe county (Asheboro is in Randolph County and Asheville is in Buncombe County). The county just west of me is Davidson County, but Davidson, NC (the town) is in Mecklenburg County.
For grins I just decided to list out the 100 counties and then compare their names against a list of municipalities in the state, just to see if there was a match.
TL;DR; while you can find Durham in Durham County you won’t find Greensboro or Greenville in Greene County. Of the 100 counties in North Carolina, 45 don’t have any correspondingly-named municipalities, 35 have misleading names and only 20 (one fifth) have towns or cities with names the same or similar to the county in which they are located.
The first county on the list, Alamance, is home to the village of Alamance, NC.
There are no towns or cities with names that closely match the counties of Alexander, Alleghany and Anson.
The aforementioned Ashe County is not home to either Asheville or Asheboro.
Avery County has no similarly named town.
Beaufort County is not home to Beaufort, NC, which is in Carteret County. Note that it is pronounced BOH-fərt and not BEW-fərt, which is in South Carolina.
Bertie County has no corresponding city or town.
Yay, another winner. Bladen County is home to Bladenboro, NC.
Boo, another loser. Brunswick County is not home to Brunswick, NC, which is in Columbus County.
Buncombe County is not home to Bunn, NC, which is in Franklin County.
Burke County, Cabarrus County, Caldwell County and Camden County are all missing city/town equivalents.
Carteret County is where Cape Carteret, NC, is located.
Caswell County is not where you’ll find Caswell Beach, NC, as that is in Brunswick County.
Catawba County, unlike Caswell above, does host Catawba, NC.
Chatham County, where I used to live, has no similar “Chatham” town name.
Cherokee County is not where you’ll find Cherokee, NC, as that area spans Swain and Jackson counties.
Chowan County has no similar city or town name.
If you are looking for Clayton, NC, do not go to Clay County, as it is in Johnston County.
Cleveland County, in keeping with the reason I made this list, is not home to Cleveland, NC, which is in Rowan County.
Columbus County gets two strikes, as Columbus, NC, is the county seat of Polk County and Columbia, NC is the county seat of Tyrrell County.
Next comes a stretch of counties with no similarly named municipalities: Craven, Cumberland, Currituck and Dare.
As I mentioned above, Davidson, NC is in Mecklenburg County and not in Davidson County or even Davie County.
Duplin County has no similarly named town but Dublin, NC, which is somewhat close, is in Bladen County.
Durham County is home to Durham, NC, another city in which I once lived.
Edgecombe County and Forsyth County have no city analogues.
Franklin County is not home to Franklin (Macon County) nor Franklinville (Randolph County) but is home to Franklinton.
Gaston County is not home to Gaston, NC (Northampton County) but it is where Gastonia, NC, is located.
Gatesville, NC is located in Gates County.
Graham County is not where you’ll find Graham, NC, which is in Alamance County.
Granville County has no decent city or town name matches.
Greene County was one of the counties that caused me to write this, as none of Green Level (Alamance), Greensboro (Guilford) or Greenville (Pitt) are in it.
Speaking of Guilford County, no matches for it.
Halifax, NC is in Halifax County.
Can’t find a match for Harnett County in the list of city names.
Haywood County is not where you’ll find Hayesville, which is in Clay County.
Henderson, NC, is in Vance County, but you will find Hendersonville in Henderson County.
Hertford County does not host Hertford, NC, which is in Perquimans County, a county I can’t remember knowing about until just now.
Hoke, Hyde and Iredell counties don’t have matches in North Carolina town names.
Jackson County misses out on both Jackson (Northampton County) and Jacksonville (Onslow County).
There is no Johnston, NC to go with Johnston County, but there is a Jonesville, NC to go with Jones County, but it’s in Yadkin County.
Lee County, surprisingly, doesn’t have a Leesville to go with it, although I used to live near a Leesville Road, the town doesn’t seem to exist.
Lenior, NC, is not in Lenior County, but instead is the county seat of Caldwell County.
The town of Lincolnton is in Lincoln County and is also the county seat.
Macon County does pair with Macon, NC, but of course that town is in Warren County.
Madison, NC is in Rockingham County, and not Madison County.
Here is another spate of counties without towns or cities named after them: Martin, McDowell, Mecklenburg, Mitchell and Montgomery.
Moore County misses out on both Mooresboro (Cleveland County) and Mooresville (Iredell County).
Nashville, NC can be found in Nash County.
Here is another group of counties without matching town names: New Hanover, Northampton, Onslow, Orange, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Pender, Perquimans, and Person County.
I used to live near Pittsboro, NC, which is in Chatham County and not Pitt County.
Polk County is another county that misses out twice. It is not where you’ll find Polkton (Anson County) or Polkville (Cleveland County).
You’ll find Randleman, NC in Randolph County. It’s a bit of a stretch but I’ll allow it.
Another stretch would be looking for Richfield (Stanly County), Richlands (Onslow County) or Rich Square (Northampton County) in Richmond County.
Robeson County is not where Robersonville is located. It is in Martin County. Yeah it has an extra “r” but close enough.
Rockingham County is not home to Rockingham, NC (Richmond County).
Rowan County sounds close to Rowland, but that is in Robeson County.
Rutherfordton, NC can be found in Rutherford County.
Samson County has no analogues.
Scotland Neck is in Halifax County and not Scotland County.
Stanly County is not where you’ll see either Stanley (Gaston County) or Staley (Randolph County)
Stokesdale, NC is in Guilford County and not Stokes County.
Surry County is another county without a town or city with a similar name.
If you are in Swain County, you’ll have to leave and go to Onslow County to get to Swansboro.
I’ve always loved the name Transylvania County but unfortunately there is no town with a similar name.
You won’t find a town with a name like Tyrrell County but you will find Unionville in Union County.
Vanceboro is not in Vance County, but is instead in Craven County.
Wake Forest, the town not the university, is in Wake County. The university used to be there but moved.
As has been demonstrated, you can’t easily guess which county a town is in by its name in North Carolina, but Warrenton is in Warren County.
If you guessed that Washington (or Washington Park) were in Washington County, you would be wrong. Both are in Beaufort County.
The name of Watauga County, while fun to say, wasn’t taken up by any city or town in North Carolina.
Waynesville, NC is not in Wayne County (instead it is in Haywood County) but Wilkesboro is in Wilkes County.
Continuing the trend, Wilson, NC, is in Wilson County and Yadkinville, NC, is in Yadkin County, but our final county, Yancey is not where you’ll find Yanceyville. That town is in Caswell County.
If I can do math correctly, there are 20 counties which have towns or cities with similar names, 35 counties where the town or city with a similar name exists outside the county, and 45 counties with no analogues. Note that the 20 county count is artificially high since some counties, like Henderson, have a “Hendersonville” but “Henderson” is not in the county, but I counted is as “correct” in any case.
So I’m not crazy. You have about a twice as much chance of getting a county wrong basing it on the town name than if you don’t.
Here is the Summery:
Counties with Matches: Alamance, Bladen, Carteret, Catawba, Durham, Franklin, Gaston, Gates, Halifax, Henderson, Lincoln, Nash, Randolph, Rutherford, Union, Wake, Warren, Wilkes, Wilson and Yadkin.
20
Wrong Matches: Ashe, Beaufort, Brunswick, Buncombe, Caswell, Cherokee, Clay, Cleveland, Columbus, Davidson, Duplin, Graham, Greene, Haywood, Hertford, Jackson, Jones, Lenoir, Macon, Madison, Moore, Pitt, Polk, Richmond, Robeson, Rockingham, Rowan, Scotland, Stanly, Stokes, Swain, Vance, Washington, Wayne and Yancey.
35
No Matches: Alexander, Alleghany, Anson, Avery, Bertie, Burke, Cabarrus, Caldwell, Camden, Chatham, Chowan, Craven, Cumberland, Currituck, Dare, Edgecombe, Forsyth, Granville, Guilford, Harnett, Hoke, Hyde, Iredell, Johnston, Lee, Martin, McDowell, Mecklenburg, Mitchell, Montgomery, New Hanover, Northampton, Onslow, Orange, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Pamlico, Pender, Perquimans, Person, Samson, Surry, Transylvania, Tyrrell, and Watauga.
45