Sandi: Thanks for your response. The answer is very much in line with what I thought - obvious, really! I don't suppose there is any record of who first 'named' a county and when? Living in Westmorland, England, I'd be really interested to know who founded/named the two Westmoreland counties in the US. County names in England go way back. For example, there is a map of England in the year AD584 [http://www.vii.com/~cda/atlas/4.htm] which shows the name of an area in the NW of England as 'Cumbria'. This name disappeared before 1000, only to reappear in 1974 when Cumberland, Westmorland and parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire were combined into the 'new' county of Cumbria. To demonstrate how some counties got their names, on the map of AD626 [http://www.vii.com/~cda/atlas/map05.jpg], 'North Humberland' is shown. This is now the much smaller county of Northumberland. Further south can be seen 'South Saxons' which is in the area of the current counties of East and West Sussex. The name 'Sussex' clearly evolves from successive mispronunciations of the original area name of 'Saxons'. Kent is already well established as a county with more or less its current boundaries. By 1065 [http://www.vii.com/~cda/atlas/map09.jpg] 'Westmoreland' has appeared, together with most of the other English counties. Regarding 'Sister City Programs', we call it 'Town Twinning'. Kendal in England is twinned with Rinteln in Germany. Cheers, Nigel. >Nigel: > >Would offer some comments re your question on how US counties and even cities >got their names > >For example I'm looking at a map of Pennsylvania counties. Lancaster, >Somerset, York, Luzerne, Lycoming, etc. No doubt they were founded and named >by folks who came from similar places in England, Ireland, Scotland and Germany. > >Many cities in the US are named after individuals who were very prominent the >the early days. For example, the individual was a large land owner or >prosperous business person. Many counties were named in the same way. > > In some parts of the US Indian names are used for towns and counties... In the >southwest US, Mexican names as well as Indian are very common for towns, >streets, and even counties..... > >There is a small community in CA that is called Somerset... Perhaps founded by >an Englishman who got tired of looking for gold. > >How were counties name in the UK? Cultural links as you describe, are called >"Sister City Programs" in the US . > >You have estabished a Cultura Link with your questions and coversation. I think >its great! > >SANDI >CA