Find out where Avalon, Bass River, the Oranges and other New Jersey towns got their names
How did your town get its name?
From Weehawken to Whitesboro, the etymology of the 565 towns and hundreds of communities in New Jersey is a fascinating mix of history, legend and lore.
In some cases, it's impossible to parse from the foggy past exactly how a place got its name. But even when the story seems far-fetched, it tells a great story about the history and character of a place.
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In 1938, a group of writers with the New Jersey Writers' Project, part of the Depression-era Works Project Administration set out to catalogue the names of more than 900 places in New Jersey. "A good deal of the information submitted was legendary," the groups report found. "Some of it contradictory; in many instances none was available.''
Think you know your Jersey place names? Take our quiz and see how you fare. Even if you flunk, you're bound to learn something in the process!