Where do our place names come from?

Britain's place names offer intriguing clues into local history and landscape. They are also a record of the waves of migration over the past several thousand years, with each group of people leaving their mark in the language. In the same way, settlers from England, Wales and Scotland created legacies in the names of the new lands they colonised in North America.

- Fergus Collins

This is especially true of the original 13 colonies - now states - along the USA’s east coast where the first settlements were founded, including Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and, of course, New Hampshire. The settlers often gave their strange and sometimes challenging new homes names from the old world, such as Manchester, Salisbury, Wilton and Winchester to provide familiarity and comfort. In 1630, Boston was named after a market town in Lincolnshire.