8 Ohio Town Names Locals Pronounce in a Way That Trips Up Everyone Else

Reading a map of Ohio out loud can earn you a few strange looks.

The spelling on the sign isn’t always a reliable guide.

If you’re an out-of-stater, these are Ohio’s town names worth practicing before your next road trip chat with a local.

1. Versailles

Versailles, Ohio, started out as Jacksonville in 1819, and locals renamed it for the French city in 1837, according to Ohio Magazine.

Locals in this Darke County village of about 2,600 residents gave the French name a distinctly local pronunciation.

Merriam-Webster lists the French city’s name as “ver-SY,” while Ohio University’s journalism school lists the village’s as “ver SALES.”

You stress the second syllable either way, but the village’s version ends on the word sales.

2. Milan

You don’t stress Milan, Ohio, the way you’d stress the Italian city it takes its name from.

Merriam-Webster puts the stress in the Italian city’s name on the second syllable.

Ohio University’s guide lists the village’s name as “MEYE lan,” where EYE stands for the long i in ice.

Britannica says Ebenezer Merry laid out the village in 1816 and lists it as the birthplace of the inventor Thomas Edison in 1847.

The redbrick house where Edison spent his first seven years is preserved as a museum.

3. Leipsic

How do you get “LIP sick” out of a name spelled Leipsic, with an e and an i side by side?

Merriam-Webster gives the German city of Leipzig a long i, as in “LYPE-sig.”

Ohio University’s guide lists the village’s name with a short i and an ending like sick.

A 2025 13abc report says Leipsic, a Putnam County village, was platted in 1857 and takes its name from the German city.

Many early settlers were of German ancestry and wanted a place that sounded like home.

4. Russia

You can read the village’s pronunciation on its history page, which gives “ROO-she.”

Merriam-Webster gives the country’s name as “RUSH-uh.”

Ideastream Public Media’s Know Ohio segment says the village’s spelling matches the country’s, yet locals somehow get “roo-shi” from it.

The name traces to the earliest settlers, French-speaking Swiss who had served under Napoleon Bonaparte during the war with Russia.

According to tradition, the name commemorates a battle those veterans fought in Russia.

Many emigrants from Alsace, Lorraine and other parts of France also settled the area in the early 1800s.

Lewis Phillips built the first house in Russia in 1853.

5. Rio Grande

The name of Rio Grande, a Gallia County village, is "REYE oh GRAND" in Ohio University's guide, with a long i in the first word.

The Athens NEWS gives the same sound in a column about pronouncing local names.

You'll find the University of Rio Grande in the village. It's half private university and half community college.

Rio Grande was a national college basketball powerhouse at one time.

Locals like to point out that Rio is in Ohio to help people understand the pronunciation.

6. Mantua

Mental Floss lists the Italian city of Mantua as "MAN-tyoo-a" and the towns named for it in Ohio and Utah as "MAN-a-way."

The Portage County village's website gives the same pronunciation and says the name comes from a famous city in northern Italy.

You can trace the name further through the Mantua Historical Society, which says it honors the Italian city Napoleon besieged in 1797.

The village sits along the Cuyahoga River and incorporated in 1898.

7. Chauncey

Chauncey's history page gives the pronunciation "Chance-ee" for a name that looks like "Chahn-see."

You can check that against Ohio University's guide, which lists the name as "CHANCE ee."

The name was allegedly pronounced that way to help identify strikebreakers.

The area was named for Elihu Chauncey, one of the Philadelphia capitalists who partnered in 1838 to buy a salt mining company.

8. Buchtel

You say Buchtel with a k sound where the spelling has ch, and Ohio University's guide lists the name as "BOOK tuhl."

The Athens NEWS column gives the local pronunciation as "book-tul."

The University of Akron began as Buchtel College in 1870, named for the industrialist John R. Buchtel.

He's also credited with founding the Athens County town.

Clio's page on a historical marker says John Buchtel of the Akron Iron Company laid out the village in 1876 and established the town around an iron furnace.

Borrowed Names and Local Sounds

Many Ohio town names you'll see on a map come from famous cities and countries all over the world, according to Ideastream Public Media's Know Ohio segment.

Locals often add a spin to the pronunciation of such names.

A linguist from American University explained in a 2019 public radio piece that borrowed words adapt to the sound system of the language that takes them in.

Some place names were also picked by people who weren't originally speakers of the language the names came from.