8 Virginia Town Names That Make Out-of-Staters Do a Double Take

Some Virginia town names sound more like a punchline than a place.

If you grew up there, you’ve probably stopped noticing.

But you can bet that out-of-staters definitely notice.

These are the Virginia town names that make out-of-staters do a double take.

1. Pound

Pound received its town charter in Wise County on April 7, 1950, according to Virginia Places.

The Virginia Code cites the town’s charter as 1950, chapter 552.

Picture a water-powered mill that pounded grain into flour, and you have one of the explanations for the name.

If you’d rather skip the mill, the other explanation is a local family name.

Either one may be the basis for the name of the river and the cluster of houses that became the town.

2. Hurt

The Pittsylvania County town of Hurt takes its name from John L. Hurt Jr., according to a Virginia Department of Transportation historical marker.

Some out-of-staters wince at the name before they learn whom it honors.

If you bought a lot from him, you paid $200 and had two years to build a house.

If you hadn’t finished by then, he’d buy the lot back for the same $200.

He planned the town lot by lot, with lots between a half acre and an acre and streets 50 feet wide.

He also donated property for community buildings, including schools and churches.

The town formally incorporated in 1967, which the marker says honored his wish for an independent town.

3. Fries

Many out-of-staters do a double take when they see Fries on a road sign, and you might too.

The Grayson County town is named for Colonel Francis H. Fries of North Carolina, founder of the Washington Mills Company, according to a Department of Historic Resources marker.

You may wonder how a mill founder ended up with a town.

Fries and his associates had determined by 1900 that the New River could power a textile mill.

A dam, a textile mill and 300 houses were built within a year of the town’s incorporation.

4. Big Stone Gap

The name Big Stone Gap describes the ground in Wise County.

The Department of Historic Resources defines the gap as the broadening of the Powell River Valley between Stone Mountain, Little Stone Mountain and Wallens Ridge.

If you’re hunting for the gap itself, look between those three ridges.

If you trace the place back, Virginia’s tourism site says Three Forks is the earliest recorded name for Big Stone Gap.

The town was incorporated as Mineral City in 1882 and was renamed Big Stone Gap in 1888.

The 2015 movie Big Stone Gap was filmed in the town.

5. Appalachia

A 1941 Virginia Conservation Commission marker says Appalachia, in Wise County, is named for the Appalachian Mountains.

The town sprang up after the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and Southern Railroad made a junction there in 1890.

The town stands in the heart of those mountains, and it was incorporated in 1906, with the streets laid out in 1907.

Virginia Places adds that the town developed on Looney Creek when two railroads bypassed Big Stone Gap.

Tell someone you're driving to Appalachia, and you'll often need to add Wise County.

6. Pennington Gap

Pennington Gap is named for Edward Pennington, according to a nomination for the town's commercial historic district.

Pennington came to the region from North Carolina around 1790 and later bought land on the south side of the gorge where the town now sits.

He built his first home along the Powell River, about two miles east of Dryden, and died around 1861.

If you'd gone looking for the town in 1879, you'd have asked for Graham.

The nomination says the name changed to Pennington Gap in 1883, then to Han later that year, and back to Pennington Gap in 1891.

Michael Friel's land and Pennington's land would become the town.

A 1941 Virginia Conservation Commission marker agrees that the pass is named for an early settler.

The town came into existence with the extension of the Louisville and Nashville railroad in 1890.

7. Saxis

A Department of Historic Resources nomination says Robert Sikes received the first patent for land in the town of Saxis in 1666, acquiring 150 acres at the northern end.

George Parker patented the 200 acres south of Sikes in 1668.

The locale took on Sikes's name once he held both tracts.

The same nomination says the modern spelling of Saxis, dating to the late nineteenth century, is suggestive of how locals pronounced the original name.

Lots of out-of-staters have to ask how to say the name.

The Virginia Code lists a Circuit Court order that incorporated Saxis as a town in 1959, after an earlier charter from 1896 was repealed in 1912.

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science says the town, on the Bay side of upper Accomack County, is often referred to as Saxis Island.

You may see either name when you look for it.

8. Dumfries

Dumfries is named for Dumfriesshire, Scotland, the birthplace of founder John Graham, according to Prince William County's hazard mitigation plan.

A marker erected by the Town of Dumfries gives May 11, 1749 as the date the town was established.

If you're checking the paperwork, a 1749 Act of Assembly incorporated the town.