9. Origin of name - Champaign

The City of Champaign was named after the Champaign county where Champaign-Urbana are located. Now, how did the county come to be named "Champaign"?

Well, as mentioned in the previous post about Urbana, the region was settled by folks coming from the Champaign county of Ohio. (Any surprise that the largest city/county seat of that county in Ohio is "Urbana"?). Anyway, why was it named Champaign to begin with? Well, we can refer to our French-English dictionary about that. In French, "Champaign" means "a plain" or "open level country". Apparently, the land was as flat as the prairie we see in our Chambana!!

Talk about deja vu !!!

8. Origin of the name - Urbana

Urbana was founded in 1833. The city was founded by people coming from Ohio, who named it after the City of Urbana, Ohio.

Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, that city in Urbana was in turn named after a town in Virginia.

The town from Virginia is actually named "Urbanna" (notice the 2 n's in the name). According to the history page of the town's website:

The 1680 Acts of Assembly at Jamestown changed all that.

They ordered local officials to establish 20, 50-acre port towns, at a cost of 10,000 pounds of tobacco each, through which all trade would take place: Varina, Charles City, Surry, Jamestown, Patesfield, Nansemond and Warwick along with plantations in Elizabeth City, Norfolk, Yorktown, New Kent, Gloucester, Tappahannock, Stafford, Accomac, Northampton, Lancaster, Northumberland—and the small part of Ralph Wormeley’s Rosegill that would, in 1705, be named Burgh of Urbanna, “City of Anne.” The town was named in honor of England’s Queen Anne.

There you go ... the name Urbana is therefore linked to Queen Anne of England!!