Some place names included in The North Carolina Gazetteer contain terms that are considered offensive.
Copyright Notice: This content is from the North Carolina Gazetteer, edited by William S. Powell and Michael Hill. Copyright © 2010 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.
"The North Carolina Gazetteer is a geographical dictionary in which an attempt has been made to list all of the geographic features of the state in one alphabet. It is current, and it is historical as well. Many features and places that no longer exist are included; many towns and counties for which plans were made but which never materialized are also included. Some names appearing on old maps may have been imaginary, but many of them also appear in this gazetteer.
Each entry is located according to the county in which it is found. I have not felt obliged to keep entries uniform. The altitude of a place, the date of incorporation of a city or town, may appear in the beginning of one entry and at the end of another. Some entries may appear more complete than others. I have included whatever information I could find. If there is no comment on the origin or meaning of a name, it is because the information was not available. In some cases, however, resort to an unabridged dictionary may suggest the meaning of many names."
--From The North Carolina Gazetteer, 1st edition, preface by William S. Powell
| Place | Description |
|---|---|
| Whittemore Creek |
rises in N Buncombe County near the Madison County line and flows SW into Ivy Creek. |
| Whittier |
town in E Swain and NW Jackson Counties on Tuckasegee River. Alt. 1,839. Est. 1885 by Dr. Clarke Whittier of California, who purchased 60,000 acres, including the town site. Chartered 1887; charter repealed 1895. Rechartered 1897, 1899, and 1907. |
| Whittier Branch |
rises in N Buncombe County and flows NE into French Broad River. |
| Whittier Creek |
rises in S Surry County and flows NE into Bull Run Creek. |
| Whittington |
community in W Wilkes County on Reddies River. |
| Whittle Creek |
rises in NW Alamance County and flows W into Buttermilk Creek. |
| Whortleberry Creek |
rises in SE Anson County and flows SE into Pee Dee River. |
| Whortleberry Mountain |
See Huckleberry Ridge. |
| Whortonsville |
community in E Pamlico County on Brown Creek. Called Bethel until a post office was est. in 1904, at which time the name of the first postmaster was adopted (pronounced as if written "Hortonsville"). Post office closed 1959. |
| Whynot |
community in S Randolph County est. late in the nineteenth century. A group of local citizens, meeting in 1860 to select a name for the post office about to be est. there, heard many suggestions phrased as "Why not name it for so-and-so?" Finally, someone in desperation said, "Why not name it Why not?" The group thought this was as good as any of the suggested names, and, since it removed any element of further controversy, the place was so named. Originally spelled as two words. |
