Trivia
Virginia trivia
Things you won't find elsewhere
Town or village names are not necessarily unique in a state. There are many town names that occur several times. The most frequent in Virginia is "Five Forks"--there are 13 of them. Other names used at least four times are: Bethel (4), Centerville (9) [not including Centreville], Crossroads (4), Greenfield (4), Greenwood (4), Liberty (4), Midway (7), Mountain View (4), Newtown (8), Oak Grove (6), Oak Hill (5), Red Hill (4), and Riverdale (5). Some of the cities of Virginia have settlements with the same name: There are 3 Blacksburgs, 3 Hopewells, 4 Salems, and 3 Springfields in Virginia.
The Mattaponi River is the northern fork of the York River, the estuary between the James River and the Rappahannock River. (The southern fork is the Pamunkey River.) The Mattaponi River divides into the Matta and the Poni Rivers, which further divide into the Mat, the Ta, the Po, and the Ni Rivers.
Some counties in Virginia have seats that have the same name, or one closely derived. These include:
County County Seat
Accomack Accomac
Amelia Amelia Court House
Amerst Amherst
Appomattox Appomattox
Arlington Arlington (actually, city and county are the same)
Bedford Bedford
Bland Bland
Buckingham Buckingham
Charles City Charles City
Charlotte Charlotte Court House
Chesterfield Chesterfield
Culpeper Culpeper
Cumberland Cumberland
Dinwiddie Dinwiddie
Fairfax Fairfax
Floyd Floyd
Gloucester Gloucester
Goochland Goochland
Halifax Halifax
Hanover Hanover
King and Queen King and Queen Court House
King George King George
Louisa Louisa
Lunenburg Lunenburg
Madison Madison
Mathews Mathews
Orange Orange
Powhatan Powhatan
Prince George Prince George
Pulaski Pulaski
Spotsylvania Spotsylvania
Stafford Stafford
Tazewell Tazewell
Wise Wise
Wythe Wytheville
York Yorktown
But...
Buchanan is not in Buchanan County, but Botetourt County
Charlottesville is not in Charlotte County, but Albemarle County
Clarksville is not in Clarke County, but Mecklenburg County
Craigsville is not in Craig County, but Augusta County
Franklin is not in Franklin County, but Southampton County
Fredericksburg is not in Frederick County, but Spotsylvania County
Leesburg is not in Lee County, but Loudoun County
Richmond is not in Richmond County, but Henrico and Chesterfield Counties
Scottsville is not in Scott County, but Albemarle County
Shenandoah is not in Shenandoah County, but Page County
Warrenton is not in Warren County, but Faquier County
Washington is not in Washington County, but Rappahannock County
Virginia's most populous cities
(populations from Rand McNally's the road atlas '07 and 1993 Road Atlas)
# city current pop. 1990 pop.
1. Virginia Beach 439467 393069
2. Norfolk 241727 261229
3. Chesapeake 210834 151976
4. Richmond 194729 203056
5. Arlington 187873 170936
6. Newport News 181647 170045
7. Hampton 146878 133793
8. Alexandria 128923 111183
9. Portsmouth 99617 103907
10. Roanoke 92863 96397
11. Suffolk 73515 52141
12. Lynchburg 65113 66049
13. Burke 57737 24000
14. Reston 56407 48556
15. Dale City 55971 47170
16. Annandale 54994 50975
17. Centreville 48661 6000
18. Danville 46988 53056
19. Harrisonburg 41170 30707
20. Chantilly 41041 n.a.
21. Blacksburg 40066 34590
22. Charlottesville 39162 40341
23. McLean 38929 24000
24. Manassas 37166 27957
25. Leesburg 33319 16202
26. Petersburg 33091 38386
27. Woodbridge 31941 26401
28. Franconia 31907 19882
29. Mechanicsville 30464 22027
30. Springfield 30417 15000
Note - Portsmouth and Roanoke used to have more than 100000 people.
Harrisonburg and Blacksburg are now more populous than Charlottesville.
Most of the fast growing cities are in northern Virginia, many others are shrinking.
Virginia Town names by endings:
The Rand McNally the road atlas '07 indexes towns, although not all towns with less than 500 people are listed, even if they are on the maps. I compared towns with the common endings "burg", "City", "dale", "field", "ford", "Heights", "Park", "ton", "town", "ville", and "wood". In the Virginia index, there were 35 "ville"s, 27 "ton"s, 13 "burg"s, 9 "field"s, 7 "wood"s, 5 "City"s, 5 "dale"s, 5 "ford"s, 5 "Park"s, and 4 "town"s. Here's the most populous of each group:
ville ton burg field
Centreville (48661) Arlington (187873) Lynchburg (65113) Springfield (30417)
Danville (46988) Hampton (146878) Harrisonburg (41170) West Springfield (28378)
Charlottesville (39162) Reston (56407) Blacksburg (40066) Merrifield (11170)
Mechanicsville (30464) Oakton (29348) Leesburg (33319) North Springfield (9173)
Martinsville (15121) Staunton (23848) Petersburg (33091) Smithfield (6703)
wood City dale ford
Waynewood (3450) Dale City (55971) Annandale (54994) Radford (15006)
Ravenwood (2550) Chase City (2414) Cloverdale (2986) Bedford (6339)
Glenwood (2276) Gate City (2090) Fieldale (929) Seaford (2700)
Castlewood (2036) Weber City (1299) Riverdale (630) Stafford (1600)
Hillwood (1650) Stephens City (1195) Hunterdale (600) Milford (500)
Park town
Manassas Park (10990) Stanleytown (1515)
Kings Park (6500) Middletown (1058)
Broyhill Park (3700) Keezletown (400)
Tyler Park (1250) Yorktown (203)
Hilander Park (400)
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