We know who we are

“What's your name,' Coraline asked the cat. 'Look, I'm Coraline. Okay?'
'Cats don't have names,' it said.
'No?' said Coraline.
'No,' said the cat. 'Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.” 

Neil Gaiman. 2012. Coraline. New York: HarperCollins, p. 35.

---

There is a remarkable passage in John McPhee's amazing Annals of the Former World¹ that caught my eye some time ago:

"... Yuba city is the county seat of Sutter County, Marysville is the county seat of Yuba County, Auburn is the county seat of Placer County, Placerville is the county seat of El Dorado County, and Eldorado is the county seat of nowhere."
(McPhee 2000, pp. 506-507)

It's worth pointing out that Sutterville no longer exists, but it was in Sacramento County, not Sutter County.

Recently, while doing some research for my Geography of the US class, I found an article on Louisiana geography by a Mr. Tomas Aswell. It was ... amazing. To summarize:

Franklinton is not in Franklin Parish, it's in Washington Parish.
The town of Franklin is not in Franklin Parish either, but in St. Mary Parish.
Washington is in St. Landry Parish.
The town of St. Landry is in Evangeline Parish.
Evangeline is in Acadia Parish.
Arcadia (not Acadia, but nearly) is in Bienville Parish.
Vernon is not in Vernon Parish, it's in Jackson Parish.
The town of Jackson is in East Feliciana Parish.
Winnsboro is not in Winn Parish, but in Franklin Parish.
Richland is not in Richland Parish, but in St. Mary Parish.
Madisonville is not in Madison Parish, but in St. Tammany Parish.
Plaquemine is not in Plaquemine Parish, but in Iberville Parish.
Union is not in Union Parish, but in St. James Parish (and Union Hill is in Rapides Parish).
Allen is not in Allen Parish, but in Natchitoches Parish (and Port Allen is in West Baton Rouge Parish).
Calcasieu is in Rapides Parish, not Calcasieu Parish.
Claiborne is not in Claiborne Parish, but in Ouachita Parish.
(Aswell 2010)²

Just in case you didn't know, Louisiana has "parishes" where the rest of the country has "counties." Because they're different.

I don't really have a name for this phenomenon -- shifted or miscast or "non-congruent" county and county seat names. I've never read anything about it. It's kind of intriguing.

Now Louisiana has a total of 64 parishes. By my count, there are at least 15 non-congruent county names, or 23%.

Is this pattern common?

To find out for sure I'd have to look at all the counties in the country. Which would not be quick. There are over 3,000 counties (or county-equivalents) in the US, and that's a bit daunting. So I instead I did some sampling.

California has 58 counties. In only 18 cases (31%) do the county name and the name of the county seat correspond:

• Colusa County: Colusa
• Fresno County: Fresno
• Lake County: Lakeport
• Los Angeles County: Los Angeles
• Madera County: Madera
• Mariposa County: Mariposa
• Merced County: Merced
• Napa County: Napa
• Nevada County: Nevada City
• Riverside County: Riverside
• Sacramento County: Sacramento
• San Bernardino County: San Bernardino
• San Diego County: San Diego
• San Francisco County: San Francisco
• San Luis Obispo County: San Luis Obispo
• Santa Barbara County: Santa Barbara
• Santa Cruz County: Santa Cruz
• Ventura County: Ventura

Colorado has 64 counties. In only 13 cases (20%) do the county name and the name of the county seat correspond:

• Alamosa County: Alamosa
• Boulder County: Boulder
• Broomfield County: Broomfield
• Cheyenne County: Cheyenne Wells
• Conejos County: Conejos
• Delta County: Delta
• Denver County: Denver
• Eagle County: Eagle
• Gunnison County: Gunnison
• Montrose County: Montrose
• Ouray County: Ouray
• Pueblo County: Pueblo
• Saguache County: Saguache

Florida has 67 counties. In only 3 cases (4%) do the county name and the name of the county seat correspond:

• Madison County: Madison
• Palm Beach County: West Palm Beach
• Sarasota County: Sarasota

Oregon has 36 counties. In only 5 cases (14%) do the county name and the name of the county seat correspond:

• Baker County: Baker City
• Hood River County: Hood River
• Klamath County: Klamath Falls
• Lake County: Lakeview
• Tillamook County: Tillamook

Pennsylvania has 67 counties. In only 16 cases (24%) do the county name and the name of the county seat correspond:

• Beaver County: Beaver
• Bedford County: Bedford
• Butler County: Butler
• Chester County: West Chester
• Clarion County: Clarion
• Clearfield County: Clearfield
• Erie County: Erie
• Huntingdon County: Huntingdon
• Indiana County: Indiana
• Lancaster County: Lancaster
• Lebanon County: Lebanon
• Mercer County: Mercer
• Philadelphia County: Philadelphia
• York County: York

Having gone through this I have to say -- I don't really see any patterns.

I'd thought there might be a tendency for there to be more name correspondence in the Western states, but if there is I can't see it. I had wondered if there might be a pattern where rural areas were more likely to have congruent county and county seat names, but that's certainly not obvious.

It goes against the scientific grain to think there's no pattern here. But it's possible that this is just a matter of historical contingency -- sometimes things happen for good reasons, or for bad reasons, or for no reasons.

I think I'm supposed to feel uneasy about patternless data. Oddly enough I don't. I think sometimes things just happen.

And that makes this an interesting world.

---

Notes

¹John McPhee. 2000. Annals of the Former World. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

²Tomas Aswell. Louisiana Voice. Online: https://louisianavoice.com/2010/09/15/a-quick-louisiana-geography-lesson/