COUNTY LOCATION
1Harvard
University Herbaria, 22 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138-2094
OF
NEW ENGLAND PLACE NAMES
Ray Angelo1
and
CT ME MA
NH RI VT Key Map
INTRODUCTION
This is the web version of this reference, of which there were two earlier printed versions (early 1980's and 1995).
This work intends to provide the county location
for all cities, towns, villages, islands and for a select few
major geographic features in New England. Most counties have been
given a readily interpretable four letter abbreviation.
See the key map for the locations of the New England counties and
for the abbreviations used here. See also the listing farther below.
Four of the largest counties in Maine (Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset,
and Oxford) and Coös County in New Hampshire have been divided
into northern and southern sections (see map on p.v). These counties
have a three letter abbreviation with an appended -N or -S that
corresponds to the northern or southern section. Aroostook County
in Maine is so large that it has been divided into three sectors
(see map on p. v). The abbreviation for this county has been given
suffixes -NE, -NW, and -S corresponding to these sectors. The
divisions for these counties conform to the geographical units
being used to inventory collections in the vascular herbarium
of the New England Botanical Club. Two islands of special interest,
Mount Desert Island (MT.DE), Maine and Block Isl. (BLOCK ISL.),
Rhode Island and the few locales on them have been given their
own abbreviations. Mount Desert Island is part of Hancock County.
Block Island is part of Washington County.
Where a given place name is represented in
three or more counties within a state, the word "several"
is given for the name rather than listing all the counties where
the name occurs. Some places do not currently exist. The most
notable example is the group of townships (Dana, Prescott, Greenwich,
and Enfield) flooded by the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts.
As indicated above townships are indicated by capitalization of
the name. The names of cities that are not associated with townships
are also capitalized. Bold face is used to indicate those township-range
units in Maine that are municipal civil divisions that are equivalent
to townships.
The 67 New England counties and their abbreviations
are:
2. Aroostook (ARO) 3. Cumberland (CUMB) 4. Franklin (FRAN) 5. Hancock (HANC) 6. Kennebec (KENN) 7. Knox (KNOX) 8. Lincoln (LINC) 9. Oxford (OXF) 10. Penobscot (PEN) 11. Piscataquis (PIS) 12. Sagadahoc (SAGA) 13. Somerset (SOM) 14. Waldo (WALD) 15. Washington (WASH) 16. York (YORK) |
New Hampshire 1. Belknap (BELK) 2. Carroll (CARR) 3. Cheshire (CHES) 4. Coös (COO) 5. Grafton (GRAF) 6. Hillsboro (HILL) 7. Merrimack (MERR) 8. Rockingham (ROCK) 9. Strafford (STRA) 10. Sullivan (SULL) |
Vermont 1. Addison ADDI) 2. Bennington (BENN) 3. Caledonia (CALE) 4. Chittenden (CHIT) 5. Essex (ESSE) 6. Franklin (FRAN) 7. Grand Isle (GrIS) 8. Lamoille (LAMO) 9. Orange (ORAN) 10. Orleans (ORLE) 11. Rutland (RUTL) 12. Washington (WASH) 13. Windham (WINH) 14. Windsor (WINS) |
Massachusetts 1. Barnstable (BARN) 2. Berkshire (BERK) 3. Bristol (BRIS) 4. Dukes (DUKE) 5. Essex (ESSE) 6. Franklin (FRAN) 7. Hampden (HAMD) 8. Hampshire (HAMS) 9. Middlesex (MIDD) 10. Nantucket (NANT) 11. Norfolk (NORF) 12. Plymouth (PLYM) 13. Suffolk (SUFF) 14. Worcester (WORC) |
Rhode Island 1. Bristol (BRIS) 2. Kent (KENT) 3. Newport (NEWP) 4. Providence (PROV) 5. Washington (WASH) |
Connecticut 1. Fairfield (FAIR) 2. Hartford (HART) 3. Litchfield (LITC) 4. Middlesex (MIDD) 5. New Haven (NHAV) 6. New London (NLON) 7. Tolland (TOLL) 8. Windham (WIND) |
The following abbreviations are used:
Isl. - Island
Jct. - Junction
Sett. - Settlement
Sta. - Station
Twp. - Township
The following sources were used:
A Geographic Dictionary of Rhode Island,
Henry Gannett, Bulletin of the U.S.G.S.
#115 (1894).
A Geographic Dictionary of Massachusetts,
Henry Gannett, Bulletin of the U.S.G.S. #116 (1894).
A Geographic Dictionary of Connecticut,
Henry Gannett, Bulletin of the U.S.G.S. #117 (1894).
Official Gazetteer of Rhode Island,
U.S. Geographic Board (1932)
The Length and Breadth of Maine,
Stanley Bearce Attwood (1946)
Massachusetts Geographic Names - Alphabetical
Finding List, U.S.G.S., Branch
of Geographic Names (Feb. 1, 1981)
Rhode Island Geographic Names - Alphabetical
Finding List, U.S.G.S.,
Branch of Geographic Names (Feb. 1, 1981)
New Hampshire Geographic Names - Alphabetical
Finding List, U.S.G.S., Geographic
Names (May 21, 1981)
The New Hampshire Atlas & Gazetteer,
DeLorme Publishing Co. (1983)
The Vermont Atlas & Gazetteer,
DeLorme Publishing Co. (1983)
The Maine Atlas & Gazetteer,
DeLorme Publishing Co. (1984)
Connecticut Geographic Names - Alphabetical
Finding List, U.S.G.S.,
Branch of Geographic Names (Oct. 26, 1984)
Maine Geographic Names - Alphabetical Finding
List, U.S.G.S., Branch of Geographic
Names (April 2, 1985
Vermont, Geographic Names Information System,
Alphabetical Listing,
U.S.G.S., Branch of Geographic Names (Dec. 1992)
TOP OF PAGE
-- Revised: Oct. 3, 2011
Created by: Ray Angelo
rangelo@oeb.harvard.edu