Rejection of All Things British in Post Revolution America

Gass3268

There are many places in the United States that are named after places and people from Great Britain. Even after fighting a long war nothing changed, all the names stayed the same. Two Questions:

1) What would have to happen in order for the Americans to completely reject all things British, including renaming anything that was related to their former mother country?
2) What do you think different places should be named?

It would be cool to we could create a United States were one could easily forget that it was once under control of Great Britain, at least on a map.

Places that I can think of that would probably need changing:

States – Georgia, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania (?), South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia (barring there still is a WV)
Cities – Albany (NY), Augusta (GA), Baltimore (MD), Birmingham (AL), Boston (MA), Cambridge (MA), Charleston (SC), Charlotte (NC), Jersey City (NJ), Manchester (NH), New York City (NY), Pittsburg (PA), Plymouth (MA), Portsmouth (NH), Raleigh (NC), Richmond (VA),Virginia Beach (VA), Williamsburg (VA), Worcester (MA)
Rivers – James River (VA), ?
 

Thermopylae

Well, if you were going to change the names, then you have two options:

Name things after important American figures (i.e. James River --> Hamilton River)

Or native names
 

Gass3268

Thermopylae said:
Well, if you were going to change the names, then you have two options:

Name things after important American figures (i.e. James River --> Hamilton River)

Or native names
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking. The other idea I had was French names. They had just helped us in winning the war. OTL examples include Louisville (KY) and Montpelier (VT)
 

Japhy

Banned
You could see quite a few things take Latin Names, considering many early Americans felt a close connection with the Roman Republic
 

strangeland

ditching the English language is also likely: some of the founding fathers had wanted to switch to Latin or Ancient Greek. Hebrew was even suggested at one point.
 

Gass3268

strangeland said:
ditching the English language is also likely: some of the founding fathers had wanted to switch to Latin or Ancient Greek. Hebrew was even suggested at one point.
Click to expand...

An intersting side of effect of this would be the creation of class based on language, with the rich and educated speaking Latin/Greek/Hebrew with the poor and uneducated speaking English or their native toung.
 

Baradas

Wasn't German really close to being the dominant language at one point?

And I would bet on native names for a lot of stuff, most of the US outside of the east coast already did that, so I don't see why you wouldn't. Of course you'd still have exceptions.
 

mishery

strangeland said:
ditching the English language is also likely: some of the founding fathers had wanted to switch to Latin or Ancient Greek. Hebrew was even suggested at one point.
Click to expand...

And how could folk become fluent in one of these languages quickly enough that they would be able to use it for every day communication. I suspect few of the founding fathers were fluent, it was just a romantic classicist idea.
 

David S Poepoe

Banned
Baradas said:
Wasn't German really close to being the dominant language at one point?
Click to expand...

An old 'urban legend' which really needs to be put to rest. Regionally German may have been the predominant language, but not thru out the states. I believe that Franklin was worried that the Americans would 'purge' themselves of English heritage and worried about the possible disregard of Shakespeare.

Without the revolution actually being much more centralized and some sort of national identity established immediately upon independence as well as a strong central government taking power soon after I doubt such a rejection of all things British would happen. There is definately a sense of 'central committee' sort of planning.
 
Petike

Petike

Kicked
Gass3268 said:
An intersting side of effect of this would be the creation of class based on language, with the rich and educated speaking Latin/Greek/Hebrew with the poor and uneducated speaking English or their native toung.
Click to expand...

This idea reminds me of the Norman conquest of Britain... :D Heh, history truly can repeat itself... :)
 
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SilverPhantom2

I could see a combination of Native and Roman names at first. "New York" could be renamed "Iroquoia" or "Mohawk." Or perhaps for "New York," "Nova Roma." "Boston" as "Carthago," "Georgia" as "Cherokee."

Later on, I'd see places and names named after founding fathers. Like, post-1832 we'd see "Hamilton," "Jefferson," "Adams," "Hanson," "Hancock," "Wayne." I'd only base this off the fact that Washington considered anything the government did to glorify itself (i.e. putting President's faces on coins. The first American coins had lady liberty on them) was a step on the way to despotism. Native and Roman would prevail at first, once all the founding fathers were dead, Jacksonian Americans would have no qualms about naming states, cities, and locations after their heroes.
 
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