Owning Land

Places with Names

Since I was a boy I have loved seeing different plots of rural land. One thing that has always fascinated me was how it seems everyone has a name for their land and what they call the various parts of their property.

Geography is the study of the earth and its inhabitants, and all of us learned world geography at some point in school. In the land business we also have some exposure to cartography, which is the study and making of maps. Toponymy is the scientific study of place names, and the meanings, origins, and uses of those names. I have been an amateur toponymist (without knowing what it is called) for many years.

As I mentioned, one of my favorite parts of visiting other people’s properties is to see their place and hear the names associated with it. A big dairy farm in Marengo County, Alabama has a huge field named “Bluegrass” and a deer hideout called the “Hackberry Thicket.” When I turkey hunted the place, they told me to go through Bluegrass, past the Hackberry thicket, cross the creek, and hold up inside the wood line. Those directions led my brother-in-law and me right to a strutting tom.

One of the seller’s I am representing in Fayette County, Alabama has a farm where every food plot is named for an SEC football team. Some of the best hunting can be found in “Bama” or “the Swamp.”

Last year I hunted at Foothills, a pay-to-hunt outfit, down in south Perry County, Alabama. They showed us a map of their 3,000+ acres of prime Black Belt agricultural land and started naming off potential sites for us to go the next morning. My brother-in-law, Chris, was assigned the “75 tripod” that hugged the south border of their sprawling operation. The roads through the property were marked with signs detailing the way to various stands. I loved riding by the hand-painted wooden signs as we passed each one. About 45 minutes after Chris and I settled into our spots, he took a nice 159” 11-point. I remember the name of his stand, but not mine.

We do the same thing on the family land where I live. If you come for a visit, you will see the “Triangle Field,” the “Right-of-Way,” the “Little Lake,” the “Yellow Jacket Field,” or “Perfection.”  Perfection is a one-acre food plot that was cut into the middle of the forest with a woodland mulcher. We have white oaks, red oaks, Japanese persimmon and pawpaw trees to provide food for the deer. We take extra measures when cultivating this plot to make sure all of the areas are planted and fertilized. I love this plot. It is always my first choice of a place to hunt. Even though we have a lock-on stand in a pretty good location, I will experiment with hanging my climber on various trees along the periphery. The very first time I hunted Perfection I saw six racked bucks feeding at once. That one event spawned a love affair with my favorite hunting spot.

Many of these places are named for past events which took place in that location. We have one place we call the “Yellow jacket Field.” This was named for a fateful encounter our tractor operator had with a subterranean hive of yellow jackets. He was stung twenty-two times before he could escape their fury. He went home after the last one got him inside the nose. We felt that event justified naming the field in its memory.

Fine homes and plantations have long been bestowed with regal names that left an indelible impression on everyone that heard about or visited them. What images appear in your mind’s eye when you hear Monticello, The Magnolia Plantation (Charleston), Mount Vernon, King Ranch, or even the Ponderosa? Naming property is not reserved for the wealthy or prestigious. Just down the road from my house is a beautiful home and acreage called “Repose.” I can connect with that feeling of rest and relaxation associated with a great home place.

This past week I read that the ancient Greeks called the island of Cyprus “Makarios” which meant “Isle of Happiness.” The word “makarios” carried such a strong connotation of happiness that it meant one never needed to leave the shores of the island because it contained everything he could ever want. That thought really resonated with me. In many respects when I am with my family and we are enjoying all that God has created in the outdoors, I often think “What more could you want?”

No doubt as you read this you are thinking about the names of some of the places you have hunted or that are on your land. If you have a favorite hunting spot or if you have named your property, please share the name and a brief story in the comment section below. Personally I would love to hear about some of the places that are special to our readers.

If you love your land, give it a name. Names of places are often a lot like the places themselves. They outlive their originators and connect many generations with the history of the place. Wherever your place and whatever the name, enjoy your time on the land.

Please take a second and share some of your names and places with other readers in the comment section below. I think our readers will enjoy hearing from others who share their passion for the land.

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About the author

Jonathan Goode

Jonathan is passionate about helping people buy and sell land. He is an associate broker with Southeastern Land Group, LLC (SELG) and is the Responsible Broker for the company in Mississippi. Jonathan is an Accredited Land Consultant (ALC), working with Southeastern Land Group (AlaLandCo) since 2008, serving Alabama and Mississippi. He is a member of the Alabama and Mississippi chapters of the Realtor’s Land Institute (RLI), and is currently serving as Vice President of the Alabama Chapter. Jonathan specializes in marketing rural properties online, and is a contributor for LANDTHINK.com, writing articles focused on helping people buying and selling rural land.

13 Comments

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  • Great post! My favorite area on our land is known as just simply “The Park” great family times there!

  • Awesome article Jonathan…I think it’s your best.

    On our place, we have to name places out of convenience. Explaining a certain location everytime you are talking about it is cumbersome. Especially when you are talking to someone that knows the place. Most of ours are somewhat descriptive in nature. Off the top of my head we have, “The Little Bottoms”, “The Big Creek Bottoms”, “The Denny Place”, “Robert’s Hill”, “The Heifer Pasture”, “The Bull Pasture”, “The Branch Lot”, “The Middle Flat”…the list could go on. I guess I never stopped to think about it long enough to realize how many different names we have for places on our farm. Dad and I easily know where we are talking about, even if everybody else doesn’t…guess those place names connect me and my Dad somehow too.

  • Marisa- I like “The Park”, it sounds like a fun place to hang out.

    Robert- Thanks for the compliment. I totally get that you and your dad share a connection about that land that probably no one else does. It’s the same way for us down here in on this land.

  • I visit my brother-in-law’s family farm in south Georgia on occasion to hunt and visit. It’s been in their family over 100 years. It’s a beautiful place and I’ve become familiar with their names. They have “The Turkey Field”, “The Power Lines”, “The Grave Yard”, “Bonnie’s Stand”, “The Treehouse Stand”, and “The Duck Pond” to name a few. I remember taking the tour with him and thinking how neat it was. Now we talk the same lingo.

  • In 1970 we bought our farm in NJ from folks who had owned it for 20 years. They had named a pasture “The Stardust Field” in honor of their aged palomino mare who grazed there for most of her life. Forty years later, we still refer to “The Stardust Field”. Many horses have come and gone since then but I like to think old Stardust lives on, at least in spirit.

  • That was an uplifting article for a Monday morning.

    When I bought “Rocky Ridge Farm” in the Upstate of SC about twenty years ago, I thought it had been named for the huge rock outcroppings around the house and barn. Only when I decided to plow in ten more acres of pasture did I discover the real meaning of Rocky Ridge.

  • Ryan- I would like to see the tree house stand. I bet it lives up to its name.

    Brooks- That is a great name, and it is always fascinating to see how long those place names carry on.

    Steve- Rocky Ridge probably didn’t do justice to what you had to do to make that ground into pasture.

  • Love the article about the names of land/farms. My husband and I just this past April bought 100 acres of farm/woods, which was a life-long dream of his. On our initial walk-though the land with 2 of our grand-children and their parents, our 10 year-old grandson asked what we were going to call this farm. After several suggestions from the adults, he said “why not call it “Dogwood Meadows” because of all the dogwood trees all along the several meadows on the farm. We thought it was a great idea. So now our farm has a name. We are still working on the names for the meadows. The grandchildren and their parents have made several suggestions. “Quick Jump Hill” for the area where the granddaughter made a hasty leap over a snake, for example. We look forward to naming each area for many years to come.

  • Janie- Thanks for sharing your story and congratulations on purchasing 100 acres. Your husband realized a dream that many men share. I like “Quick Jump Hill”, your grandkids will never forget that as long as they live. Good luck coming up with other names and enjoy your new farm!

  • As a REALTOR, I have listed several historic properties here in Warren County, NC. The properties usually have names. One is called Elgin Plantation named for the original owner’s ancestral home in Scotland. Another is Lake o’the Woods Plantation named for a body of water created supposedly by a fallen meteorite. Learning the origins of the name I find fasinating. Maybe I’ll name my little 10 acre tract “Dream Come True”.

  • As a child, we visited our great great parents on their property that we called Petty’s Pasture. I loved riding their horses, wading in the creek and jumping off the tire swing into the Swimming Hole. I am naming my modest 5 acres Groves Haven.

    • Great article!!

      We are beyond stumped 🙁

      We have 60 acres in N.E. MI that my husband inherited in 1985 as a teenage kid from his grandfather. We have wild turkeys, deer, sand hill cranes, eagles, creeks, 3 ponds…the land is rolling. We grow money crops but we really see it as a place to disconnect from the grind. Really wanted to incorporate “85” just not sure in which manner.

      My husband prefers not to utilize the word “farms” …ANY ideas???

      Thank you so much in advance.

      *Note
      The grandkids love the property “although” everyone always frets over how FAR & RURAL it is.

      Thx again!!

      • Instead of “farms”; use “Acres”! “Rolling Acres”; “Sandhill Acres”; “Peaceful Acres”…

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