Places In Arizona And Their Unusual Names

Either that, or they were really, really bad at creativity. Some of the names of towns in the Copper State are so ridiculously weird that they make you genuinely question what was going on in the minds of the name-givers. Here are some of the most unusual names in the state of Arizona.

1. Why

You will rarely find a place whose name and the reaction to that name look exactly the same — but here we are. Town legend says it comes from the "Y" shape formed by the intersection of State Route 85 and State Route 86, combined with the fact that the U.S. Postal Service needed at least three letters to deliver mail to a place. So rather than waste precious time choosing a name that made sense, the residents went with Why. And we thought we invented text-message shorthand.

2. Nothing

Never will you find a place more aptly named than this. Nothing was nothing before 1977, when it was taken up as a project to make something out of nothing — and if you are wondering what the place was officially called, the answer is NOTHING. No doubt, it was abandoned again in the 2000s.

3. Santa Claus

A real-estate agent once had the strange idea of turning an empty site into a resort town filled with Santa Clauses — both living and stationary — where kids could finally send letters to real-life Santas. But it turned out to be about as futile as the story of Santa Claus once you grow up.

4. Surprise

Perhaps the biggest city on this list, with an estimated population of 133,000, and the story behind its name is indeed very surprising. As it goes, Flora Mae Statler was sure she would be "surprised" if the town turned out to be any good for living and working. It did — and so, without much ado, they simply put her assumed emotion on the map as the town's name. Whether that was a lack of imagination or a comeback, one will never know.

5. Chloride

The name is certainly weird, but it makes more sense than the others on this list. The nearly abandoned town has around 180–200 people and a history of silver-chloride mining in the nearby hills — which is where the name comes from. Legit, you might say; but then the entire state of Arizona would become a periodic table.

6. Bagdad

If you are wondering why we suddenly jumped to Iraq of all places — do not worry, we have not. This place in Arizona has such a pathetic excuse for an origin legend that you cannot even let it pass as a legend. Apparently, while mining for copper, a son once asked his father for a sack to keep the collected copper and said — "Do you have a bag, dad?" Told you: it is pathetic.

Read more on the creepy corners of Arizona as well.