List of Oklahoma county name etymologies
This is a list of Oklahoma county name etymologies.
Alphabetical, by first letter
A
- Adair County, Oklahoma: Adair was named for the Adair family of the Cherokee tribe.
- Alfalfa County, Oklahoma: Alfala was named for William Henry David "Alfalfa Bill" Murray, the ninth governor of Oklahoma.
- Atoka County, Oklahoma: Atoka is named for its county seat of Atoka, Oklahoma, named in turn for Atoka, a Choctaw leader.
B
- Beaver County, Oklahoma: Beaver is named for its county seat of Beaver, Oklahoma and the Beaver River, which flows through the county.
- Beckham County, Oklahoma: Beckham was named for John Crepps Wickliffe Beckham, the thirty-fifth governor of Kentucky.
- Blaine County, Oklahoma: Blaine is named for James Gillespie Blaine, the American statesman, secretary of state, U.S. senator, and presidential candidate.
- Bryan County, Oklahoma: Bryan is named for William Jennings Bryan, the lawyer and presidential candidate.
C
- Caddo County, Oklahoma: Caddo is named for the Caddo Native American tribe.
- Canadian County, Oklahoma: Canadian County is named for the Canadian River, which flows through the county.
- Carter County: Carter is named for Ben W. Carter, a captain in the U. S. Army and a Cherokee who married and settled among the Chickasaws; his son was a state senator for over forty years following statehood.
- Cherokee County, Oklahoma: Cherokee is named for the Cherokee Native American tribe.
- Choctaw County, Oklahoma: Choctaw is named for the Choctaw Native American tribe.
- Cimarron County, Oklahoma: Cimarron is named for the Cimarron River which flows through the county. The river's name (formerly called by the Spanish, Río de los Carneros Cimarrón) is usually translated as River of the Wild Sheep.
- Cleveland County, Oklahoma: Cleveland is named for Stephen Grover Cleveland, the twenty-second and twenty-fourth president of the United States.
- Coal County, Oklahoma: Coal is named for its county seat of Coalgate, Oklahoma and the coal that is mined in the area.
- Comanche County, Oklahoma: Comanche is named for the Comanche Native American tribe.
- Cotton County, Oklahoma: Cotton is probably named for the cotton that is farmed in the area.
- Craig County, Oklahoma: Craig is named for Granville Craig, a Cherokee leader.
- Creek County, Oklahoma: Creek is named for the Creek Native American tribe.
- Custer County, Oklahoma: Custer is named for George Armstrong Custer, the U. S. Army general famous for his death at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
D
- Delaware County, Oklahoma: Delaware is named for the Delaware District of the Cherokee Nation.
- Dewey County, Oklahoma: Dewey is named for its status as the fourth of Oklahoma's counties. The county was originally D County, with a spelling change after statehood.
E
- Ellis County, Oklahoma: Ellis is named for Abraham H. Ellis, vice president of Oklahoma's constitutional convention.
G
- Garfield County, Oklahoma: Garfield is named for James Abram Garfield, the twentieth president of the United States.
- Garvin County, Oklahoma: Garvin is named for Samuel Garvin, a Chicksaw leader.
- Grady County, Oklahoma: Grady is named for Henry W. Grady, the editor of the Atlanta Constitution newspaper.
- Grant County, Oklahoma: Grant is named for Ulysses Simpson Grant, the eighteenth president of the United States.
- Greer County, Oklahoma: Greer is named for John Greer, a lieutenant governor of Texas.
H
- Harmon County, Oklahoma: Harmon is named for Judson Harmon, the forty-fifth governor of Ohio and an U. S. Attorney General.
- Harper County, Oklahoma: Harper is named for Oscar G. Harper, the clerk of Oklahoma's constitutional convention.
- Haskell County, Oklahoma: Haskell is named for Charles N. Haskell, the first governor of Oklahoma.
- Hughes County, Oklahoma: Hughes is named for W.C. Hughes, an attendee at the Oklahoma constitutional convention.
J
- Jackson County, Oklahoma: Jackson is named for Thomas Jackson "Stonewall" Jackson, the famous Confederate general.
- Jefferson County, Oklahoma: Jefferson is named for Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States.
- Johnston County, Oklahoma: Johnston is named for Douglas H. Johnston, a governor of the Chickasaw Nation.
K
- Kay County, Oklahoma: Kay is named for its status as the eleventh of Oklahoma's counties. The county was originally K County, with a spelling change after statehood.
- Kingfisher County, Oklahoma: Kingfisher and its county seat, also named Kingfisher, are named for Kingfisher Creek, which in turn is named for King Fisher, an early pre-settlement resident, who ran the Kingfisher Stage Station situated on its banks beside the old Chisholm Trail.
- Kiowa County, Oklahoma: Kiowa is named for the Kiowa Native American tribe.
L
- Latimer County, Oklahoma: Latimer is named for James S. Latimer, an Oklahoma constitutional convention attendee.
- Le Flore County, Oklahoma: Le Flore is named for a prominent Choctaw family with French ancestry.
- Lincoln County, Oklahoma: Lincoln is named for Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States.
- Logan County, Oklahoma: Logan is named for John Alexander Logan, the American Civil War general.
- Love County, Oklahoma: Love is named for Overton Love, a Chickasaw judge and early landowner, and his family.
M
- Major County: Major is named for John C. Major, an Oklahoma constitutional convention attendee.
- Marshall County: Marshall is named for the maiden name of a member of the Constitutional Convention's mother.
- Mayes County: Mayes is named for Cherokee leader Samuel H. Mayes.
- McClain County: McClain is named for Charles M. McClain, an Oklahoma constitutional convention attendee.
- McCurtain County: McCurtain is named for the Choctaw McCurtain family.
- McIntosh County: McIntosh is named for the Creek McIntosh family.
- Murray County: Murray is named for Governor of Oklahoma William H. "Alfalfa Bill" Murray.
- Muskogee County: Muskogee is named for the Muscogee Native American people.
N
- Noble County: Noble is named for U.S. Secretary of the Interior John W. Noble.
- Nowata County: Nowata is named for the town of Nowata, Oklahoma. Its origin is unclear, but the two most common stories are that railroad surveyors used the Delaware word noweta for welcome or that a sign was posted indicating that local springs had no water: No wata.
O
- Okfuskee County: Okfuskee is named for a Creek town in Cleburn County, Alabama.
- Oklahoma County: Oklahoma is from two Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning people and red.
- Okmulgee County: Okmulgee is a Creek word meaning boiling water.
- Osage County: The Osage Indian Reservation, inhabited by the Osage Nation.
- Ottawa County: Ottawa is named for the Ottawa Native American people.
P
- Pawnee County: Pawnee is named for the Skidi Pawnee Native American people.
- Payne County: Payne is named for David L. Payne.
- Pittsburg County: Pittsburg is named for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
- Pontotoc County: Pontotoc is a Chickasaw word meaning cat tails growing on the prairie.
- Pottawatomie County: Pottawatomie is named for the Pottawatomie Native American people.
- Pushmataha County: Pushmataha is named for the Pushmataha District of the Choctaw Nation.
R
- Roger Mills County: Roger Mills is named for U.S. Senator Roger Q. Mills.
- Rogers County: Rogers is named for Clem V. Rogers, a member of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention and the father of entertainer Will Rogers.
S
- Seminole County: Seminole is name for the Seminole Native American people.
- Sequoyah County: Sequoyah is named for Cherokee leader Sequoyah.
- Stephens County: Stephens is named for John H. Stephens, a Texas congressman and advocate of Oklahoma statehood.
T
- Texas County: Texas is named for the neighboring U.S. state of Texas.
- Tillman County: Tillman is named for U.S. Senator Benjamin Tillman of South Carolina.
- Tulsa County: Tulsa is named for the town of Tulsa, originally within the Creek Nation, Indian Territory, which in turn derives from Tulsey Town, Alabama, an old Creek settlement.
W
- Wagoner County: Wagoner is said to be named for Wagoner, Oklahoma, which in turn, was possibly named for Bailey P. Waggoner, attorney of the Missouri Pacific Railway Company, the line of which led to the town's establishment.
- Washington County: Washington is name for the first President of the United States George Washington.
- Washita County: Washita is named for the Washita River.
- Woods County: Woods is named for Kansas populist Sam Wood.
- Woodward County: Woodward was named for a Santa Fe Railway Company station named in honor of one of the company's directors, B.W. Woodward.