How did the cold and isolated city of Nome, Alaska come to be so named?

22crows

Against its wishes the city was stuck with the unusual name of Nome. Unlike other towns which are named for explorers, heroes or politicians, Nome was named as a result of a 50 year-old spelling error. In the 1850's an officer on a British ship off the coast of Alaska noted on a manuscript map that a nearby prominent point was not identified. He wrote "? Name" next to the point. When the map was recopied, another draftsman thought that the ? was a C and that the a in "Name" was an o, and thus a map-maker in the British Admiralty christened "Cape Nome http://www.visitnomealaska.com/PDF%27s/history-of-nome.pdf Jul 20 10, 2:34 AM

Zbeckabee

The name may also have been given by Nome's founder, Jafet Lindeberg. Within trekking distance of his childhood home in Kvænangen, Norway, there is a Nome valley (norwegian: Nomedalen). In February 1899, some local miners and merchants voted to change the name from Nome to Anvil City, because of the confusion with Cape Nome, 12 miles (19 km) south, and the Nome River, the mouth of which is four miles (6 km) south of Nome. The United States Post Office in Nome refused to accept the change. Fearing a move of the post office to Nome City, a mining camp on the Nome River, the merchants unhappily agreed to change the name of Anvil City back to Nome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nome,_Alaska#Etymology Jul 20 10, 4:44 AM