Several thousand place names in the United States have names of French origin, many deriving from a legacy of past French exploration or political jurisdiction, and others in honor of the American alliance with the French during the American Revolution and the founding of the country (see also New France and French in the United States). Still others were named after early Americans of French (especially Huguenot) ancestry, including Marion, Revere, Fremont, Lanier, Sevier, Macon, and Decatur.
Some places received their names as a consequence of French colonial settlement, such as Baton Rouge, Detroit, New Orleans, and Saint Louis. Nine state capitals are French words or of French origin (Baton Rouge, Boise, Des Moines, Juneau, Montgomery, Montpelier, Pierre, Richmond, and Saint Paul) – not counting Little Rock (the English translation of the original French "La Petite Roche") or Cheyenne (a French rendering of a Lakota word). Fifteen state names are either French words or of French origin (Delaware, New Jersey, Louisiana, Maine, Oregon, and Vermont) or Native American words rendered by French speakers (Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, and Wisconsin).
The suffix "-ville", from the French word for "city", is common in town and city names throughout the United States. Many originally French place names, possibly hundreds, in the Midwest and Upper West were replaced with directly translated English names once American settlers became locally dominant (e.g. La Petite Roche became Little Rock, Baie Verte became Green Bay, and Grandes Fourches became Grand Forks).
Alabama Barbour County (named for James Barbour, 19th-century U.S. Senator from Virginia) Bay Minette (named for a French surveyor with the last name of Minet) Bayou la Batre ("Bayou of the Battery") Belle Fontaine ("Beautiful Fountain") Belle Mina ("belle" meaning beautiful + mina) Bon Air ("good air") Bon Secour ("good rescue") Centreville ("city centre"; note the "-re" spelling, as opposed to "-er") Citronelle (named after the citrus trees) Daphne Dauphin Island (originally named Ile Dauphine after Marie Adélaïde of Savoy, the Dauphine (crown princess) of France in 1711) DeArmanville Decatur (named for Stephen Decatur, U.S. navy officer of French descent) Decatur County (named for Stephen Decatur, U.S. navy officer of French descent) Delchamps (named for a postmaster) Detroit Dozier (d'osier means "of wicker" in French) Fayette County (for Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette) Gasque (named for a state representative) Grand Bay Grande Batture Islands Isle aux Dames ("Island of the Ladies") Isle aux Herbes ("Island of the Herbs") LaFayette (for the Marquis de Lafayette) Lamar County (named for Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, former Confederate officer and U.S. Secretary of the Interior, of French Huguenot descent) Lanett (for a settler named Lanet) Lapine ("rabbit") Le Moyne ("the monk", old spelling) Leroy (le roi, meaning "king") Magnolia (named for the plant, itself named for French botanist Pierre Magnol) Marion (named after Francis Marion, patriot of the American Revolution and of Huguenot ancestry) Mentone (after Menton, France) Mobile (French name for the indigenous Mauvilla tribe) Mobile County Moulton (after a settler) Mon Louis (named for nearby Mon Louis Island, itself named by Nicholas Baudin, Sieur de Miragouin, in honor of his French native city Montlouis-sur-Loire) Ozark Perdue Hill Piedmont Semmes (for Raphael Semmes) Vinemont (from "Vigne Mont", meaning "Grape Mountain")
Alaska Flambeau River Gastineau Channel (for John Gastineau, an English civil engineer and surveyor with a French surname; compare Gatineau, Quebec) Juneau (for Joseph Juneau, a French-Canadian prospector and gold miner) La Chaussée Spit at the entrance of Lituya Bay (named originally in charts prepared by French explorer Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse, in 1786; La Chaussée means "causeway") Mount La Pérouse (3231 m) and La Pérouse Glacier in the Fairweather Range of Alaska, both named after French explorer and naval captain Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse Latouche Island ("the touch") Lemesurier Island Mount Crillon (for Felix-Francois-Dorothee de Bretton, Comte de Crillon)
Arizona Bellemont, Arizona ("beautiful mountain") Chevelon Creek Clemenceau (named after the French prime minister during World War I) Picket Wire (a corruption of the French Purgatoire, "Purgatory") Peridot
Arkansas Arkansas (named by French explorers from an aboriginal word meaning "south wind") Antoine ("Anthony") Aurelle Auvergne (a French region) Barraque Township (named for French émigré Antoine Barraqué) Bauxite, Arkansas Bayou Bayou Meto, Arkansas County, Arkansas Bayou Meto, Lonoke County, Arkansas Beauchamp (fair or beautiful field or plain) Beaudry Belleaire (from "belle aire", beautiful place) Belleville ("beautiful city") Bellefonte (possibly from belle fontaine, "beautiful fountain") Boeuf ("beef") Bonair ("good air") Buie Burdette Cache Cadron ("sun dial") Calumet (the French word for a Native American tobacco pipe) Calvin (for the famous French Protestant John Calvin) Champagnolle (meaning a person from Champagne) Chancel Chicot County (from chicot, "stump") Claude Cloquet Cossatot River ("tomahawk") Dardanelle Darcy DeGray Lake ("sandstone") De Roche ("of the rock") Deberrie Decatur Delaplaine (surname meaning "of the plains") Departee Devue Des Arc ("at the bend") Dumas (French surname, possibly for Alexandre Dumas) Ecore Fabre Fayetteville (named for the Marquis de La Fayette) Fontaine ("fountain", a surname) Fourche ("pitchfork") Fourche Lafave Fourche Valley Francure Frenchman's Bayou Galla Rock (from gallets, meaning "pebbles") Gallatin Glazypeau Mountain (Anglicization of "Glaise à Paul", meaning "Paul's clay pit") Grand Glaise ("Large Clay") Gravette Guion, Arkansas (named for a railroad conductor of French-Canadian descent) La Fave ("bean") La Grue ("the crane") La Grue Springs Lacrosse Ladelle Lafayette County LaGrange ("the barn", possibly referring to the plantation of the Marquis de Lafayette) Lamartine (for French author Alphonse de Lamartine; also a surname) L'Aigle Creek ("the eagle") L'Anguille ("The Eel") Lapile ("a pile"; possibly a surname) Larue ("the street") Latour ("the tower") Lave Creek Levesque ("Bishop", a common French-Canadian surname) L'Eau Frais Creek ("fresh water") Macon (French city Mâcon) Magnolia, Arkansas (named for the plant, itself named for French botanist Pierre Magnol) Marais Saline ("salt marsh") Marche Maumee Maumelle ("breasts") Monette Mont Sandels Montreal ("royal mount") Moreau ("feedbag"; probably a family's proper name) Mount Magazine (from magasin, meaning barn or warehouse) New Gascony (Gascony, France) Ozan, Arkansas Ozark (phonetic rendering of either aux Arks, "of the Ark(ansas)" or aux Arcs, "of the arches", or possibly aux arcs-en-ciel, "of the rainbows") Ozark Mountains, as per immediately above Paris Paroquet Partain Petit Jean ("Little John", named after a French sailor on the Arkansas River) Pollard Prairie County Saline County Sans Souci (literally "without concern") Segur (French city) Sevier County Smackover (Anglicization of chemin couvert, "covered way") Soudan St. Francis County Terre Noire ("black earth") Terre Rouge ("redland" or "red earth") Tollette Tully Urbanette Vallier (French surname) Vaucluse (French region) Vaugine Township (named for 19th-century landowner Francis Vaugine) Vidette Villemont (named for 19th-century landowner Carlos de Villemont) Villemont Township (named for 19th-century landowner Carlos de Villemont)
California Alsace (region in France bordering Germany) Artois (named after Artois, France) Auburn Beaumont Bel Air ("beautiful air") Belfort ("beautiful fort") Belmont ("beautiful mount") Bettravia (betterave, meaning beet) Bijou ("gem") Bonnefoy ("good faith") Bouquet Canyon Butte County Chalfant Claremont ("clear mountain") Concord (from French concorde meaning agreement, harmony, or union) Coutolenc (after a French factory owner) Declezville (after a French factory owner) Delano (after Columbus Delano, a scion of the famous Delano family, originally Huguenots named "De Lannoye") Disneyland (after Walt Disney, a descendant of the Norman family d'Isigny, who resided in Isigny, Normandie, France) Fremont (named for John C. Frémont, American soldier, explorer and politician of French ancestry) Friant (named for a sugar farmer) Gasquet (named for a settler from France) Giraud Peak (named for Pierre Giraud (1874–1907), a French shepherd of Inyo County made famous in Mary Austin's 1906 book The Flock) Guerneville (named for Swiss immigrant George Guerne, a local businessman of the 19th century who owned the town's sawmill) Huron Lafayette (named for the Marquis de La Fayette) La Grange ("the barn", after Lafayette's home in France) La Grange Reservoir La Porte ("the door") La Verne Lebec (le bec, "the beak") Le Grand ("the big") Montague ("pointed hill") Montclair ("clear mountain") Montrose ("rose mountain") Nice (after the city of the same name in France) Nord ("north") Normandie Avenue, a major street in Los Angeles Orleans (after the city of the same name in France) Piedmont (French spelling of the Piedmont region of Italy) Richmond (after the Virginia city of the same name, which itself has French origins) Rubidoux (named for early settler Louis Rubidoux) Mount Rubidoux San Francisco (named after Saint Francis of Assisi, who had received that name because his mother was French or as a tribute to France) Sicard Flat Simmler Vichy Springs (after the city of the same name in France)
Colorado Ault Bellevue ("beautiful sight" or "beautiful view") Berthoud (named for Edward L. Berthoud, a Swiss-born military officer, statesman and engineer in the western United States during the late 19th century) Berthoud Pass and town of Berthoud Bethune (named for Béthune) Bijou Creek (from bijoux meaning "jewel"; possibly also after Joseph Bijeau) Cache La Poudre River ("hide the powder" or "powder cache") Calumet De Beque Florissant ("flowering") Fremont County (for John C. Frémont) Grand County Lafayette Lamar Laporte ("the door"; also a common French-Canadian surname) La Salle ("the room"; also a common French surname) Louisville (for a coal miner) Louviers (after Louviers, by way of the town in Delaware) Lyons (a city in France) Mount Audubon (for French-American naturalist John James Audubon) Montclair ("bright mountain" or "clear mountain") Montrose ("rose-mount") Montrose County North and South Platte Rivers (platte meaning "dull, shallow, flat") Parachute Parachute Creek Platteville Poudre Park ("gunpowder") Purgatoire River St. Vrain Creek (after French-American fur trader Ceran St. Vrain) Sublette Vernon
Connecticut Ballouville Montville Pomfret Landing Vernon Versailles Versailles Pond in New London County
Delaware Delaware named after Lord de la Warre (Anglo-Norman surname originally de la Guerre, meaning "of the war") Bellefonte ("beautiful fountain") Bellevue ("beautiful view") Granogue Guyencourt Magnolia Montchanin
Florida Abbeville Road Amiens Way Antibes Street Avalon Barrineau Park Bayou George Belandville (failed "colony" in northern Santa Rosa County, approximately one mile south of its border with Escambia County, Alabama) Belle Glade ("beautiful" glade) Belle Isle ("beautiful" island) Belleview ("beautiful" view) Belfort Road Belmont Bermont Bordeaux Villages Boulogne (after the city of the same name in France) Brevard County Brittany Cambon Cannes Street Chancey Chantilly Acres Clermont Decatur Avenue Destin ("destiny") Dijon Drive DuBois Park Dupont DuPuis Reserve Duval County (named for William Pope DuVal) Eau Gallie ("rocky water") Eloise Fort Caroline Fontainebleau Frontenac Grenoble Drive Huguenot Lagoon Huguenot Memorial Park Isle of Normandy LaBelle ("the beauty", "the beautiful" or "beautiful woman") LaCrosse Lafayette County (after the Marquis de Lafayette)