How about Jackson, Florida

[reednavy]

^^I agree Lake. I have heard others argue this as well. What about Nashville? the "ville" doesnt seem to hold them back.

I mean nevermind Nashville is 602,000 strong...

[Adam W]

It's not the name "Jacksonville" that is holding this community back.  At a bird's eye level, it's our overall will to fully embrace creativity and innovation within a compact setting.

I agree. The city can be whatever we want it to be. And Jacksonville can be THE "ville." Or at least a ville to rival Nashville.

[blizz01]

Ville de Montreal does't sound very backwoods....Do the Spanish rednecks live in Seville?  Amityville is my favorite...

[sandyshoes]

I had always thought "ville" was short for village.  Anyway, I'm for keeping it "Jacksonville"...if we're so proud of our heritage, doesn't that include our name?  Wasn't it Jacksonville that was rebuilt after the Great Fire?  I wouldn't want to call it anything else...except maybe nickname it DeVille (after the Jaguars' mascot!) instead of "bold new city of the south" or whatever it is, now. 

[blizz01]

I like the edginess of JAX....

[JaxJag]

I strongly dislike the ville at the end, and dislike only "jackson" just as much 
Im for renaming if it werent for having to change every sign, name (Jacksonville Jaguars), etc.
and what about the name recognition?

[blizz01]

Again, all signs point to "Jax".   

[Debbie Thompson]

When Isaiah Hart laid out the town and named it after Andrew Jackson, it was a "ville" if you want to say "ville" pertains to small.  The population was about 100 at the time.  Who knew at the time it would become a large city?  Other river towns along the St. Johns have not grown to the same degree.

The real question is why it's named that instead of Wacca Pilatka, Cowford, Fort Caroline or Hogansville after Lewis Hogans.   I guess if you plat the town, you get to pick the name.   

The fact there is another town named Jackson is pretty meaningless.  There are cities named Miami, Orlando and Jacksonville in at least a half dozen other states.

[TheCat]

Reminds me of corporations who have bad reputations and spend their multiples of millions to rebrand but never change their actual behavior. Now, they have two names with a negative association. One, is sufficient, no?It's not the name that makes a city it's the city that makes the name.

New York, implies exactly that, a new York. Not refined. Not developed. Just created. Etc. I doubt anyone looks at New York and thinks "Well, why are they still calling themselves "new"? This is hardly accurate! It is time to go to Greenland where location names make sense!"

If we were called New Jackson I suppose we would be having a discussion about how "new" diminishes our history and belittles our heritage...

If we ever get to the point where our city wants to spend millions on finding a new name, that will be my last straw. To me, it will symbolize a total lack of articulated intelligent leadership. And, I just don't have the stomach to watch our local advertising agencies drooling at the prospect of making a cool million by having a series of superficial brainstorm meetings,

"So, what do you guys think of Jacksonia...?"
"I like it but it reminds of Estonia and I don't know much about Estonia but it feels  poor."
"What about Newer York?"
"Yeah, that makes a lot of sense."

Besides, we live in the age of irony. The "ville" should be embraced.

[finehoe]

It's not the name that makes a city it's the city that makes the name.

That pretty much says it all.

[Adam W]

I have a friend who wishes Isaiah D Hart had named the city Hart City after himself - so the football team could be the Hart City Breakers.

I think that is way better than the Jaguars. So I'm happy to support Hart City as a second choice. But I like the name Jacksonville.

[Jason]

Why couldn't we do something similar to our friend to the north, The Bronx.  I wouldn't mind seeing "Welcom to The Jax" on our interstate billboards and "The Jax Jaguars" playing on Monday Night Football....   


I think I share the same sentiment with many others here.  Jacksonville is a great name and changing it would be a negative.  Still, if we are one of only two major cities with the ville in our name it makes us unique and we should be able to use that to our advantage.  Hell, who knows if having the "ville" will be trendy again one day.  Also, the "ville" fits us because we are a little big city. 

[I-10east]

SMH at this thread. *sigh*

I-10east, if "smh" means "saddens my heart", fear not, as you will find in my post no denigrating effort on my part regarding our wonderful city on the river, but only a discussion about certain principles which I find interesting, and which might have subtle pressures upon images of our city, as might exist in its name.

Nope, it means "shaking my head". In a sense, you hit the nail on the head, with 'sadden my heart'. It does sadden my heart to think that some people have such an inferiority complex about this city, that they will consider the drastic actions in changing the name of it. No offense, I'm just really tired of these 'Lets change the name of the city" threads, this has got to be atleast the fifth one. Most cities NEVER change their name, and even the very rare occasion that it does happen, it's at the pace of a drunk snail, it's like epochal. What's the city that relatively changed their name what, Mumbai, from Bombay, because of cultural reasons? So changing the name of not only Jacksonville, but ANY city, will basically fall on deaf ears. It's safe to say that in our lifetimes, we will never see no name change to Jax, I don't think that I'm going out on a limb with that. The name of the city is Jacksonville, can we please move on?

[L.P. Hovercraft]

I think I share the same sentiment with many others here.  Jacksonville is a great name and changing it would be a negative.  Still, if we are one of only two major cities with the ville in our name it makes us unique and we should be able to use that to our advantage.  Hell, who knows if having the "ville" will be trendy again one day.  Also, the "ville" fits us because we are a little big city. 

Agreed.  I kind of like the "ville" in our little big city's name--it gives off a bit of a romantic and rustic Continental vibe that this Francophile personally finds appealing. 

And we always coulda been stuck with something like "Jacksonburgh" or worse.

[BridgeTroll]

If we ever get to the point where our city wants to spend millions on finding a new name, that will be my last straw. To me, it will symbolize a total lack of articulated intelligent leadership. And, I just don't have the stomach to watch our local advertising agencies drooling at the prospect of making a cool million by having a series of superficial brainstorm meetings,

+ 1000!!