Dare County places have some curious and peculiar names

Beginning in 1874, the United States Life-Saving Service began building stations along the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Dare County’s history is peppered with great stories about the surfmen who were dedicated to the mission: “to save lives in peril from the sea.”

Among the original group of stations were structures at places named Kinnakeet, Chicamacomico (a six-syllable word), Kitty Hawk and Nags Head.

 

Some of the town names go back to the Algonquin-speaking tribes of Native Americans who were here first. 

For starters, Kinnakeet is an Algonquian word meaning “that which is mixed.” This was a perfect description for several settlements that became bunched into one community. The place was renamed as Avon by the U.S. Post Office in 1883. Perhaps the name came from River Avon in England. 

Chicamacomico is an Algonquian word meaning “sinking down sand.” That doesn’t sound good, but the community’s still here, although known today as Rodanthe. Again, postal authorities are to blame, as Chicamacomico was even harder to pronounce or spell than Kinnakeet. No one seems to remember where the name Rodanthe came from, but no matter. 

Author Nicholas Sparks popularized the place. He published “Nights in Rodanthe,” a romantic novel, in 2002. He remarked that “Rodanthe looks wonderful on the page and conjures up a mixture of mystery and sensuality.” 

Kitty Hawk was the originally Chickenhauk, derived from the native Algonquian word meaning “a place to hunt geese.”

 

The name Kill Devil Hills originated many years ago when sailing ships, transporting rum from the tropics to markets in the north, would wreck along The Outer Banks coast. Their cargo would wash up onto the sand hills as “gifts from the sea” to the local population who said that the rum was strong enough “to kill the devil.”

 

Donna Campbell Smith, a freelance journalist living in Franklinton, N.C., said the name Nags Head came from pirates who would lure sailing ships into shallow waters where they would run aground. 

Horses on shore were led up and down the beach. Each carried a lantern that was strapped around the horse’s neck, swaying as it walked along. Their glowing light would deceive ship watchmen who would call out, “Ship to the starboard!” 

Smith wrote: “The sight of ‘another vessel’ gave the appearance that the captain was in safe waters. The captain’s relief was nullified when the ship shuddered and groaned to a stop. It had run aground – doomed by the nag’s head.” 

Pirates would then salvage the cargo that washed ashore, Smith said. Goods were carted to the pirates’ lairs in the sounds and loaded onto pirate ships that traveled up the rivers and creeks and peddled to colonial merchants on the mainland.

 

“Word spread back to Europe about the pirates’ ruse,” she said. “As sailors were about to embark on a voyage they were warned, ‘Beware of the nag’s head.’ Soon that area of the Outer Banks became known as Nags Head. The name stuck, and the area is now one of the world’s most popular resort areas.”

 

Ironically, the two settlements on Roanoke Island are named after a pair Native Americans – Manteo and Wanchese – who interacted with Englishman John White, governor of “The Lost Colony.” 

Although the communities of Manteo and Wanchese share an island, their personalities are distinctly different. Manteo is a real town with shops. Wanchese, on the other hand, is a village. People here don’t have time to shop; they’re too busy fishing and tending their workboats.