Ghost Tour Towns in America and How They Got Their Names

10 storiesChecked Nov 6, 2026
An empty cobblestone street with rail tracks at early morning, lined by old brick buildings and big trees, on River Street in Savannah, Georgia, one of the ghost tour towns on this page.
River Street in Savannah, March 2017. The town took its name from the river below it. Photo: Seasider53, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).

Ever walked a ghost tour by lantern light and caught yourself wondering about the name on the welcome sign? The guide tells you who’s said to walk the halls of the old house on the corner. This page tells you the other half of the story: how each of these ghost tour towns got its name.

The ten ghost tour towns here start with some of the oldest names on this site. St. Augustine, Florida, took its name off the Catholic calendar in 1565, when a Spanish fleet reached the coast on the saint’s feast day. Salem, Massachusetts, was Naumkeag until 1629, when English settlers renamed it with a Hebrew word meaning “peace.” Charleston, Williamsburg and New Orleans were all named for men who ruled from across the ocean: two English kings and the regent of France.

Two of the names are still argued over. Savannah, Georgia, is named for its river, and nobody has settled whether the river was named for a Native people or for a Spanish word for grassland. Key West, Florida, may come from Cayo Hueso, Spanish for bone island, or just from its spot at the west end of the keys.

The last three come from the mining West. Virginia City, Nevada, carries the nickname of a miner from Virginia. Deadwood, South Dakota, is named for the dead trees that choked its gulch. And Tombstone, Arizona, the youngest name here, comes from a warning that the only stone Ed Schieffelin would find was his own tombstone. He found silver instead. The list runs roughly in order of when each name shows up in the record.

You won’t find ghost stories on this page. You can’t check a haunting in an old book, so we stick to the names. If you’d like the spooky side too, each town has a button to a local ghost tour. Those buttons are marked Sponsored: we may earn a commission if you book, and it never changes what we write about a name.

How we picked these. The town has a ghost tour run by US Ghost Adventures (we checked each tour page on November 6, 2026), and its name story is on this site, told from historical sources. We don't check hauntings, so the notes below are only about the names. Each story below lists the source that confirms it.

  1. St. Johns County, FL

    St. Augustine, Florida: A Name Off the Calendar in 1565

    The Spanish fleet that founded St. Augustine, Florida, reached the coast on August 28, 1565. On the Catholic calendar, that was St. Augustine's day.

    Documented

    The Spanish fleet reached the coast on August 28, 1565, the feast day of St. Augustine on the Catholic calendar, and the new settlement took the saint's name. Source: George R. Fairbanks, The History and Antiquities of the City of St. Augustine, Florida (1858), pp. 17-19

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  2. Essex County, MA

    Salem, Massachusetts: How Naumkeag Became a Word for Peace

    Salem, Massachusetts, began as Naumkeag. In 1629 newly arrived English settlers renamed it with a Hebrew word meaning "peace."

    Documented

    English settlers renamed Naumkeag in 1629 with "a Hebrew word, meaning peace." One letter from that year uses both names: "Nehumkek, now Salem." Source: John Warner Barber, Historical Collections ... of Every Town in Massachusetts (1839), pp. 218-219

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  3. Charleston County, SC

    Charleston, South Carolina: Charles Town Until 1783

    For more than a century, Charleston, South Carolina, was called Charles Town, after King Charles II of England.

    Documented

    It "was originally called Charles Town, in honor of Charles II of England," a 1905 federal list of place names says. The one-word spelling came later. Source: Henry Gannett, The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States, 2nd ed. (USGS Bulletin 258, 1905), p. 76

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  4. Independent city, VA

    How Williamsburg, Virginia Got Its Name From King William

    Williamsburg, Virginia, spent over 60 years as Middle Plantation, until the capital moved there from Jamestown and the town was renamed for King William.

    Documented

    First called Middle Plantation. When Virginia's capital moved there from Jamestown, it was "newly named Williamsburg, after the reigning monarch, King William." Source: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Williamsburg, the Old Colonial Capital (1907), pp. 10, 19-21

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  5. Orleans Parish, LA

    New Orleans, Louisiana: The City Named for France's Regent

    New Orleans had a storekeeper before it had a store: in October 1717, France appointed one for a post still to be built at a place called New Orleans.

    Documented

    French officials were using the name New Orleans by October 1, 1717, before the town was built. It honored the Duke of Orléans, then ruling France as regent. Source: Marc de Villiers, Histoire de la fondation de la Nouvelle-Orléans (1717-1722) (1917), pp. 17-22

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  6. Chatham County, GA

    Savannah, Georgia: A River Name With Two Rival Roots

    Savannah, Georgia, took its name from the river it sits on, and that river's name has two rival explanations.

    Disputed

    Named for its river. A 1910 handbook says the river "takes its name from this tribe," the Shawnee, once called Savannahs. Another old view points to a Spanish word for grassland. Source: Frederick Webb Hodge, ed., Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, part 2 (Bureau of American Ethnology, 1910), pp. 532-533

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  7. Monroe County, FL

    Key West, Florida: Bone Island or Just a Key to the West?

    Key West, Florida, may owe its name to a Spanish word for bones, or just to its spot at the west end of the keys. A 1912 history says no record settles it.

    Disputed

    Maybe an English take on the Spanish Cayo Hueso, "bone island," or maybe just the key at the west end. A 1912 history says "there is no authentic record" either way. Source: Jefferson B. Browne, Key West: The Old and the New (1912), chapter I, pp. 7-9

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  8. Storey County, NV

    Virginia City, Nevada: Old Virginia and the Broken Bottle

    Virginia City, Nevada, is named for a miner called Old Virginia, and Henry Comstock said the man christened it by falling and breaking his whiskey bottle.

    Documented

    Named in 1859 for James Fennimore, a miner the others called Old Virginia. The tale that he christened it by breaking his bottle goes back to Henry Comstock. Source: Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 (1890), pp. 99, 106, 108

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  9. Lawrence County, SD

    How Deadwood, South Dakota Got Its Name

    Deadwood, South Dakota, took its name from its gulch, which was so choked with fallen dead timber that later miners had to clear it before they could work.

    Documented

    The town took the name of its gulch, and the gulch was named for the dead timber that filled it. It got the name "because of the many dead trees the first prospectors found" there. Source: W. H. Stennett, A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways (1908), p. 21

    Sponsored Ghost tours in Deadwood

  10. Cochise County, AZ

    Tombstone, Arizona: Named for a Grim Prospecting Warning

    Ed Schieffelin was told the only stone he'd find in the hills of Tombstone, Arizona, would be his tombstone. He found silver and named his claim Tombstone.

    Documented

    Ed Schieffelin was told the only stone he'd find in those hills would be his tombstone. He found silver instead and named his claim the Tombstone. Source: James H. McClintock, Arizona: Prehistoric, Aboriginal, Pioneer, Modern, vol. 2 (1916), pp. 410, 505-506

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