Towns Famous on Screen and the Stories Behind Their Names
Visitors to Virginia City, Nevada, have asked where the Cartwrights are buried, though that family only ever lived on TV’s Bonanza. That’s the pull of the screen: you spend years watching a place, and one day you want to stand in it. In Savannah it’s the square where Forrest Gump sat on his bench. In Albuquerque, locals still celebrate Breaking Bad by visiting businesses that turned up on the show.
The names on these places, though, are almost all older than any camera. You’ll find a Spanish duke and Spanish meadows in the Southwest, a Suquamish leader and a line of Osage chiefs, a Hawaiian name read as “quiet harbor,” a Hebrew word for peace, an English king, and an Irish place hidden in a lord’s title. One town is named for a gulch full of dead trees, and another for the winner of a coin toss. Two go the other way: Hot Springs, New Mexico, took the name of a radio quiz show in 1950, and Berwyn, Oklahoma, became Gene Autry in honor of the singing cowboy.
This page is for you if you’re planning a trip around a favorite movie or series and want the story behind the place itself. Each stop says what the screen connection is, with its source, and links to the full story of the name, so you can check every detail yourself.
How we picked these. A well-known movie or TV series was filmed in the place or is set there, or the place took its name from a show or a screen star, as shown by an official or other reliable source. Each story below lists the source that confirms it.
Essex County, MASalem, Massachusetts, began as Naumkeag. In 1629 newly arrived English settlers renamed it with a Hebrew word meaning "peace."
DocumentedDestination Salem says Hocus Pocus (1993) filmed scenes at Pioneer Village, Old Town Hall and Salem Common. Source: "Hocus Pocus" Filming Locations in Salem, MA (Destination Salem)
Independent city, MDBaltimore, Maryland, carries the Calverts' title, Lord Baltimore, and that title came from a place in Ireland. Which place depends on which book you open.
DocumentedVisit Baltimore says John Waters's 1988 Hairspray features many city neighborhoods, with the Turnblads living near Patterson Park. Source: Baltimore's Role in TV Shows & Movies (Visit Baltimore)
Charleston County, SCFor more than a century, Charleston, South Carolina, was called Charles Town, after King Charles II of England.
DocumentedThe state film commission lists The Notebook and the series Outer Banks among productions filmed in the Charleston region. Source: Charleston Region (South Carolina Film Commission, SCPRT)
Allegheny County, PAFor years, the federal government spelled Pittsburgh without the h. The name itself goes back to 1758 and honors William Pitt, Britain's wartime leader.
DocumentedVisit Pittsburgh lists The Dark Knight Rises and Fences among the films shot on location in and around the city. Source: Filming in Pittsburgh (Visit Pittsburgh)
Chatham County, GASavannah, Georgia, took its name from the river it sits on, and that river's name has two rival explanations.
DisputedVisit Savannah says Forrest Gump made Chippewa Square famous, and the movie's bench is now at the Savannah History Museum. Source: Tour Savannah, GA Movie Locations | Filming Sites Guide (Visit Savannah)
Cuyahoga County, OHCleveland, Ohio, is missing a letter: the surveyor it's named for, Moses Cleaveland, spelled his name with an a.
DocumentedThe house from A Christmas Story stands in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood, and the 1983 movie filmed scenes in its back yard. Source: A Christmas Story House: Home of a Holiday Classic (Cleveland Historical)
Osage County, OKThe first Osage chief called White Hair got his name from a white wig, an old story goes. Pawhuska, Oklahoma, carries that name: Pah-hue-skah.
DocumentedThe state film office says Killers of the Flower Moon was filmed in Osage Nation communities where the events happened, Pawhuska among them. Source: The Historic Impact of "Killers of the Flower Moon" in Oklahoma and the Osage Nation (Oklahoma Film + Music Office)
Carter County, OKBefore it took the name of a singing cowboy in 1941, the little town of Gene Autry, Oklahoma, had already been Lou, Dresden and Berwyn.
DocumentedBerwyn became Gene Autry on November 16, 1941, in honor of the radio and screen singing cowboy star. Source: Historical Notes, Chronicles of Oklahoma, vol. 19, no. 4 (December 1941), p. 400
Travis County, TXAustin, Texas, got its name by law in January 1839, before anyone had picked the spot where the new capital would stand.
DocumentedThe Texas Film Commission's film trail puts Top Notch, the burger stand from Dazed and Confused (1993), in Austin. Source: Top Notch (Texas Film Commission)
Ford County, KSEveryone agrees Dodge City, Kansas, took its name from Fort Dodge. Which Dodge the fort was named for is another story, and the books give two answers.
DisputedTravel Kansas calls Dodge City the primary setting of Gunsmoke, where Marshal Matt Dillon kept the peace. Source: Wild, Wild West: Travel the Gunsmoke Trail (Travel Kansas)
Lawrence County, SDDeadwood, South Dakota, is named after the gulch it sits in, and the gulch got its name from the dead trees the first gold prospectors found there.
DocumentedSmithsonian magazine says HBO's Deadwood, which ended its three-season run in 2006, chronicled the gold-rush town in the late 1800s. Source: See the Real Deadwood (Smithsonian Magazine, May 30, 2019)
Bernalillo County, NMThe governor who founded Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1706 named it for the viceroy, the Duke of Alburquerque, and got scolded for not asking first.
DocumentedVisit Albuquerque says the AMC series Breaking Bad is both set and filmed in Albuquerque. Source: Breaking Bad Filming Locations in Albuquerque (Visit Albuquerque)
Sierra County, NMTruth or Consequences, New Mexico, is named for a radio quiz show. Until 1950 it was Hot Springs, and its voters swapped names on a radio host's offer.
DocumentedHot Springs took the name of Ralph Edwards's radio quiz show in 1950, and the show later had runs on television. Source: Ralph Edwards (Museum of Broadcast Communications)
Clark County, NVEveryone agrees the name of Las Vegas, Nevada, is Spanish for the meadows around its springs. Who first called it that is another matter.
DisputedThe Nevada Film Office points to a Neon Museum tour of spots where Hollywood filmed scenes, from Casino (1995) to Vegas Vacation (1997). Source: Scene in Nevada (Nevada Film Office)
Storey County, NVVirginia 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.
DocumentedKUNR says Virginia City was practically a main character on Bonanza (1959), with its name mentioned in almost every episode. Source: Virginia City: Before Nevada Became a State (KUNR Public Radio)
King County, WALong before Seattle got its name from Chief Seattle, a trader at Fort Nisqually was writing the chief's name as "See yat."
DocumentedVisit Seattle points to the Lake Union houseboats as the setting for Tom Hanks's home in Sleepless in Seattle. Source: Seattle on Screen (Visit Seattle)
Multnomah County, ORPortland, Oregon, came close to being called Boston: in 1845 its two owners couldn't agree on a name, so they tossed a copper cent, and Portland won.
DocumentedTravel Oregon's Portlandia tour follows a sketch show whose crew crisscrossed the city over six years. Source: Oregon Film Tour: "Portlandia" (Travel Oregon)
Honolulu County, HIA captain who sailed into Honolulu's harbor in 1794 called it Fair Haven, and that's just how early scholars translated the Hawaiian name Honolulu.
DocumentedFilming of the original Hawaii Five-O began in Honolulu in November 1967, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported. Source: Flashback: 'Five-0' at four-0 (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, September 1, 2008)
Sources for this page
- Virginia City: Before Nevada Became a State (KUNR Public Radio) (accessed Oct 31, 2026)
- Tour Savannah, GA Movie Locations | Filming Sites Guide (Visit Savannah) (accessed Oct 31, 2026)
- "Breaking Bad" Filming Locations You Can Visit (Visit Albuquerque) (accessed Oct 31, 2026)