Corbin, Kentucky: A Town Named for a Middle Name

Corbin, Kentucky, is a middle name, and in 1964 a 94-year-old man named James Corbin Floyd could still say the town was “my middle name.” The post office took that name in 1885, but the old accounts don’t agree on who Floyd was when it happened.

The L&N comes through Lynn Camp

For a long time there wasn’t much here. The Federal Writers’ Project guide to Kentucky, published in 1939, says the land “remained little more than a wilderness until 1883 when the main line of the L. & N. R.R. was built.” By the time the guide’s writers came through, Corbin was “a busy railroad center” and one of the three major supply points of the Louisville and Nashville system.

The first name to stick didn’t last. Robert M. Rennick’s Kentucky Place Names (1984) says a post office opened on July 24, 1883, set up by storekeeper James Eaton, and it was called Cummins for the town’s proprietor. The Kentucky Encyclopedia (1992) calls the place Lynn Camp Station before the change, after the creek you’ll find drawn right through town on the 1890 survey map.

Eaton picks a middle name

On January 2, 1885, Eaton renamed the post office, and the name he picked was Corbin. Rennick says it honored the Rev. James Corbin Floyd, “a minister of the local Christian Church, whom he held in high regard.” Eaton was also the L&N’s local agent, Rennick adds. The encyclopedia says the station changed names too: it “was renamed in honor of the Rev. James Corbin Floyd, a local minister.”

That’s the version in the reference books. Rennick and the encyclopedia were read here as short search excerpts, not full pages, so the wording above is all of theirs this article relies on.

The man who was still around in 1964

Then there’s the newspaper story. In October 1964, a short item datelined Corbin ran in the East Liverpool Review, an Ohio paper:

“There’s an elderly man who can truthfully say this southeastern Kentucky town is ‘my middle name.’ He is James Corbin Floyd, 94.”

The same item gives a different story. “The local fathers, the story goes, were searching around for a name and discarded several suggestions. Then a clergyman suggested they name it after a young relative of his, and they did, taking his middle name.” If Floyd was 94 in 1964, he’d have been a teenager in 1885, which fits a young relative better than a minister. But the paper says “the story goes,” and it doesn’t name the clergyman, so you can’t settle it from that page alone. Both versions agree on the part that matters for the map: the town carries Floyd’s middle name.

The item adds one more detail. Floyd had just been the featured guest at the town’s annual festival, the Nibroc Festival. Read that festival name backward and you’ll see what the town did with its own name.

Quick answers

Whose name does Corbin, Kentucky, carry?

James Corbin Floyd. Rennick’s Kentucky Place Names and The Kentucky Encyclopedia call him a local minister, while a 1964 newspaper item says a clergyman suggested naming the town for a young relative of his.

What was Corbin called before 1885?

The post office opened in 1883 as Cummins, named for the town’s proprietor, according to Rennick. The Kentucky Encyclopedia calls the station Lynn Camp Station.

Why is Corbin a railroad town?

The Louisville and Nashville main line came through in 1883. The 1939 WPA guide calls Corbin “a busy railroad center” and one of the railroad’s three major supply points.

Key dates

1. 1883The Louisville and Nashville main line is built through the site, and on July 24 a post office called Cummins opens.
2. 1885January 2: the post office is renamed Corbin, for James Corbin Floyd.
3. 1964James Corbin Floyd, 94, is a guest at the town's Nibroc Festival.

Getting there

Open Corbin in Google Maps

• Map
• Directions
• Satellite
• Terrain

Opens in a new tab. The pin is the center of Corbin in the USGS place-name record.

The closest airports, Amtrak stations and intercity bus stops, measured in a straight line from the center of Corbin.

Airports

• McGhee Tyson (TYS) Alcoa 79 mi 127 km
• Blue Grass (LEX) Lexington 80 mi 129 km
• Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG) Hebron 148 mi 239 km

Intercity buses

• Greyhound London Burger King 11 mi 18 km

Distances are as the crow flies, not by road. We don't list schedules or fares because they change; check with the airline, Amtrak or the bus company before you go. Official data (FAA commercial service airports (2025), FAA airport locations, Amtrak stations and Intercity Bus Atlas) from the FAA and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, checked Nov 6, 2026.

Historical Sources & References

• Robert M. Rennick, Kentucky Place Names (1984). The Cummins post office of July 24, 1883, opened by storekeeper James Eaton; the renaming of January 2, 1885, for “Rev. James Corbin Floyd, a minister of the local Christian Church”; Eaton as the L&N’s local agent. Read as short search excerpts.
• “My Middle Name,” East Liverpool Review, October 7, 1964. James Corbin Floyd, 94, and the story of a clergyman who suggested naming the town after “a young relative of his”; Floyd at the Nibroc Festival; read in the full scanned page.
• The Kentucky Encyclopedia (1992). Lynn Camp Station “renamed in honor of the Rev. James Corbin Floyd, a local minister.” Read as a search excerpt.
• Federal Writers’ Project, Kentucky: A Guide to the Bluegrass State (1939). Corbin as “a busy railroad center,” the L&N main line of 1883 and the town’s place as one of the system’s three major supply points.
• GNIS feature 511536 (U.S. Geological Survey). The USGS entry for Corbin, in Whitley County.