Corinth, Mississippi: Cross City Gets a Greek Name

Corinth, Mississippi, started out as Cross City, a name that told you exactly what was there: the crossing of two railroads. A couple of years later, a newspaper editor suggested something grander: the name of the Greek city the WPA guide calls “the Grecian crossroads city.”

Cross City, 1855

The WPA’s 1938 guidebook to Mississippi tells it in two sentences. “In 1855 officers of the Memphis & Charleston R.R. and the Mobile & Ohio R.R. chose this site for the junction of their two lines, giving it the obvious name of Cross City. Two years later the editor of the weekly newspaper suggested that the community change its name to the more imaginative name of Corinth, the Grecian crossroads city.”

So the new name came in 1857. The guide doesn’t name the editor or the paper. If you want more than that, you’ll have to go past this page, because none of the sources found here says who he was.

There’s also a small conflict over the start date. The Geological Survey’s place-name file gives Corinth’s history as “Founded in 1853,” two years before the guide’s railroad junction. The guide’s 1855 is the year it ties to the name Cross City.

Why a Greek name fit

A 1905 Geological Survey bulletin by Henry Gannett keeps it short: Corinth is “named from the ancient city in Greece.” The WPA guide’s phrase for that city, “the Grecian crossroads city,” is what makes the swap clever. In the guide’s telling, the new name kept the crossroads idea and simply dressed it in classical clothes.

The crossing that brought the armies

Being the junction of two lines was good for business and bad in wartime. “When war broke out between the States,” the WPA guide says, “the asset of being the crossing point of two trunk lines became a liability.” Dunbar Rowland’s 1907 encyclopedia of Mississippi lists engagements at Corinth on April 8, May 17 and October 3 and 4, 1862. After Shiloh, the guide says, the Confederates fell back to Corinth, and the Union army later held it for five months.

By Rowland’s time, Corinth sat at the junction of three railroads, the Southern, the Mobile & Ohio and the Mississippi & Alabama. And on the 1950 survey map, you can still find two railroad lines crossing right in the middle of town, which is how it got called Cross City in the first place.

Quick answers

What was Corinth, Mississippi, originally called?

Cross City. The Federal Writers’ Project guide of 1938 says railroad officers chose the site for the junction of the Memphis & Charleston and the Mobile & Ohio in 1855, “giving it the obvious name of Cross City.”

Who named Corinth, Mississippi?

The editor of the town’s weekly newspaper suggested it in 1857, two years after the junction, in the WPA guide’s account. The guide doesn’t give his name.

Is Corinth, Mississippi, named after Corinth in Greece?

Yes. Gannett (1905) says it was “named from the ancient city in Greece,” and the WPA guide calls that city “the Grecian crossroads city.”

Key dates

1. 1855Officers of the Memphis & Charleston and the Mobile & Ohio choose the site for their junction, called Cross City (WPA guide).
2. 1857The editor of the weekly paper suggests the name Corinth.
3. 1862Fighting at Corinth on April 8, May 17 and October 3 and 4 (Rowland).

Getting there

Open Corinth in Google Maps

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• Directions
• Satellite
• Terrain

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

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

Airports

• Tupelo Regional (TUP) 48 mi 77 km
• Jackson Regional (MKL) 51 mi 82 km
• Nashville International (BNA) 132 mi 213 km

Amtrak trains

• Memphis station (MEM) 88 mi 142 km
• Newbern-Dyersburg station (NBN) 91 mi 147 km

Intercity buses

• Greyhound Florence 49 mi 78 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

• Federal Writers’ Project, Mississippi: A Guide to the Magnolia State (1938), pp. 361-362. The 1855 junction and “the obvious name of Cross City”; the editor who suggested “Corinth, the Grecian crossroads city”; the crossing that “became a liability” in the Civil War.
• Henry Gannett, The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States (1905), p. 92. Corinth “named from the ancient city in Greece.”
• Dunbar Rowland, ed., Mississippi, vol. 1 (1907), pp. 565-566. Corinth at the junction of the Southern, Mobile & Ohio and Mississippi & Alabama railroads; engagements of April 8, May 17 and October 3 and 4, 1862.
• GNIS feature 668825 (U.S. Geological Survey). The national names database entry for Corinth, in Alcorn County, with the history line “Founded in 1853.”