How Things Got Their Name

Written By:  Andrew Eide

It is often amusing to find out how some items got their name.

For instance we use the term movie today to mean a story presented to us on television or a theater. When the concept of pictures which moved, rather than still photography, first came out they were called moving pictures. Over the years people shortened the term to movies which is where we got our term for today.

One of my favorites comes from a town in my home State of California. The name of this town is Coalinga and it is located about 175 miles southeast of San Francisco and about 40 miles southwest of Fresno.

Back in the days of steam powered locomotives the trains had to stop to load up with coal to fire the steam locomotive and water to place into the boiler to heat up to make steam to drive the train. Since coal was the source for firing the boilers in the locomotives these stations were called Coaling Stations.

During the initial preparation of these coaling stations they were called the following:  Coaling Station A…Coaling Station B…Coaling Station C…and this went down the alphabet until they were done naming the coaling stations along the railroad line.

Over the years people started to shorten the names of the coaling stations. Instead of using their long names they started calling the stations:  Coaling A…Coaling B…Coaling C…and down the alphabet until they reached the last station.

Then along came diesel locomotives which no longer needed coal and water to run. So the coaling stations along the railroad line were closed. However, the place where Coaling Station A (i.e., Coaling A) was located retained the name of the coaling station as the name of their town. Coaling Station A became Coaling A and then it finally came to be called Coalinga. Therefore to this date we have a town with the name of Coalinga which is a reminder of the history of rail travel in the State of California.