What’s in a name? Demystifying UConn’s ‘town’ name 

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” That’s a famous line uttered by the titular Juliet in William Shakespeare’s classic drama “Romeo and Juliet”, but it has me thinking about another type of name: what we call the communities we live, work and frequent here in Connecticut. 

I was actually inspired to tackle this topic because of a video that popped up while browsing social media. A creator, who claimed to have grown up in Connecticut, was commenting that there are “fake towns” that she’d never heard of. I too am guilty of wondering “Where is that?” when hearing of a new place name, so let’s see if we can break it down. 

According to the State of Connecticut, there are nine councils of government (planning regions), eight traditional counties and 169 municipalities (cities and towns). However, over the course of history, towns merged and split and other communities popped up and died out. Sometimes, these names are still used locally or, for example, may be the name of a street or a community feature. 

We also don’t have county-level government anymore, since the planning regions do sometimes take on that responsibility. The municipality is, practically speaking, the lowest form of government in our state. Other states have “villages” with their own governmental structures, but “boroughs” fulfill that role in Connecticut. The term “village” usually refers to unincorporated places, or “neighborhoods,” in Connecticut. 

The University of Connecticut actually allows us to discuss a great example. Our school is located in the town of Mansfield, but chances are you’ve heard that UConn is in “Storrs, Connecticut.” What if I told you there was more to that place name? 

Mansfield was named after a prominent Connecticut colony lieutenant, Major Moses Mansfield, when the town of Windham decided to split the large community in two in 1702. Originally, the greater area was named “ponde-place,” after being purchased from the Mohegan Tribe in 1675. 

The Storrs family originated in Nottinghamshire, England and emigrated to Barnstable, Massachusetts on Cape Cod circa 1663, according to the UConn Archives. In 1698, patriarch Samuel Storrs established the family farm in Mansfield, eventually leading to his descendants Charles and Augustus Storrs founding the Connecticut Agricultural College on the land in 1881. 

By this time, a number of neighborhoods had developed in the town and nearby, usually motivated by the acceleration of local industries. Conantville, named after mill owner Joseph Conant, is in the area now anchored by the East Brook Mall — and lends its name to a few streets and a brook. Similarly, Eagleville on the eastern border with Coventry was also home to a mill and even a railroad station. You may recognize the name in modern-day usage in North and South Eagleville Road(s) directly adjacent to campus, and in the name of pond and forest areas there. 

Because the Storrs family homestead was so expansive, and later the college was founded prominently by the Storrs brothers, the area of Mansfield home to our campus became known as “Storrsville.” 

In fact, Mansfield has had a handful of other historical neighborhoods over the years, like “Atwoodville,” “Chaffeeville,” “Gurleyville,” “Hanks Hill,” “Mansfield City,” “Merrow,” “Mount Hope,” “Perkins Corner,” “Spring Hill” and “Wormwood Hill.” However, people rarely use these names outside of historical discussion, save for a couple you may have heard of including “Mansfield Center,” “Mansfield Four Corners,” “Mansfield Depot” and “Mansfield Hollow.” These communities, all across the state, were small and didn’t have their own governments — but some had their own, small post offices giving some credence to the names. 

As history marched on, the post offices consolidated and the two largest communities in the town of Mansfield emerged: Storrsville and Mansfield Center. When it came to usage, people most often stated they lived in these two “villages” or generally in Mansfield. Folks started to shorten “Storrsville” to “Storrsv.” and simply “Storrs” on letters, homemade maps and other ephemera, causing the family’s name to stick in consciousness, but not as the official place name. 

Are there any authorities on the subject? When dealing with an incorporated place, it’s usually pretty easy, but when a village or other unincorporated place is at bat, it gets a little trickier. There are three main federal agencies that survey and map US geography: the United States Postal Service, the United States Census Bureau and the United States Geological Survey. Each receives input from local and state governments, and for the most part, everyone is in agreement about the borders and names of places — but not always. 

The census, for example, calculates the population for statistical purposes. If enough people live within an unincorporated place to be statistically relevant, the USCB creates a “census-designated place,” or CDP, to categorize them. Connecticut has 185 CDPs according to the USCB’s webpage, some of which share names with nearby and co-extensive incorporated places. We do see “Storrs CDP,” and while the polygonal geography covers most of the campus plus some limited residential areas, it doesn’t extend very far. On that list, we also see “Mansfield Center CDP,” and there’s “Fairfield University CDP“, “Quinnipiac University CDP” and “Sacred Heart University CDP” — similar statistical areas for other college towns. 

The USCB admits that that CDPs and related statistical entities have no legal function, and oftentimes do not align with local usage, making them unsuitable for official naming purposes. If we relied exclusively on census data, we’d have to say that the Bobcats play in “Quinnipiac University CDP, Connecticut” rather than Hamden. Also, CDPs aren’t supposed to have the same names as incorporated places, even though instances of this are numerous in Connecticut — like the town of East Hampton and “East Hampton CDP” within it, further calling the usefulness of the census data into question. 

The postal system, on the other hand, has boundaries for all populated areas regardless of incorporation status. This is also one reason why so many historical names stick around — multiple post offices may service a single town, and they use a locally-established name to differentiate the areas. This is the case for the two postal regions here in Mansfield: “Mansfield Center,” with the ZIP code 06250, and “Storrs-Mansfield,” with 06268 and 06269. 

The northern side of Mansfield, including all of the UConn campus, is officially called “Storrs-Mansfield.” Over time, people started to refer to the whole town of Mansfield or those historical villages as part of “Storrsville,” “Storrs” or even “UConn, Connecticut,” and vice versa. Sometimes, people would even refer to parts of other towns like Windham and Coventry as being part too. Therefore, the USPS decided to standardize things by re-naming the community after two commonly used names: “Storrs” and “Mansfield”. 

It was a fair compromise, and it isn’t too clunky to say or write — and it’s one that the Town of Mansfield government supports through their continued official use of these two village names. The postal boundary more accurately represents what the local citizens convey, by design. 

The USGS, another federal agency concerned with geography, mainly deals with natural and geological features like mountains, lakes and forests. They also take into account local and historical usage of place names when naming these features, like the “Spring Hill Tract” for example. 

So, there we have it. The University of Connecticut is definitively located in the town of Mansfield, in the village of Storrs-Mansfield, in Tolland County within the State of Connecticut. 

In reality, no one will get upset if you call our community “Storrs” — it’s quite common, even if unofficial. There isn’t anything stopping you from saying “Storrsville” either, but students and residents should use the official name of Storrs-Mansfield for government use and for any mail, even for campus addresses. 

Similar stories exist for many other places nationwide, especially here in New England. The Connecticut town of Killingworth in Middlesex County was originally named after Kenilworth, England, but over time, the pronunciation and spelling morphed it. Many places were named after English and Dutch locations — New London, anyone? Sometimes, place names were versions of indigenous names, like Norwalk from the Mohegan and Pequot’s Algonquin word “noyank”, meaning “point of land” — even Connecticut comes from their word “quinnetuket” for “long tidal river.” 

If dear readers would like me to dive into other great Connecticut town naming mysteries, write in! If you’re interested in the history of our school, the UConn Historical Society explores a variety of records, photographs and more — it’s a real form of archaeology. There are also a number of resources in the UConn Library Archives — portions of the research for this article were conducted using elements of their extensive prior work. Information on the Storrs family was also extracted from genealogical records courtesy of the Godfrey Memorial Library. 

Next time someone asks about one of those “fake towns” in Connecticut, or you see a place name you don’t yet recognize, hopefully this article will help inspire where some of those names originated. Personally, I enjoy our village of Storrs-Mansfield, and I hope you do too. See you again next week — until then, I’m going back “Under the Rock.”