Magazine Explains How El Paso and 49 Other Texas Cities Got Their Names

Mental Floss magazine digs a little deeper into the Lone Star State to explain to us how El Paso and 49 other cities in our state got their names.

We'll start with home sweet home, El Chuco. El Paso's name means exactly what it says,  "The Pass". It was originally named El Paso Del Norte, the pass of the north, by explorer Juan De Onate.

As for El Chuco, there are a hundred theories behind that nickname.  The one I've heard most often involves a group of original hipsters called Pachucos.  They wore these really wild, zoot suits and when material for them was scarce, manufacturers would get it from Mexico via El Paso. Which earned El Paso the nickname, Chuco Town or El Chuco.

Here are a few of our closest neighbors, if you want to see the entire list of 50, read the Mental Floss story.

• Laredo: A Spanish military officer named José de Escandón was commissioned to settle the area and named it Laredo, after a town in the Santander province of Spain.

• McAllen: John McAllen was an early settler in the area who joined with his son, James McAllen, to donate land for the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway to cross in order to establish a town along the rail line.

• Waco: Named for the Waco tribe, whose village once rested on the land that now bears its name.

• Midland: Midland began in 1881 as Midway Station, a section house located halfway between two stations on the Texas and Pacific Railway. Because Texas already had towns called Midway, the name was changed in 1884—as many do—to facilitate establishing a post office.

• Austin: Austin’s namesake is Stephen F. Austin, the “founder of Anglo-American Texas.” The city was established as the capital in 1839, when the Republic of Texas was just three years old.