The Hamptons have become a world-class resort. But there is no official place called Hamptons. It is just the collective name given to an area where some of the villages have the word “Hampton” in them. Southampton. Westhampton. Bridgehampton. East Hampton. All historic towns founded by the British settlers in the 17th century. Oddly, all those Hamptons and the other villages not named Hamptons are located on a peninsula named the South Fork.

Over the years, many of the villages in this area not named a Hampton have attempted to change their names to villages that have that word in it. Some have succeeded. Some not. And among those that didn’t succeed were some that, though disappointed, changed their names to something else anyway.

Consider the village of Laurel. It’s on the North Fork. There today. The North Fork is north of the South Fork, but has nothing named a Hampton in it. Furthermore, the North Fork doesn’t want the word Hampton anywhere in it. North Fork is a quiet farming area. It would be horrified to have a slam-dunk whoop-dee-doo Hampton in it.

Turns out, Laurel was initially known as Franklinville. Named that in honor of Benjamin Franklin around 1799. But then, in 1898, when the local farmers wanted their own post office, it was found that there was already a Franklinville in upstate New York. The upstate Franklinville had beat them to it. So you couldn’t have a second Franklinville. Not officially anyway. Choose another name. The farmers kicked several names around. (One name considered was “Hampton.”) And then they voted. The winner was Laurel, so Franklinville is now Laurel.

In 1895, a group of wealthy New Yorkers who’d built summer homes in Shinnecock Hills thought to change the name Shinnecock Hills to “Hampton Hills.” They proposed such a change. But the state of New York, which approves name changes, told them a name change could only happen if a majority of the residents living year-round in a community signed a petition wanting to do it. There was nobody living year-round in Shinnecock Hills that anybody could think of, but then, someone remembered Mr. Terwilliger who lived above the railroad station in Shinnecock Hills year-round. He forwarded everybody’s mail in the wintertime. Surely he’d agree to make the change. So the summer people went to see him and asked him.

In 1740, on the South Fork in the Hamptons, some farmers decided to name a place just west of Southampton “Good Ground” because the soil there was especially good for farming. However, in 1922, businessmen, noting the rising popularity of the name “Hamptons” decided to change its name to “Hampton Bays.” So they did that. But still one of the tallest buildings in town has the name “Good Ground” carved in concrete on its eaves high up near the top.