Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 92, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1917 — How Beloit Received Its Name. [ARTICLE]

How Beloit Received Its Name.

The significance of the name of a city is commonly not difficult to discover. Beloit, Wls., than which no city has a pleasanter name, affords the rare example of a city name manufactured to order, and having no linguistic or other significance. According fo'the recollections of one of the founders of the town, which have recently been presented to the Wisconsin Historical society, the first settler in 1836 named the place “New Albany.” A few months later a meeting of the settlers was held to select a better name for the future city. Several having been proposed and rejected, it was finally agreed “to place the alphabet in a hat and see if we could not get a combination ofi letters that would, give us a name that would be a new one.” While engaged in this, one of the settlers trying to sound a French word meaning “handsome ground” uttered the sound “bellotte.’’ Another settler immediately modified this to “Beloit,” which was considered “like Detroit in sound and pretty and original.” So the newly coined name was adopted., and-by it . “New. Albany.” has ever since been known.—Wisconsin History Bulletin.