This is a list of Alaska borough and census area name etymologies:

Map of Alaska boroughs and census areas

• Aleutians East Borough: Aleutians East Borough is named for its location in the eastern part of the Aleutian Islands. Aleutian may be from the Chukchi language word aliat, meaning island.
• Aleutians West Census Area: Aleutians West Census Area is named for its location in the western part of the Aleutian Islands. Aleutian may be from the Chukchi language word aliat, meaning island.
• Anchorage Municipality: Anchorage is named for its being a place where ships anchored in Cook Inlet, which is relatively calm compared to the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean.
• Bethel Census Area, Alaska: Bethel Census Area is named for the city of Bethel, Alaska.
• Bristol Bay Borough, Alaska: Bristol Bay Borough is named for Bristol Bay, also called Iilgayaq Bay .
• Denali Borough, Alaska: Denali is named for Denali, which is the tallest mountain in North America and is better known outside of Alaska as Mount McKinley. Denali means the great one in the Athabascan language.
• Dillingham Census Area, Alaska: Dillingham Census Area is named for Dillingham, Alaska, which was in turn named for William Paul Dillingham , an U.S. Senator from Vermont.
• Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska: Fairbanks North Star is named for the city of Fairbanks, Alaska (which is named in turn for Charles Warren Fairbanks, the 26th vice president of the United States) and Polaris, the North Star. The entire name of the borough was the result of a 1963 contest to name the new borough. Eleven schoolchildren chose the name North Star Borough, and the Alaska State Assembly later amended the name to include Fairbanks so that the area's name would be more easily recognizable to purchasers of municipal bonds.
• Haines Borough, Alaska: Haines Borough is named after Haines, Alaska, which is named in turn for Mrs. F. E. Haines , the community leader who raised funds for a religious mission to the local Chilkat Native Alaskan people.
• Juneau City and Borough, Alaska: Juneau is named for Joseph "Joe" Juneau, a miner and prospector who was a cofounder of the city.
• Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska: Kenai Peninsula Borough is named for the Kenai Peninsula. Kenai is probably derived from Kenayskaya, the Russian name for the Cook Inlet.
• Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska: Ketchikan Gateway Borough is named for Ketchikan Creek and for its gateway location at the Alaska-Canadian border.
• Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska: Kodiak Island is named for Kodiak Island, which in turn is possibly named for the Koniagmiut (or Koniag ) Native Alaskan people who inhabited it.
• Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska: Lake and Peninsula is named for one or more of the borough's many large lakes and the Alaska Peninsula.
• Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska: Matanuska-Susitna is named for either the Matanuska River or the Matanuska Valley and the city of Susitna, Alaska.
• Nome Census Area, Alaska: Nome is named for Nome, Alaska and Cape Nome , both of which are named as the result of a transcription error, in which a map notation of ? Name was miscopied as C. Nome for Cape Nome.
• North Slope Borough, Alaska: North Slope is named for the North Slope, the dominant geographic region in the borough.
• Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska: Northwest Arctic is named for its location in the northwestern part of the state, near the Arctic Circle.
• Prince of Wales-Outer Ketchikan Census Area, Alaska: Prince of Wales-Outer Ketchikan is named for Prince of Wales Island and the census area's location surrounding Ketchikan, Alaska.
• Sitka City and Borough, Alaska: Sitka is named for the Tlingit word Shee Atika, meaning people on the outside of Shee. Shee in turn is the Tlingit name for Baranof Island.
• Skagway-Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, Alaska: Skagway-Hoonah-Angoon is named for the cities of Skagway, Hoonah and Angoon, Alaska. (Skagway is from the Tlingit Skagua, meaning "the place where the north wind blows"; Hoonah means "village by the cliff.")
• Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska: Southeast Fairbanks is named for its location southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska.
• Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Alaska: Valdez-Cordova is named for Valdez, Alaska (named after Antonio Valdés y Basán , a Spanish naval officer) and Cordova, Alaska (named after the city of Córdoba, Spain), both of which were named by Spanish explorer Don Salvador Fidalgo in 1790.
• Wade Hampton Census Area, Alaska: Wade Hampton is probably named for one of the three related famous Americans named Wade Hampton: a soldier in the American Revolutionary War and War of 1812; his son, a wealthy planter in the American South ; or the son of the second Wade Hampton, a Confederate cavalry leader.
• Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area, Alaska: Wrangell-Petersburg is named for the cities of Wrangell and Petersburg. Wrangell is named after Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel, president of the Russian-American Company while Peterburg is named after Peter Buschmann , an early settler.
• Yakutat City and Borough, Alaska: Yakutat is named for Yakutat Bay and the Yakutat Native Alaskan people.
• Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska: Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area is probably named for the Yukon River (Yukon means big river in Athabaskan) and Koyukuk River (named after the Koyukon Native Alaskan people).

Sources

• A History of the First Five Years of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, University of Alaska, Fairbanks Society of Professional Journalists, 1979.

See also

• Alaska
• County (United States)
• List of Alaska boroughs and census areas
• Lists of U.S. county name etymologies