I'm here in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania, 12 miles north of downtown.

It's known as one of Pittsburgh's more affluent suburbs.

Now, you might be picturing a group of orange canines sitting around worshiping the Virgin Mary, but the real origin of the name is a bit more mundane.

In 1831, German immigrant John Fox settled here and began farming.

After he died, his daughter Eliza, who side note married William Teats and thus her married name was Eliza Fox Teats, donated his land to a church, who built a chapel and named it after him.

Fox Chapel is just the first of many weird Pennsylvania place names we'll be visiting in today's episode of Noles Explores & Explains.

Up in northeastern Pennsylvania, Choconut sounds like a great flavor at Steak and Shake, but it's really just a corruption of the Nanticoke word tschochonot meaning place of the tamaracks.

Choconut Creek flows through the township, and in the colonial era, the area was called Chugnut, which also would have made this list had it been left intact.

Further south in Wyoming County, we find ourselves in Meshoppen Borough, surrounded by Meshoppen Township, both of which come from the name of a nearby creek, a Native American name meaning glass beads or coral.

At the next bend in the river is Mehoopany township which sits at the mouth of Mehoopany Creek.

It is probably a corruption of Metchoopany, a Native American word meaning place of the big wild potatoes.

Next, we head down to Delaware County in the Philadelphia metro area and the township of Nether Providence.

In 1684, Providence Township was settled between Ridley and Crum Creek, but as the population grew, it became necessary to split it in twain.

Due to its elongated shape.

The most logical way to do so was an upper and a lower, denoting their positions in the watershed.

Upper Providence and instead of Lower, Nether Providence.

In 1850, the land was split further to create our next entry in this list.

Media is the county seat of Delaware County.

When Del Co.

was formed from Chester County in 1789, the county seat was in Chester, which is not a central location, and for decades residents clamored for a new county seat that was more easily accessible.

So in 1850, a new location was laid out in about the dead center of the county and named Media, from the Latin adjective medius, meaning central.

In southwest Chester County, we find ourselves in London Britain.

No, not that one.

The London Company, a land speculation company, once owned 17,000 acres in southern Chester County.

All the townships in this area have strong British names, and four townships in particular are named directly after their former owner.

New London, London Grove.

Londonderry.

And to really hammer home the point.

London Britain.

Out in Adams County, Hamiltonban sounds like a theater kid's worst nightmare.

It's actually more simple than that.

It's named for Hamiltons bon in County Armagh, Ireland.

Bon is an anglicized form of an Irish term meaning fortified enclosure.

So basically it means Hamilton's Fort.

Metal Township in Fulton County has a rather pragmatic origin.

In the first few decades of independence, the hills and valleys of south central Pennsylvania were huge iron producing areas.

Thus, it was named for the abundance of metal that could be mined within the boundaries of the township.

In that it shares a simplicity with Carbon County, but on a smaller scale.

Water Street, a small village in Huntington County, is wedged between two mountains along the Juniata River.

The first road through the narrow mountain gap occupied the bed of a stream, and so the first road was literally a water street.

Later it became an important site for trading along the Pennsylvania main Line Canal.

Maybe they should have changed their name to Water Highway.

Over in Northumberland County, Ralpho sounds like the name of an old frat brother you might have had, but this township's claim to fame isn't doing a keg stand and then hooking up with Jessica from Tri SIG.

Rather, it's home to one half of Knoebels Amusement Park.

Less clear cut than that boundary is the name's origin, which seems to be a corruption of Raffo, after a parish in County Donegal, Ireland, or Raffo Township in Lancaster County.

Unlike your frat brother, that night with Jessica, this township took the L. And finally, we wind up in Schuylkill Haven, Schuylkill County, which stood at the head of navigation on the Schuylkill Canal and thus became a haven for the transshipment of anthracite coal, leaving the mountains for Philadelphia.

That's all I have for you in today's episode of Weird Pennsylvania Place Names.

Thanks for watching.

I'll see you in the next one.