Around the country, school, county and even bird names are being reconsidered and changed, as greater attention is paid to their origins and the racism the names may invoke.

In this same tradition, multiple areas have reconsidered geographical names containing the word “negro” — a term once considered socially acceptable, but now viewed as outdated and offensive by many. In Texas, 16 such names are finally being changed, following approval by a federal board in June. In Vermont, residents and politicians are pushing to change the name of Negro Brook, with the only holdup being what to call it instead.

It’s not just negro; other offensive terms are also used in place names across the American landscape. But why were these names created in the first place, and why have they endured?

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In Vermont, many names incorporating outdated racial descriptors initially served as signifiers that Black people were living in an area, said state librarian Jason Broughton.

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Such place names exist all over the country, especially in the South.

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There are also geographic names that feature offensive terms for Native Americans, Broughton pointed out — things like “Red Creek” or anything with the word “squaw,” a derogatory term for Native American women. There are even a few sites with the slur “Chinaman” in the names, according to the US Geological Survey.

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There are more than 600 geographic sites with the term “negro” in the name, according to a database by the US Geological Survey.

Though there have been pushes to change these names in recent years, the term negro has largely been allowed to endure, after being deemed the correct term in 1963, Broughton said. He credits last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests for bringing the issue to the forefront, showing that there are a lot of cultural references that need to be updated — including geographic names.

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With pushes in both Vermont and Texas to change names containing the word “negro,” similar movements may occur across the country. With hundreds of sites still bearing negro — and even more still with words like “squaw,” “Chinaman” and “Redskin” — there is still work to be done on the renaming front.

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Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe and the first Native American Cabinet secretary, could be the one to help the effort to change these names.

Prior to her current position, Haaland served in Congress as a representative for New Mexico. In September 2020, she introduced a bill calling for the Board on Geographic Names to “review and revise” offensive names of federal land units, and to create an advisory committee to recommend what names were to be reviewed by the board.

And the Department of the Interior is currently looking into ways to change some of these offensive names, the department’s communications director confirmed to CNN.

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