Delmarva and Delmarvia: Blended Names for a Three-State Peninsula

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Leah.

Hi, Leah. How are you doing?

I’m great. How are you?

All right.

What’s going on?

Well, thank you so much, first of all, for doing the show. I just absolutely love it.

And I moved to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware about a year ago, and I drive across this peninsula into Maryland for my job.

And I keep seeing signs and hearing people talk about Delmarva.

Delmarva this, Delmarva that, whether it’s a business, a location, an organization.

And so I had my map open, and I was looking and looking one day, trying to find this Delmarva.

And I said to my partner, where is Delmarva?

And she said, you’re standing at it.

And I didn’t realize that it’s the name of this geographic location.

And so my question is, who came up with that?

Oh, the who?

Well, the geography kind of dictated it, didn’t it?

Exactly as you said, I think it’s the only peninsula in the United States that’s divided among three states.

You have your Delaware, you have your Maryland, and you have your Virginia.

And so Delmarva is what we call a portmanteau word.

Are you familiar with that term?

No.

Yeah, this is a term where you mash elements of different words together,

Like spork is a combination of spoon and fork, or smog is smoke and fog.

And so, as you said, it’s Delmarva. It’s not Marv the Del or anything like that.

But it’s dictated a lot by geography because you also have in that area, I don’t know if you’ve been to Delmar, Delaware, which is next to Delmar, Maryland.

And there’s Marydell, Delaware and Marydell, Maryland and Veermar Beach.

And so they make these names of places by combining those things together.

And the earliest evidence I’ve seen of a similar name to that is Delmarvia back in the 1880s.

There was the Delmarvia Review, which was a newspaper in that area, and people used that name from time to time.

Oh, okay.

And then maybe it’s like Baltimore becoming Balmer. It just became Delmara.

I see. It’s kind of slurred it a little bit, huh?

Yeah, it’s a little confusing because you’re right.

All those different names of those locations that I drive through,

I started thinking Delmarva was an actual small city somewhere here.

Yeah, no, I don’t think it is.

I think it’s just that area.

I don’t think there’s a…

The whole peninsula, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And if you are listening to us on your drive through the peninsula,

You are probably listening to Delmarva Public Radio.

Right.

Yes, I am.

Right there at Salisbury University, right?

That’s right, exactly right.

Which also has the NAB Center, which has a lot of great information on your area.

Oh, really?

I’m a new employee here at the university, so I will go check that out.

Yeah, check out the NABB Center there.

They have tons of information on your area.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thanks for calling.

Bye-bye.

Have a great day.

Bye-bye.

When I was growing up, these kinds of blends, I usually encountered them in the name of, like,

Like independent gas stations and towing companies and, like, little…

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Or restaurants.

Yeah, but it was almost always like the first or last names of the co-owners of the joint, right?

Yeah, there’s something I didn’t like about that.

Yeah, me too.

Because usually they’re opaque, for one thing.

And they tend to say more about the owner than they do about the business.

Abdel Towing doesn’t tell me anything.

Yeah, yeah.

But Abby and Delmar, or Delbert, actually, they started their towing company.

Oh, really?

That was a real one?

I think it was a real one.

Yeah, a lot of those husband and wife things, too, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, well, we want to hear from you.

Tell us your language stories or tell us your regional names.

877-929-9673 is the number to call or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.