Manchester
The name Manchester originates from the Latin name "Mamucium" or its variant "Mancunium" and the citizens are still referred to as Mancunians (). These are generally thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name, either from "mamm-" ("breast", in reference to a "breast-like hill") or from "mamma" ("mother", in reference to a local river goddess). Both meanings are preserved in Insular Celtic languages, such as "mam" meaning "breast" in Irish and "mother" in Welsh. The suffix -chester is a survival of Old English "ceaster" and from that "castra" in latin for camp or settlement ("fort; fortified town").
Manchester, New Hampshire
Native Pennacook Indians called Amoskeag Falls on the Merrimack River — the area that became the heart of Manchester — "Namaoskeag", meaning "good fishing place". In 1722, John Goffe III settled beside Cohas Brook, later building a dam and sawmill at what was dubbed "Old Harry's Town". It was granted by Massachusetts in 1727 as "Tyngstown" to veterans of Queen Anne's War who served in 1703 under Captain William Tyng. But at New Hampshire's 1741 separation from Massachusetts, the grant was ruled invalid and substituted with Wilton, Maine, resulting in a 1751 rechartering by Governor Benning Wentworth as "Derryfield" — a name that lives on in Derryfield Park, Derryfield Country Club, and the private Derryfield School.