St. Inigoes

J. Scott Ridgell

12 years ago

St. Ignatius Church in St. Inigoes

Continuing with a look at the origins of county town names, let’s check out one that I’ve often wondered about – St. Inigoes. The Enterprise article of 2004 notes that: “Although a post office was established in this area in 1801, the name St. Inigoes predates the arrival of the postal service by more than 150 years. It was the name given to the land by the Jesuit priests who lived there, and was so named in honor of St. Ignatius, the Spanish founder of the Jesuits.”

Got that, but I have always wondered how Ignatius translated into Inigoes. Thought it was due to someone who either couldn’t spell or enunciate properly but here is an explanation from Wikipedia:

Íñigo López de Loyola … was baptized Íñigo, after St. Innicus, Abbot of Ona, a mediaeval Basque name arguably meaning “My little one.” It is unclear when he started using Ignatius instead of his baptismal name “Íñigo.” Ignatius did not intend to change his name but rather adopted for France and Italy a name which he believed was a simple variant of his own, and which was more acceptable among foreigners.

So now I know why it’s named Inigoes. Guess that’s a little better than the old boy’s namesake of Innicus, which sounds more like a medical condition than it does the name of a saint.

On the subject of hometown names, a lady from Scotland, the original one across the pond, was in Buzzy’s Country Store a few months back and was disappointed that there was not a Scotland sign designating the area. She wanted to have had her photo taken in front of a Scotland, USA sign to keep as a memory of her visit.

I couldn’t help her out on that request but I did suggest that she grab a shot in front of the Buzzy’s Country Store sign on the front porch deck. I joked with her that she could tell her friends that in lieu of a road sign named Scotland, she had had her picture taken standing in front of the largest store in downtown Scotland. Also informed her that I would work on contacting the sign folks to see about having a road sign put up designating Scotland. She left me her address so I’m forwarding this to her to let her know that her visit to the States was instrumental in helping put Scotland, Maryland back on the map so to speak.

(After her visit, I called the County’s Public Works Department and asked about having the Scotland sign(s) installed which they recently did. The one on the south bound side of Rt. 5 is located just before Katherine Dean’s home.)

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