Midland got its name because it was originally created as a depot halfway between El Paso and Fort Worth. Odessa is named after a city of the same name in the Ukraine because of its similar terrain. Everything has a story and when you're the first to come across something or to create it-you get the benefit of being the one who gets to name it. I just laughed out loud typing that--thinking of the scene in Talladega Nights where Will Ferrell is discussing the names of his children: "If we wanted us some wussies we'd have named them Dr. Quinn and Medicine Woman"...

Typically if you're from here you learned the origins of the town names in school when you were young. If you're a transplant like me you learn it from the locals. Either that or the internet. But what if these two towns didn't have those names? What if they had been named something completely different? What if the two cities had been named after something to do with the oil industry? Pump Jack Texas? Fracking Texas?

Let's turn it over to YOU. What would these two towns be named if they didn't have their current names? Would it be something oil-related? Wind-related? Or names from the first settlers of the region? Or maybe something after the wild wild west? I also wonder if the names had been different, would they have stuck or would they have gotten changed from the originals based on new generations? Comment below and we'll share the best ones on the air.

LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.

LOOK: Here is the richest town in each state

Just saying the names of these towns immediately conjures up images of grand mansions, luxury cars, and ritzy restaurants. Read on to see which town in your home state took the title of the richest location and which place had the highest median income in the country. Who knows—your hometown might even be on this list.

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