Whence the Name "KUMIS" ?

[NW Mailing List]

While making no claim to insights about the name Kumis, I can offer that after forty years of living in Montgomery County, I have never heard  the "locals" use the name, have never seen it in the newspaper, and never seen it on maps or road signs. The community near there is Lafayette. The name Kumis appears a railroad related name only.

    Ray Smoot


On Feb 22, 2012, at 8:30 PM, "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org<mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>> wrote:

Good idea. Troutville was named after the Trout family. There are no trout streams here!

Thanks,

Richard D. Shell
Troutville, VA

In a message dated 2/22/2012 3:19:49 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org<mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> writes:
A quick Internet search turned up 4 people with a surname of Kumis.  Not
exactly common, but it is used. So I wouldn't discard that as a possible
source.

You could check the Census records for the relevant time period to see
if there were any Kumis family members living in the area.  It was not
unusual to name places on the railroad after families who lived nearby.

Ed


On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 12:40 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:


> Has anyone figured out how the name "Kumis" came to be  used as a

> station name on the VGN?  MapQuest and Google Earth do not

> recognize "Kumis" as a geographical location.

>

>

> The word "kumis" is apparently a Turkic or Mongol word referring to  a

> fermented product made from mare's milk  in the Central Asian Steppes,

> see:

>

>

> http://thekefir.com/kumis/

>

>

> I have not been able to nail down the root etymology of the word, as I

> have no familiarity with any Turkic or Altaic languages.

>

>

> I have never heard "kumis" used as a family name and have not run

> across the word  in any of the non-railroad historical materials

> dealing with Roanoke or Montgomery Counties.  It would be interesting

> to check the 1898 USGS Topo maps and see if there was any use of that

> word as a word referencing places just prior to  the construction of

> the Virginian Railway.  However, the USGS Topos for that period do not

> appear to have been digitized yet.

>

>

> So, how did "Kumis" get to Roanoke County, Virginia...?

>

>

> Sorry to play the part of the philologist... it's just ingrained.

>

>

> -- abram burnett, transplanted virginian domiciling in pennsyl-slavia

>

>

>      ------------------------------

>

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