Renaming of Kingston to Kinston, North Carolina
- When
- 1784
- Where
- Kingston (later Kinston), North Carolina
- Episodes
- 1
In 1784, following American victory in the Revolution, the citizens of Kingston, North Carolina, renamed their town Kinston, dropping the letter 'g' to signal their disavowal of royalty. The town had been named Kingston in 1762 in honor of King George III.
Episodes
Background and detail
Background. Kinston was created by an act of the North Carolina General Assembly in December 1762 as "Kingston", in honor of King George III, who had recently ascended to the throne. The town lies in the coastal plains region of eastern North Carolina.
The Renaming. After victory in the American Revolution, the citizens renamed the city "Kinston" in 1784 to show the population's disavowal of royalty. The change removed the letter 'g' from the name honoring King George III, erasing the royal reference from the town's identity.
People involved
- Citizens of Kingston · Residents who carried out the renaming
Sources
- Kinston, North Carolina Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-07
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.