2023.12.31 Massachusetts municipalities colored by first letters of names

Returning to the well-worn theme of Massachusetts municipalities and in particular their names, this time around we’re looking at the first letters of the municipality names. And for the first time, the map is interactive beyond just resizing (which itself has more scaling flexibility, as this map is SVG rather than PNG): you can show or hide each layer (one for each first letter), or show or hide all at once.

I think I was inspired to investigate this because of certain groupings around Greater Boston, e.g. the W-town cluster of Watertown, Waltham, Weston, Wayland, and Wellesley, and the adjacent N-towns of Newton, Needham, and Natick. The colors are based on my letter-color synesthesia, with some adaptation to give letters that map to very similar colors in my mind more contrasting colors on the map, and thereby to cover the color space more evenly.

Note that the adjectives North, South, East, West, New, and Great are excluded from consideration here; it seemed more illustrative to consider the names they modify instead. So, for instance, New Braintree counts as starting with B rather than N. That’s only if they’re separate words, though — e.g. Westfield still counts as starting with W. Anyway, here’s the map, followed by a color key including counts for each letter, plus a table of letter counts in descending order.

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DARTMOUTH FAIRHAVEN MASHPEE FALMOUTH MATTAPOISETT BARNSTABLE FALL RIVER RICHMOND BOURNE FREETOWN NEW BEDFORD ORLEANS DIGHTON WELLFLEET PLYMOUTH ATTLEBORO NORTON NORTH ATTLEBORO EAST BRIDGEWATER DUXBURY PLAINVILLE MANSFIELD BLACKSTONE ROCHESTER RAYNHAM TRURO EAST LONGMEADOW WHITMAN PEMBROKE MARSHFIELD SEEKONK TAUNTON HALIFAX DOUGLAS FOXBOROUGH GRANVILLE HANOVER NORWELL AUBURN RUSSELL GRAFTON LEICESTER HULL NORTH BROOKFIELD SHREWSBURY STOCKBRIDGE WESTHAMPTON CHARLTON SUTTON EGREMONT HINGHAM QUINCY WEBSTER WALES BROCKTON HANSON AGAWAM FRANKLIN MENDON NORFOLK HOPEDALE NORTHBRIDGE STURBRIDGE MEDWAY BRIMFIELD NANTUCKET LEOMINSTER AYER DEERFIELD WENDELL WILMINGTON MONTAGUE TEMPLETON GARDNER BUCKLAND SHIRLEY ERVING ADAMS ROCKPORT ASHBY HEATH GROVELAND HAVERHILL ASHBURNHAM TEWKSBURY SAVOY GROTON TOWNSEND WINCHENDON DUNSTABLE BOXFORD GEORGETOWN AMESBURY SALISBURY MILTON SALEM MILLVILLE MILLIS RANDOLPH LUDLOW HOLLISTON BROOKFIELD PALMER MONTGOMERY HOPKINTON SHERBORN DEDHAM CHESTER MEDFORD CHELSEA BERLIN REVERE RUTLAND NAHANT SAUGUS STOW BARRE GOSHEN ACTON NEW SALEM PETERSHAM WINDSOR LANESBOROUGH DANVERS WASHINGTON BOLTON PITTSFIELD IPSWICH WESTPORT LEYDEN COLRAIN ROWE ROWLEY NEWBURY ALFORD OXFORD BROOKLINE LITTLETON DUDLEY SPRINGFIELD SANDISFIELD EAST BROOKFIELD WATERTOWN HAMPDEN ROCKLAND NEW ASHFORD TYRINGHAM OAK BLUFFS WARREN SHEFFIELD CHILMARK MARION WESTON HATFIELD WINCHESTER TYNGSBOROUGH FLORIDA WEST TISBURY AVON MILLBURY OAKHAM WESTMINSTER LAKEVILLE MILFORD WORTHINGTON LINCOLN STONEHAM SOUTHAMPTON WEST BROOKFIELD WESTBOROUGH NEEDHAM MIDDLETON BOSTON NATICK BECKET WARE BELCHERTOWN NEWTON WINTHROP NORTHAMPTON LEE MIDDLEFIELD WAYLAND WALTHAM LENOX HADLEY AMHERST CHESTERFIELD MALDEN PERU SWAMPSCOTT STERLING HINSDALE SHUTESBURY SUNDERLAND PRINCETON LANCASTER HUBBARDSTON HARVARD HUDSON MELROSE CHATHAM WRENTHAM LEVERETT BEVERLY TOPSFIELD HANCOCK WESTFORD HAMILTON BOXBOROUGH DALTON ESSEX PEPPERELL METHUEN BEDFORD PEABODY CARLISLE BELLINGHAM EASTHAMPTON ABINGTON UPTON HARDWICK WOBURN CONWAY WEST SPRINGFIELD WELLESLEY LYNNFIELD CAMBRIDGE LYNN TISBURY BERKLEY EASTON BRAINTREE SCITUATE GOSNOLD WORCESTER BRIDGEWATER REHOBOTH BERNARDSTON BELMONT BLANDFORD WEST BOYLSTON CLINTON WILBRAHAM OTIS CHARLEMONT BURLINGTON AQUINNAH TOLLAND MEDFIELD FRAMINGHAM HUNTINGTON NORTHFIELD SOUTH HADLEY READING LAWRENCE HAWLEY LONGMEADOW LUNENBURG ROYALSTON CLARKSBURG WILLIAMSBURG WENHAM WHATELY MARLBOROUGH WESTFIELD ARLINGTON WAKEFIELD MONROE SOUTHBRIDGE NEW MARLBOROUGH CHESHIRE SOMERVILLE EASTHAM BOYLSTON WAREHAM CARVER GLOUCESTER HOLLAND GRANBY SHELBURNE DRACUT SUDBURY SOUTHBOROUGH FITCHBURG WEST BRIDGEWATER CHICOPEE HOLYOKE PHILLIPSTON WEYMOUTH MAYNARD BREWSTER HARWICH SANDWICH HOLBROOK SPENCER EVERETT MIDDLEBOROUGH SOMERSET YARMOUTH KINGSTON WEST NEWBURY UXBRIDGE ASHLAND CUMMINGTON EDGARTOWN DENNIS MOUNT WASHINGTON PROVINCETOWN CONCORD PLYMPTON MONTEREY MONSON ACUSHNET NEW BRAINTREE MARBLEHEAD ATHOL GREENFIELD NORTH READING GREAT BARRINGTON COHASSET NORTHBOROUGH PELHAM BILLERICA NORTH ANDOVER MERRIMAC ASHFIELD MANCHESTER- BY-THE-SEA PLAINFIELD WARWICK HOLDEN PAXTON ORANGE NEWBURYPORT SWANSEA GILL SOUTHWICK LEXINGTON LOWELL CHELMSFORD ANDOVER STOUGHTON WALPOLE CANTON DOVER WESTWOOD SHARON NORWOOD NORTH ADAMS WEST STOCKBRIDGE WILLIAMSTOWN

Color key + counts

  • A: 24
  • B: 38
  • C: 21
  • D: 13
  • E: 8
  • F: 9
  • G: 12
  • H: 27
  • I: 1
  • J: 0
  • K: 1
  • L: 20
  • M: 31
  • N: 16
  • O: 6
  • P: 16
  • Q: 1
  • R: 15
  • S: 37
  • T: 11
  • U: 2
  • V: 0
  • W: 40
  • X: 0
  • Y: 1
  • Z: 0

Counts in descending order:

  • 40: W
  • 38: B
  • 37: S
  • 31: M
  • 27: H
  • 24: A
  • 21: C
  • 20: L
  • 16: N, P
  • 15: R
  • 13: D
  • 12: G
  • 11: T
  • 9: F
  • 8: E
  • 6: O
  • 2: U
  • 1: I, K, Q, Y
  • 0: J, V, X, Z

No big surprises in the letter counts, I would say, such as W, B, and S having the top counts, or X and Z having none (J is a bit more surprising). Curious though that the towns with count-1 letters, Ipswich, Quincy, Kingston, and Yarmouth, are all on the eastern shores, and that the two U-towns, Upton and Uxbridge, are nearly adjacent. Continuing along those lines, it’s fun to look at each letter in isolation and discover oddities in their distributions. The cutest and most confusing of these has got to be the M-line of Medfield, Millis, Medway, Milford, and (hopping across Hopedale) Mendon and Millville. Over toward the South Shore is an H-line of Hull, Hingham, Hanover, Hanson, and Halifax, and in the Pioneer Valley another of Hatfield, Hadley, South Hadley, and Holyoke.

It’s a challenge to go much distance north or west out of Boston without going through somewhere starting with W, L, or D. If you add M to those, your only land-transport escape options are the Red Line or Neponset River Bridge into Quincy, and if you want to go west, you have to take Pine St. from Walpole into Norfolk, portage across the Charles from Bellingham into Hopedale, and stow away on a freight train from Hopedale into Upton. Where was I? Oh right, letters.

In some cases the distributions are more spread out but still have noticeable patterns, such as the northern tier of T towns across the eastern half of the state: Templeton, Townsend, Tyngsborough, Tewksbury, and Topsfield. C, besides the Concord–Carlisle–Chelmsford line, is concentrated around the northern hill towns. Besides Florida, F is along a northwest–southeast swoop between Fitchburg and Falmouth.

It’s also fun to make color combos, like tutti frutti with G, M, Q, U, W and mint chocolate with H, K, N, P. Alright, it’s snacktime, I’m outta here!