Ville is the modern
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
word of
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
origin now meaning
cityA city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
or
townA town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
, but the first meaning in the middle-ages was farm (from Latin
villa rusticaVilla rustica was the term used by the ancient Romans to denote a villa set in the open countryside, often as the hub of a large agricultural estate . The adjective rusticum was used to distinguish it from an urban or resort villa...
) and then village. The derivative
suffixIn linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
"-ville" is commonly used in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
in names of cities,
townA town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
s and
villageA village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
s.
Ville is also a name for a boy in
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
and
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
.
Derived words
- Hooverville
A 'Hooverville' was the popular name for shanty towns built by homeless people during the Great Depression. They were named after the President of the United States at the time, Herbert Hoover, because he allegedly let the nation slide into depression...
— an area where homeless people generally lived during the Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
.
- Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
— another loanword from FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
used for a settlement that was larger than a hamletA hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
but smaller than a town.
- villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
— feudal serf, peasant cultivator in subjection to a lord.
- villein — the same word used by modern historians.
Usage of -ville in France and in England
- In France, after the 6th Century, especially in the North, first of all Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
(20% of the communes end with -ville), BeauceBeauce is a natural region in northern France, located between the Seine and Loire rivers. It now comprises the Eure-et-Loir département and parts of Loiret, Essonne and Loir-et-Cher. The region shared the history of the province of Orléanais and the county of Chartres, which is its only major...
and French speaking part of Lorraine. In the South East, they are exceptional and modern. In the South West, -ville is very often a translation of the Occitan -viala (Gascon -viela), sometimes ill gallicized in -vielle (variant -fielle). There are almost all combined with the landowner's name. f. e : CollevilleColleville is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Geography:A farming and light industrial village situated in the wooded valley of the Valmont River and the Pays de Caux, some northeast of Le Havre, at the junction of the D68 and D28...
with Colle- that represents the Old Norse personal name Koli.
- In England, after the Norman conquest 1066. They are sometimes the family names of the places they came from in Normandy, such as Carville in Yorkshire or Dunstanville
Reginald de Dunstanville , Earl of Cornwall , High Sheriff of Devon, Earl of Cornwall, was an illegitimate son of Henry I of England and Lady Sybilla Corbet.Reginald had been invested with the Earldom of Cornwall by King...
in Kent (cf. DénestanvilleDénestanville is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Geography:A farming village situated by the banks of the river Scie in the Pays de Caux, some south of Dieppe, at the junction of the D107 and the D3 roads.-History:Danestanvilla 1051,...
, Normandy, Dunestanvilla 11th century).
Usage of -ville in the United States
According to toponymist
George R. StewartGeorge Rippey Stewart was an American toponymist, a novelist, and a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley...
, the use of the suffix
-ville for settlements in the United States did not begin until after the
American RevolutionThe American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
. Previously, town-names did not usually use suffixes unless named after European towns in which case the name was borrowed wholly. When a suffix was needed,
-town (or the word Town) was typically added (as in
Charleston, South CarolinaCharleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, originally Charles Town). In the middle of the 18th century the suffixes
-borough (-boro) and
-burgh (
-burg) came into style. The use of
-town (-ton) also increased, in part due to the increasing use of personal names for new settlements. Thus the settlement founded by William Trent became known as
TrentonTrenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...
. These three suffixes,
-town/-ton,
-borough/-boro, and
-burgh/-burg became popular before the Revolution, while
-ville was almost completely unused until afterward. Its post-revolutionary popularity, along with the decline in the use of
-town, was due in part to the pro-French sentiments which spread through the country after the war. The founding of
Louisville, KentuckyLouisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
, in 1780, for example, used not only the French suffix but the name of the French king. The popularity of
-ville was most popular in the southern and western (Appalachian) regions of the new country, and less popular in New England.
A few
-ville names pre-date the revolution, but most of them are named after European settlements or dukedoms. For example,
Granville, MassachusettsGranville is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,566 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.- History and Description :...
was named for the
Earl of GranvilleEarl Granville is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of Great Britain and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.-First Creation:...
(he was named himself after
Granville, Manche-Sights:The old town preserves all the history of its military and religious past. The lower town was partly built on land reclaimed from the sea. The upper part of the old town is surrounded by ramparts from the fifteenth century...
(Normandy)). After the revolution and the decline in the use of
-borough and
-town, the two suffixes
-ville and
-burgh/-burg became by far the most popular for many decades. A difference between the usage of the two is that
-burgh/-burg was almost always appended to a personal name while -ville was appended to any word. Some personal names became associated with one suffix or another. For example, Williamstown and Williamsburg are both more common than Williamsville; Georgetown is far more common than Georgeville.
By the middle of the 19th century the
-ville suffix began to lose its popularity, with newly popular suffixes with
-wood,
-hurst,
-mere,
-dale, and others taking over.
Notable "-ville" cities
- Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
- Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
- Clarksville, Tennessee
Clarksville is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Tennessee, United States, and the fifth largest city in the state. The population was 132,929 in 2010 United States Census...
- Bentonville, Arkansas
Bentonville, Arkansas is a city in Northwest Bahamas, and county seat of Benton County, Arkansas, United States The population was 35,301 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers, AR-MO Metropolitan Statistical Area...
- Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...
- Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...
- Jacksonville, North Carolina
Jacksonville, North Carolina, is a city in Onslow County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the population stood at 70,145, which makes Jacksonville the 14th largest city in North Carolina...
- Fayetteville, North Carolina
Fayetteville is a city located in Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. It is the county seat of Cumberland County, and is best known as the home of Fort Bragg, a U.S. Army post located northwest of the city....
- Greenville, South Carolina
-Law and government:The city of Greenville adopted the Council-Manager form of municipal government in 1976.-History:The area was part of the Cherokee Nation's protected grounds after the Treaty of 1763, which ended the French and Indian War. No White man was allowed to enter, though some families...
- Bennettsville, South Carolina
Bennettsville is a city in and the county seat of Marlboro County, South Carolina, United States. and home to the Bennettsville Historic District...
- Evansville, Indiana
Evansville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Indiana and the largest city in Southern Indiana. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 117,429. It is the county seat of Vanderburgh County and the regional hub for both Southwestern Indiana and the...
- Naperville, Illinois
Naperville is a city in DuPage and Will Counties in Illinois in the United States, voted the second best place to live in the United States by Money Magazine in 2006. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 141,853. It is the fifth largest city in the state, behind Chicago,...
- Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
- Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city located primarily in Madison County in the central part of the far northern region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Huntsville is the county seat of Madison County. The city extends west into neighboring Limestone County. Huntsville's population was 180,105 as of the 2010 Census....
- Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Alachua County, Florida, United States as well as the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area . The preliminary 2010 Census population count for Gainesville is 124,354. Gainesville is home to the sixth...
- Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
- Danville, California
The Town of Danville is located in the San Ramon Valley in Contra Costa County, California. It is one of the incorporated municipalities in California that uses "town" in its name instead of "city". The population was 42,039 in 2010. Danville is one of the wealthiest suburbs of Oakland and San...
- Pleasantville
Pleasantville may refer to:Canada*Pleasantville, Newfoundland and Labrador*Pleasantville, Nova ScotiaUSA*Pleasantville, Indiana*Pleasantville, Iowa*Pleasantville, New Jersey*Pleasantville, New York*Pleasantville, Ohio...
, in eleven U.S. states and in two provinces of Canada
- Abbeville, Louisiana
Abbeville is a town in and the parish seat of Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, United States, 150 miles west of New Orleans. The population was 12,257 at the 2010 census...
"-Ville" in pop culture
- The Amityville Horror
The Amityville Horror: A True Story is a book by Jay Anson, published in September 1977. It is also the basis of a series of films released between 1979 and 2005...
is a notorious horror movie
- Pleasantville
Pleasantville is a 1998 American fantasy comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Gary Ross. The film stars Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Marley Shelton and Jeff Daniels. Don Knotts, Paul Walker, Jane Kaczmarek, and J. T. Walsh are also featured.The film...
- Retroville
- Smallville
Smallville is an American television series developed by writers/producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar based on the DC Comics character Superman, originally created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The television series was initially broadcast by The WB Television Network , premiering on October...
- FarmVille
FarmVille is a farming simulation social network game developed by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to Happy Farm, Farm Town,, and older games such as the Harvest Moon series...
- Dogville
Dogville is a 2003 drama written and directed by Lars von Trier, and starring Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Chloë Sevigny, Paul Bettany, Stellan Skarsgård, Udo Kier, and James Caan...
- Psychoville
Psychoville is an award-winning British dark comedy television serial written by and starring The League of Gentlemen members Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. It debuted on BBC Two on 18 June 2009. Pemberton and Shearsmith each play numerous characters, with Dawn French and Jason Tompkins in...
Usage in Canada
Although a
ville in the predominantly francophone
CanadianCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
province of
QuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
may be informally referred to as a "city" or a "town" in English, no distinction exists under provincial law between those two types of settlements. The "city" of
MontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, with a population of 1,854,442 in the
Canada 2006 CensusThe Canada 2006 Census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day was May 16, 2006. The next census following will be the 2011 Census. Canada's total population enumerated by the 2006 census was 31,612,897...
, and the "town" of
BarkmereBarkmere is a ville in the Canadian province of Quebec, located in Les Laurentides Regional County Municipality.It is one of the smallest incorporated municipalities in Quebec, with a population of just 87 in the Canada 2006 Census.-Demographics:...
, with a population of just 87, are both legally
villes.
Quebec does have several other types of municipal status, including
municipalitiesThe term regional county municipality or RCM is used in Quebec to designate one of 86 county-like political and geographic units. In most cases, they are also census divisions. Regional County Municipalities are a supralocal type of "Regional Municipality" and are still commonly referred to as...
,
townshipThe term township generally means the district or area associated with a town. However in some systems no town needs to be involved. The specific use of the term to describe political subdivisions has varied by country, usually to describe a local rural or semi-rural government within the county...
s and villages, but any distinction between cities and towns in English has no basis in law and no objective criteria to differentiate between the two. However, in
villes with a large anglophone population, there may be an established--albeit informal--preference. For instance,
Mount RoyalMount Royal is a town located on the northwest side of Mount Royal, north of downtown Montreal, on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. The town is completely surrounded by Montreal. The population was 18,933 at the 2006 census...
is nearly always referred to as a town--as opposed to a city--by its anglophone populace.
Cité is a defunct title that currently is used only officially by
DorvalDorval is a city on the island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. As of the 2006 Canadian Census, the population increased by 2.2% to 18,088. Although the city has the largest surface area in the West Island, it is among the least densely populated...
, which is nevertheless legally a
ville.
In all other Canadian provinces, although
ville is still used as the French translation for both "city" and "town", cities and towns there do have distinct legal status from each other.
As in the United States,
-ville may also be a suffix that is part of a city's or a town's actual name. This usage exists in both English and French; examples include
BrockvilleBrockville is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Though it serves as the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, Brockville is politically independent and is grouped with Leeds and Grenville for census purposes only.Known as the "City of the 1000...
and
BellevilleBelleville is a city located at the mouth of the Moira River on the Bay of Quinte in Southern Ontario, Canada, in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. It is the seat of Hastings County, but is politically independent of it. and the centre of the Bay of Quinte Region...
in
OntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
,
BlainvilleBlainville is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec and is located northwest of downtown Montreal.The idyllic setting and small town environment makes for a sharp contrast with the booming urban centre next door. Blainville sits right at the foot of the Laurentians, an ancient...
, Drummondville, Victoriaville and
LouisevilleLouiseville is a town in the Mauricie region of the province of Quebec in Canada. It is located near the mouth of the Wolf River on the north shore of Lac Saint-Pierre....
in
QuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
,
WolfvilleWolfville is a small town in the Annapolis Valley, Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada, located about northwest of the provincial capital, Halifax. As of 2006, the population was 3,772....
in
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
and
Parksville-Demographics:Parksville had a population of 10,993 people in 2006, which was an increase of 6.5% from the 2001 census count. The median household income in 2006 for Parksville was $55,524, which is below the British Columbia provincial average of $62,346....
in
British ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
. In Quebec, it may also be used as a prefix, as in
Ville-MarieVille-Marie is a town on Lake Temiscaming in western Quebec, Canada. It is the largest city and seat of the Témiscamingue Regional County Municipality, Quebec. As one of the oldest towns in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, it is considered the cradle of north-western Quebec and nicknamed "Pearl of...
or
VilleroyVilleroy is a municipality in the Centre-du-Québec region of the province of Quebec in Canada.-External links:...
.
Ville, as a suffix or prefix within a geographic name, may also sometimes denote an unincorporated neighbourhood
within a larger city, such as
Ville-ÉmardVille-Émard is a neighbourhood located in the Sud-Ouest borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and is the home of Angrignon Park.-Geography:This neighbourhood is bordered by the Aqueduct Canal, the borough of Verdun and the neighbourhood of Côte-Saint-Paul to the east, the borough of LaSalle to the...
,
Davisville or Africville.
There are also places named after people, such as Villeray.
People
- Ville Itälä
Ville Heimo Antero Itälä is a Finnish politician. He was elected member of the Finnish Parliament from the district of Finland Proper in 1995. Itälä served as the Minister of Interior under Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen in 2000–2003. He was elected chairman of the National Coalition Party ...
(1959-), Finnish politician
- Ville Laihiala
Ville Laihiala is the current vocalist and guitarist of the Finnish Gothic metal group, Poisonblack. He was also the frontman for Sentenced from 1996 until the group ended their career in 2005.When joining Sentenced he was soon accepted by fans...
(1973-), Finnish singer
- Ville Leino
Ville Leino is a Finnish professional ice hockey forward who plays for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League .-Finland:Leino started playing hockey at age 17 for his hometown team SaPKo in the Suomi-sarja...
(1983-), Finnish ice hockey player
- Ville Nieminen
Ville Nieminen is a Finnish professional ice hockey forward currently playing for Dinamo Riga of the Kontinental Hockey League.-Playing career:...
(1977-), Finnish ice hockey player
- Ville Peltonen
Ville Peltonen is a Finnish professional ice hockey forward currently playing for the HIFK of the SM-liiga . He was drafted by the San Jose Sharks as their third round pick, 58th overall, in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft....
(1973-), Finnish ice hockey player
- Ville Ritola
Vilho Eino Ritola was a Finnish athlete, specialised in the long distance events. In the 1920s, he won 8 Olympic medals...
(1896-1982), Finnish athlete
- Ville Vallgren
Carl Wilhelm "Ville" Vallgren was a Finnish sculptor. His best-known work is the statue of Havis Amanda in Helsinki.-External links:...
(1855-1940), Finnish sculptor
- Ville Valo
Ville Hermanni Valo is a Finnish singer, songwriter and frontman of the Finnish rock band HIM. He has received the "Golden God" award in 2004 by the heavy metal magazine Metal Hammer. Valo has a baritone vocal range. Valo was ranked number 80 in Hit Paraders Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time...
(1976-), Finnish singer
- Ville Virtanen
Ville Virtanen , better known by his stage name Darude is a trance producer and DJ from Eura, Hinnerjoki, Finland. Debuting in 1995, he released the hit single "Sandstorm" in late 1999 and subsequent album Before the Storm...
(known better as Darude, 1975-), Finnish DJ