At Least It’s Not Dusty, Boring or Plain

Almost since the city was incorporated in 1903, Oxnard’s name has been the butt of jokes, the focus of name-change petitions, and the subject of at least one snide musical spoof.

The name--taken to honor the four Oxnard brothers who built a huge sugar beet plant in the heart of the Santa Clara Valley almost 100 years ago--has been ridiculed by no less a wit than radio personalities Dr. Demento or Jim (The Poorman) Trenton.

Even “The Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson has taken shots at the former lima bean capital.

But the disdain is not limited to outsiders. Over the years, citizens have written letters to local newspapers and have led informal, unsuccessful petition drives to change the name. The most popular suggestion is Channel Islands. Other suggestions include Mandalay and Mandalay Beach.

Now, an informal survey of representatives from selected cities across the country indicates that opinions range widely on the question: Is Oxnard a peculiar name?

“I think it’s a great name,” Jim Ley, president of the Chamber of Commerce in Hell, Mich., said. “Anybody would be happy to have a name like Oxnard.”

Hell is about 30 miles northwest of Ann Arbor and has a population of about 30. “We live in Hell, we work in Hell, and it’s a hell of a place,” Ley said with a chuckle.

However, Janet Heckman, the city clerk of Pigeon, Mich., doesn’t care much for the name Oxnard.

“I’d rather have Pigeon for a name,” she said, referring to her hometown near Saginaw Bay in northeast Michigan.

Babs Sullivan, director of the Chamber of Commerce in Niceville, Fla., agreed. “I’d rather be called Niceville,” she said.

Some find the Oxnard moniker humorous.

Cindy Webb, a secretary of the Chamber of Commerce in Festus, Mo., population 8,000, could barely stop giggling long enough to respond to the survey. “Oxnard? It just makes me laugh,” she said.

Festus, about 30 miles south of St. Louis, was named after a character in the Bible, she said.

“Oxnard? It never strikes me funny until somebody says it out loud,” Kent Crowley of the Rancho Cucamonga Chamber of Commerce in San Bernardino County said.

But snide remarks about Oxnard’s name are no surprise to lifelong Oxnardians such as Councilman Manuel Lopez.

Years ago, when Lopez attended UC Berkeley, it was common for people to rib him about his hometown’s name.

“Someone would say ‘Where are you from?’ And I would say Oxnard, and they would say something like ‘Oxnard? That sounds like a disease or something.’

“Others may think we have a strange name, but I don’t,” he said.

Lopez’s opinion was echoed by several representatives of cities nationwide.

“Is Oxnard a strange name? No, not a bit,” Denise Anderson, office manager of the Chamber of Commerce in Bullhead City, Ariz., said.

Bullhead City, on the state’s western border, was named after a huge rock near town that is shaped like, you guessed it, a bullhead.

“It’s not that odd to me,” Noel Pittman, city clerk of Earth, Tex., said about the name Oxnard.

Pittman, whose town is about 90 miles southwest of Amarillo, said she is not sure how Earth got its name. But one of the most popular tales, she said, is that the town’s founders were in such a quandary about naming the city that, in exasperation, one of them said: “What on earth are we going to name it?”

“So they named it Earth,” she said.

Several city representatives said they don’t have strong feelings one way or another about the name Oxnard.

“A name is a name is a name,” Dorothy Willant, a spokeswoman for the Chamber of Commerce in Hicksville, N.Y., said.

Like Oxnardians, residents in Hicksville, 26 miles east of New York City, have tried unsuccessfully to change the name.

“Some people think that hicks are rubes and that our name is an atrocity,” she said, adding that the city was named after one of the founding fathers.

Some respondents said they think the name Oxnard is only mildly peculiar.

“It is certainly a different name, isn’t it?” said Darlene Kates, owner of the Dusty Cafe in Dusty, Wash., population 10. Dusty is about 80 miles south of Spokane.

The town was named after the air pollutant that dominates the area, she said.

“I don’t have anything against Oxnard,” Annabelle Tuller, city clerk for Plain City, Ohio, said. “I think if a city has been named something for a long time, people should be proud of it.”

“Oxnard is an unusual name, isn’t it?” responded Esther Motz, city treasurer for Bad Axe, Mich., in the northeastern corner of the state.

“Oxnard? Yeah, it’s a rather peculiar name. . .,” said Mabel Ellis, city clerk for Pigeon Forge, Tenn., about 20 miles southeast of Knoxville.

“I’ve heard some names that are worse than that,” Lori Charlo, a spokeswoman for the Chamber of Commerce in Walla Walla, Wash., said of Oxnard’s moniker. “But I can’t honestly tell you what they are.”

Charlo said her city’s name was taken from the Walla Walla Indians who inhabited the area many years ago.

Oxnard’s name was defended by some.

“I never thought that Oxnard was that terrible a name,” said Lee Dayka, city clerk for Atascadero, about 20 miles north of San Luis Obispo. Atascadero is Spanish for mudhole.

“Even though that is what the name means, we don’t think that applies,” Dayka said, adding that most residents like the name.

Rebecca Mitchell, postmaster for Okahumpka, Fla., said she doesn’t think Oxnard’s name is peculiar at all. “Not after Okahumpka it isn’t,” she said. Okahumpka, 50 miles west of Orlando, is an Indian word for deep water.

“To me, Oxnard is a rather classy name,” Rick Peterson, a firefighter in Boring, Ore., said.

Boring, 25 miles southeast of Portland, also has been the subject of many jokes. But Peterson said he is accustomed to the remarks. “I’ve lived in Boring all my life, and I guess my skin has gotten pretty thick about comments made at times.”

“I think the people of Oxnard should be proud of their city’s name,” a spokeswoman for the tourist information center in Intercourse, Pa., said.

The spokeswoman--who declined to give her name--explained that Intercourse means communication or dealings between people. It was a name adopted by the Amish people who lived in the area in 1814.

“Here, our name is treated as a very comfortable thing,” she said.