This content is from the North Carolina Gazetteer, edited by William S. Powell and Michael Hill. Copyright © 2010 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

Some place names included in The North Carolina Gazetteer contain terms that are considered offensive.

"The North Carolina Gazetteer is a geographical dictionary in which an attempt has been made to list all of the geographic features of the state in one alphabet. It is current, and it is historical as well. Many features and places that no longer exist are included; many towns and counties for which plans were made but which never materialized are also included. Some names appearing on old maps may have been imaginary, but many of them also appear in this gazetteer.

Each entry is located according to the county in which it is found. I have not felt obliged to keep entries uniform. The altitude of a place, the date of incorporation of a city or town, may appear in the beginning of one entry and at the end of another. Some entries may appear more complete than others. I have included whatever information I could find. If there is no comment on the origin or meaning of a name, it is because the information was not available. In some cases, however, resort to an unabridged dictionary may suggest the meaning of many names."

--From The North Carolina Gazetteer, 1st edition, preface by William S. Powell

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Place Description
Cemetery Branch

rises in central Wake County within the limits of Raleigh and flows N into Pigeon House Branch.

Center

community in W Davie County. Est. in the 1820s as a camp-meeting ground. A post office est. there operated under the name Selena in 1889-90; changed to Bailey, 1890-1902. Community retains original name.

Center Grove

community in central Granville County.

Center Grove Township

N central Guilford County.

Center of North Carolina

See Geographic Center.

Center Township

central Chatham County.

Centerville

See Kelly.

Central Falls

community on Deep River, central Randolph County. Long the site of one or more textile mills. Named for minor falls on the river, now obliterated by dams constructed for water power.

Central Township

central Bladen County.

Centre

community in S Guilford County. Named for Centre Friends Meeting, begun in 1757.