Most common feature names

[paul]

Another thread here started me thinking about how common some geographic feature names are in California. Deer Creek, for instance. I think there must a be a Deer Creek on darn near every quadrangle on the west slope of the Sierra. So what is the actual most common feature name in the Sierra? I will throw out a few candidates:
Deer Creek
Whiskey Creek (at the lower elevations)
Blue Lake
Long Lake
Deer Meadow

Any others?

[zacjust32]

Twin lakes
Junction Meadow
Little Lake(s)

[LMBSGV]

Bear (in various of sizes and colors)
Lost (see Old Ranger's post)
Pine(s)

[SSSdave]

Can search
https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/ngmdb/ngm_PNsearch.html

Beyond just the Sierra, all of California. Select all then copy paste text into Excel sheet and sort on just name column to filter out names like Black Bear Lake.

Bear Creek 99
Dry Creek 81
Rock Creek 63
Deer Creek 49
Twin Lakes 41
Fish Creek 27
Pine Creek 26
Table Mountain 25
Long Meadow 19
Blue Lake 19
Long Lake 18
Bear Lake 16

Someone else can plug in others likewise.

David

[rlown]

Conn Col isn't there yet.

[Snowtrout]

My personal favorites are: "this sucks" trail, "how much farther" trail, "the never ending" trail and "we have to hike over that" trail. Just missing the list is "where did the trail go" trail and "where are we going again" trail.

[dave54]

Any name with the word 'Indian' or 'Squaw' is being bowdlerized to something more PC. Negro is another one, although many place names are named after early settlers, and the pioneer Negro family is featured prominently in NE part of CA. So the drive to bowdlerize the place names are actually erasing local history.

[paul]

Looks like the bears are ahead of the deer. Perhaps they made a bigger impression on those early explorers and settlers. and I had forgotten about the numerous Dry Creeks. Although those are very elevation dependent I'd guess. Lots at the lower elevations and not so many up higher. Which makes me think that could be the case for a lot of these names - more common higher or lower.
And along with the Dry Creeks there are Dry lakes as well - but not so many of those.

[balzaccom]

Sadly, the bear that featured in the original name was probably a grizzly...so most of those names commemorate an animal no longer in the ecosystem.