Originally the cities and towns of colonial America reflected the culture of the Europeans who built them. Many American communities, like Boston and New York, were named for places in the colonists' country of origin. Other cities, like Charleston and Williamsburg, were named in honor of British monarchs. Yet some names show the beginning of something new: a distinctly American way of life based on heartfelt ideals. The founders of Philadelphia, for instance, were expressing their intention to establish a loving and open community when they chose a name meaning "brotherly love" in Greek. Place names like Providence, New Haven, Salem, and New Canaan illustrate the religious and biblical values of their original settlers.

Even in the New World, though, colonial citizens lived much as they would have in a European city, with similar class distinctions and forms of craft...