Marquis de Lafayette

Fayetteville’s Name: A Thank You Card to the French

Let’s rewind to 1809 — Fayetteville, Tennessee was just being established, and the area was a wild mix of fertile farmland, dense forests, and a growing frontier community.

The name “Fayetteville” actually traces back to one of the most famous heroes of the American Revolution: the Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette was a young French aristocrat who, at just 19, sailed across the Atlantic in 1777 to volunteer for the Continental Army without pay. He quickly became one of George Washington’s most trusted generals, fighting at Brandywine, Monmouth, and Yorktown, and even lobbying the French crown to send vital aid.

When settlers in Lincoln County, Tennessee, were forming their county seat in the early 1800s, many were veterans or descendants of Revolutionary War soldiers. Naming the new town “Fayetteville” was a tribute to Lafayette’s bravery, his enduring friendship with the United States, and his reputation as a symbol of liberty.

But here’s the local twist:
One of the town’s early settlers, Ezekiel Norris, was a veteran of the War of 1812 and a man with deep Revolutionary roots. He, along with others, pushed for the Lafayette-inspired name to reflect not just patriotism, but also to court the national admiration Lafayette still held. (And it worked — by the 1820s, Lafayette himself was on his famous “Grand Tour” of America, and though he didn’t stop in Fayetteville, TN, the town was proud to share his name with dozens of other “Fayettevilles” across the young nation.)

The “ville” suffix? That simply followed the naming style of the time — French-influenced, just like Lafayette himself.

So Fayetteville’s name is basically a Revolutionary-era thank-you card to the French hero who helped make American independence possible.

“When I returned to America, I was received like a son and treated like a lover.”

—Marquis de Lafayette