About Lucama

Lucama, in Wilson County, is the combination of girls’ names.

The story is that Josephus Daniels, who grew up in Wilson County, named the town (around 1883) honoring three young ladies. Sources disagree on the girls’ last name (which could have been Borden) and their relationship with Daniels. Some say he was seeing all three girls romantically, and others say the girls were simply friends.

There is little disagreement, though, that the girls’ first names were Lucy, Carrie and Mary. And, that Lucama is the name derived from using the first two letters of each girl’s name.

Source: Cox J. (2000) Talking Turkey and Other Stories of North Carolina’s Oddly Named Places, Ashboro, NC: Down Home Press.