Editing Altoona, Pennsylvania (section)

===Etymology===
One explanation of the city's name is that the word Altoona is a derivative of the Latin word ''altus'', meaning high.<ref>{{cite book |last= Gannett |first= Henry |author-link= Henry Gannett |title= The origin of certain place names in the United States |year= 1905 |publisher= [[United States Government Printing Office|Government Printing Office]] |url= https://archive.org/details/origincertainpl00ganngoog |page= [https://archive.org/details/origincertainpl00ganngoog/page/n28 22]}}</ref>

An alternate theory is given in ''Pennsylvania Place Names'', a compendium published in 1925.<ref name="Espenshade">Espenshade, A. Howry: Pennsylvania Place Names, pp. 175–176. Genealogical Publishing Co, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 1970</ref> It suggests that Colonel Beverly Mayer of [[Columbia, Pennsylvania]], a civil engineer of the Pennsylvania Central Railway, was the person who named Altoona after the city of [[Altona, Hamburg|Altona]] in the [[Duchy of Holstein]], which became part of the [[Kingdom of Prussia]] in [[Second Schleswig War|1864]] and of Germany in 1871.<ref name="Espenshade"/> The German Altona, which is today a district of [[Hamburg]], lies on the right bank of the [[Elbe]] and is an important railway and manufacturing center.

Popular belief has it that the Hamburg district of [[Altona,_Hamburg|Altona]] owes its name to its close vicinity to Hamburg. Supposedly, Hamburg's merchants considered their rival to the west 'all zu nah' ('far too close'), which over time became Altona.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.hamburg.com/residents/neighbourhoods/altona-19296 | title=Hamburg Neighbourhood Altona }}</ref>

In 1849, David Robinson sold his farm to Archibald Wright of [[Philadelphia]], who transferred the property to his son, John A. Wright, who laid it out in building lots, became one of the founders of Altoona, and is considered another person who may have named the city. According to his own statement, he had spent considerable time in the [[Cherokee]] country of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. Here he had been attracted to the name [[Allatoona, Georgia|Allatoona]], which he believed meant "the high lands of great worth." An 1883 publication favored the Cherokee derivation, stating that "Its name is not derived from the Latin word altus nor from the French word alto, as has frequently been asserted and published, but from the beautiful, liquid, and expressive Cherokee word Allatoona."<ref>Africa, J. Simpson: History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania, page 135. J. B. Lippincott & Co. Philadelphia, 1883.</ref>

For 60 days in 2011, the city officially changed its name to "POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" in exchange for $25,000 as part of a marketing gimmick for the [[POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold|movie of the same name]].<ref>Mandak, Joe. [[Associated Press]], April 26, 2011, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20110527141516/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110426/ap_on_en_mo/us_sponsored_city Altoona, Pa., changes name to Spurlock movie title]". Accessed February 27, 2019.</ref>